About our service
All the detailsNot everything that counts can be counted.
Not everything that can be counted counts.
Yes, we’re independent financial advisers, but we’re also so much more than that. We’re here as your trusted partner to provide a genuinely meaningful service that gives you the peace of mind to focus on the things that are important to you.
Money is undoubtedly complex, emotive and important, but it should facilitate our life rather than drive it. This is why we pride ourselves on getting to know you properly and doing a thorough job, so we can put you in the reassuring position of knowing you’re making the most of your time and your money. We are one of a very small (but thankfully growing!) number of advice firms who are qualified to work in this way – focused on you as a person rather than just your money as numbers – and it is often referred to as ‘Lifestyle Financial Planning’ or ‘Financial Life Planning’.
Once we have a clear picture of what’s important to you, the things you may like to do more or less of and the way you’d ideally spend your time, we use sophisticated forecasting tools to put your financial resources into context alongside the life you’d like to lead. This allows you to clearly see how the future could look and illustrates the actions you need to take. We have the specialist knowledge required in a range of complex areas such as investment theory, tax-efficient retirement income, pension sharing on divorce, redundancy packages, and estate planning, but we deal with these for you as a matter of course, so we can put the time spent with you to best use in helping you answer the big questions like “do we really have enough?”, “when could I stop working?”, “am I doing the right things?”, “how much could we give to others?”, “what would happen if I make this change?”, “how many adventures can we really afford to go on?”.
Our work together makes the difference between thinking you’ll probably be OK and knowing it for certain. That’s the kind of financial security that brings the benefits of freedom and choice into all areas of your life – enhancing your family time, your health, travel and overall well-being. Our clients tell us they feel “liberated!” and “reassured”, with “a new confidence in the years ahead”.
Throughout our work we are mindful that it’s an honour and privilege to be entrusted with people’s financial planning. We never take that for granted and we’re here to support you for the long-term, to provide the sort of personal and proactive service we would want for ourselves and our loved ones.
Who do you work with?
We only work with those where we can have a mutually enjoyable and beneficial relationship and we understand it can feel comfortable to know whether we work with people like you before you approach us. We have been transparent about our fees, so you can see if they look like good value relative to where you are in your financial journey. We enjoy working with people who have a similar outlook to life, who value experiences over material possessions and wish to make good use of their money rather than simply accumulate more of it. We have a lot of experience working with those in the LGBTQ community.
Given our specialist skills and qualifications, our advice is of particular benefit to those considering or going through a life change, such as retirement, redundancy, bereavement or divorce. We use our expertise to put complex matters around tax planning, pension sharing, drawdown and investment risk into the understandable context of your life, to provide confidence that at the other side of such events you can be comfortable and happy. We’re then well placed to provide ongoing support beyond this, to help you enjoy the next stage of life and make sure our plans become your reality.
We’re also popular with people who have previously felt reluctant to take advice and so have been managing their own affairs but have come to a point where they either need specialist help or we have been recommended to them as advisers worth trusting. We won’t pass judgement on your financial planning skills, we’ll simply help you invest your time into something you enjoy more than your investments!
The majority of our clients do live in the surrounding towns across Leeds, Bradford and the wider Yorkshire area, but as we can meet by video, we also look after people from much further afield who wish to benefit from our different approach and level of service, so do contact us regardless of your location.
Why 'Lifestyle Financial Planning'?
It hopefully makes sense that you should plan what you want to do with your life before you plan what to do with your money, but typically financial services focus solely on your money, missing its fundamental purpose. We’ve had many people come to us who’ve had a ‘financial adviser’ for years, with a collection of investments or pensions, but have never really had any clarity on when they could finish work or what they could spend. This is a missed opportunity. After all, money is only a facilitator to help us enjoy the time we have. Life Planning provides a structured way to understand and articulate who you are and what is most important to you. Then, combining this with our financial knowledge, we’ll encourage you to pursue your aspirations, discuss and resolve obstacles, create a concrete financial plan, and provide ongoing guidance as you accomplish everything you hoped for. Why do we take the time to do this? For two key reasons: Firstly and practically, it makes for a more robust financial strategy. This is best explained by a quote from Simon Sinek’s book ‘Start With Why’ – “A plan is uncertain, changeable and sometimes flawed. It is the vision that must be immovable, fixed and inspiring. Remember, Martin Luther King gave the ‘I have a dream’ speech, not the ‘I have a plan’ speech”. If we fully understand what a life well-lived looks like to you, we’ll know what’s needed to point your money towards that, come what may. Secondly and personally, we’ve seen the wonderful results – our clients squeeze every bit of life out of their money and it’s a joy to see. This in turn makes our job more meaningful and enjoyable, which fits our own life plans.
Clients tell us they enjoy the opportunity to stop and think about themselves for a while, to consider their values and whether their time is being spent in alignment with them, and to take action where it isn’t. When your money is aligned with your life and values it gives greater meaning to your financial decisions and helps you to stay calm in times of adversity. To find out more about this important aspect of our service that further sets us apart from other firms, visit the Kinder Institute website, where you can find out about the in-depth training Sophie completed to be awarded the Registered Life Planner title and learn more about the benefits for you as a client. There are very few advisers in the UK who are technically competent enough to hold the Chartered Financial Planner title whilst also being well versed in the meaningful human and emotional aspects as a Registered Life Planner, so you know you are in good hands.
