Who we are and how we work
Apex CB Financial Planning Ltd is a highly experienced Independent Financial Adviser providing a holistic financial planning and wealth management service to personal and corporate clients throughout Dorset and South Hampshire.
This document is designed to provide you with enough information about our company and how we act for you. You should read this important document because it explains the service that you are being offered and how you pay for it. If any of the information here is not clear please do not hesitate to ask us.
Treating Our Customers Fairly
We recognise that our clients and our reputation are our two most important assets. We are committed to providing the highest standard of financial advice possible. As a firm, we take very seriously the requirements of our regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority; in particular, the requirement to treat our clients fairly. Therefore we promise that we will always:
- Make sure we deliver the service we have agreed with you
- Offer financial advice and solutions that are appropriate and suitable for your needs
- Provide you with a glossary to help understand the jargon (see www.apexcb.com/financial-planning/investment-glossary)
- Act with integrity, diligence, timeliness and fairness in all our dealings with you
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is the independent watchdog that regulates financial services. Apex CB Financial Planning Ltd is authorised and regulated by the FCA. Our FCA Register number is 507964. You can check this on the FCA’s Register by visiting https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/financial-services-register or by contacting the FCA on 0800 111 6768
Our permitted business is to provide investment advice and arrange life assurance, pensions, collective investments (e.g. unit trusts, investment trusts and OEICs), individual savings accounts, mortgages and general insurance.
Which service will we provide you with?
We provide a full financial planning and advice service. This means that we will take time to get to know your circumstances, needs and aspirations, and will consider your attitude to risk and experience in dealing with financial matters. We will then advise you and make a recommendation after we have assessed your needs. You won’t just be offered a selection of products and expected to decide which is best. This means that we are responsible for the suitability of our advice and we take this very seriously.
If you don’t need a full financial planning service, alternatively we can provide specific advice on:
- savings and investment,
- protecting yourself and/or loved ones in the event of death, serious illness or disability,
- retirement planning.
- mortgages and lifetime mortgages (equity release)
- Regulated mortgages for business purposes
- A further advance from your existing lender
Whose products do we offer?
We offer an independent advice service. This means that we will recommend investments based on a comprehensive and fair analysis of the market, and will place no restrictions on the Investment or Mortgage Markets we will consider before providing recommendations, unless you instruct us otherwise. However, we only make a recommendation when we know it is suitable for you.
We understand that you may not need to purchase a financial product, in which case we are happy to provide advisory services only.
Client classification
When advising you we will classify you as a “retail client”. As a retail client you have the highest regulatory protection available to you which is detailed in the FSCS section. If you are to be classified as a “professional” client that does not receive the full protection of the regulator we will inform you in writing.
How do we charge for our services?
Our income comes from fees paid directly by our clients, agreed charges taken from investments, or commission paid by firms we write business with. We charge for the initial work involved in advising you and for setting up any financial products and services you require, followed by the ongoing work to administer and maintain your account and plans.
We may also agree to charge you a combination of these options, and don’t differentiate our charge based on how you choose to pay. We are happy to discuss your payment options with you and will answer any questions you have. Until we have agreed with you how we are to be paid we won’t charge you.
If we agree to work on fees we can provide an estimate before advising you, and aim to notify you as soon as we become aware that the likely cost exceeds the estimate. Some products pay commission (e.g. for non-investment products such as term assurance) and we will pass on the value of that commission to you in one or more ways, such as by offsetting our fee or product charges or increasing your investment amount. We will tell you if you have to pay VAT.
Commission clawback
Where you opt to pay for our services by commission this will often be subject to a third party firm’s commission clawback policy for 2-5 years or more, known as the clawback period. This allows this third party firm to demand our original payment or a proportion of it to be returned to them in the event that for whatever reason the policy is encashed / surrendered / switched away or ceases within this clawback period.
Should we in the future receive a clawback request for all or a proportion of our agreed remuneration for services previously supplied to you then we reserve the right to invoice you immediately for the amount clawed back and would expect payment within our normal invoice payment terms.
Your payment options
Whether you buy a product or not, we charge for our advice and services, which will become payable on completion of our work. If you decide not to proceed having instructed us to provide a recommendation a time-based charge will apply. We ask that you settle your charges as a single payment, and will send you an invoice for the agreed charge for settlement within 7 days. We accept cheque / electronic payments and you will be provided with a receipt upon payment.
Payment for ongoing services
Our method of charging will be as agreed with you and based on the service plan that we agree. The frequency of the charge will depend on the service you choose and is usually charged monthly either by standing order from your bank account or by deduction from your investment portfolio.
You agree that we make this charge as long as we are the servicing agent for any plans that we administer for you. If you cancel the trail commission (on legacy products) or adviser charge we will invoice you for work carried out to date and reserve the right to withdraw our services. In the absence of an agreement we reserve the right to retain any payments received from product providers to cover our costs.
You can download our Client Agreement below.