Please note the different terms ‘financial planner’ and ‘financial adviser’ are not specifically protected. Any regulated adviser could decide to call themselves a financial planner without actually doing any financial planning. Conversely, a non-regulated planner could build a forecast without the technical knowledge needed to avoid mistakes or create an accurate plan. The best way to tell if you have a proper one is whether they are interested in your individual situation to give clear answers about your future, care about being qualified and expanding their knowledge, and don’t just talk about investments they can set up for you. Surprisingly (or frustratingly?) the latter typically costs the same, despite providing less.
What are your fees?
The very Yorkshire question.
It is difficult to cover fees properly on a website, as everyone’s situation is different but to give you an idea of what to expect we’ve tried to summarise below. Importantly, we offer a no cost and no obligation first meeting, to give you chance to suss us out face to face. After we’ve met, we’ll be in a better position to give you a personal quote, so you know exactly what you will pay when and what for, then you can put the value into perspective. Any of our fees can typically be paid from your existing pensions/investments or directly, whichever you prefer.
We charge fixed transparent fees for our initial planning, research and implementation work. This is different to a lot of advisers, who will charge based on a percentage of your money. Everyone is free to run their business as they see fit of course, but we believe that charging initial fees on a percentage basis can create a conflict of interest and focuses too much on a new end product (that may not be required), rather than the valuable advice on what to do for the best. It’s important to us that you get value for money and that you are happy to pay our fees because we’ve done a great job in delivering financial security and peace of mind, not just because we’ve moved your money around.
To go through our financial planning journey (“much more interesting, enlightening and enjoyable than I would have thought possible”, we’re told) we charge a fixed fee of £1,800. This thorough and meaningful exercise will plot your desired future alongside all the resources you have available to support it, so it becomes clear exactly what you need to do and why to achieve what you want. This puts your money into context and helps to ensure you have long-term peace of mind over any decisions, as we find that when people jump in to deal with investment or pension options in isolation, they can inadvertently put a solution in place that makes your personal objectives more difficult to achieve. We believe in doing the job properly from outset, to save you time, money and worry later on.
If we can see from your plan that you need to set up or change a financial product, we charge separate fixed fees (again, not a percentage) to implement our recommendations for you. These fixed costs are typically a few hundred pounds, depending on what you need and how many policies are involved. This is all broken down in our Terms of Business, which would be given to you when we meet, but for example, a new pension would cost £500 to implement. Or, if you needed a new investment portfolio and to transfer an existing one to that new home too, this would cost £700. Again, this is regardless of the values and we would always make the costs, benefits and rationale very clear to you before you decide to proceed with any recommendation. If you compare these fees to the 1-3% initial fees advisers typically charge, you will see how we quickly become much fairer value, whilst delivering a thorough, meaningful service. Our fee structure is designed to be good value for everyone but, due to the fixed cost nature, it is particularly attractive for those with higher value assets and as such we have naturally developed expertise in more complex planning areas.
If we can see you need specialist advice, on something like annual or lifetime allowance pension planning, we would quote a fixed fee for you as part of the planning process.
If you would like our ongoing support to ensure your plan becomes your reality, we charge a set annual fee that has a link to the value of the assets that are part of your plan. This is tiered at 1% on the first £500,000, 0.5% on the next £500,000, then 0.25% on assets over £1,000,000. Our ongoing support service is based on your overall financial life plan and well-being, i.e. it’s not just about “managing a pension”.
Aside from our advice fees, when you have pensions or investments there are typically product and fund management related fees you would pay too. We are mindful of these, as every pound you pay to invest comes from your return. We don’t use companies who have an initial charge and our investment philosophy is based around the defined asset allocation model needed to drive your personal plan. When we make any recommendation we will break down all costs for you so you know exactly who you are paying and what for. For example, the total annual cost of platform/account administration, investment fund management and ongoing financial planning support for a typical client with around £750,000 invested would usually be around 1.25%. There are many investment funds that cost more than this on their own, so the benefits of using our independent research and experience is already evident.
This video from the CII illustrates the benefits and importance of working with a Chartered Financial Planner, the 'gold standard' qualification for advisers.
Cleverly Planned Ltd is registered in England & Wales. Registered number: 11930628. Registered office: 22A Victoria Road, Saltaire, Shipley, West Yorkshire, BD18 3LQ. Cleverly Planned Ltd is an appointed representative of Sense Network Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Cleverly Planned Ltd is entered on the Financial Services Register here under reference 842889.
Cleverly Planned Ltd, independent financial advisers helping people put pensions and investments into real-life context. The information contained within this website is subject to UK regulatory regime and is therefore restricted to consumers based in the UK.
The Financial Ombudsman Service is available to sort out individual complaints that clients and financial services business aren’t able to resolve themselves. To contact the Financial Ombudsman Service, please visit www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk.