PFK Francis Clark - Financial Planning and Wealth Management

This initial meeting is a chance for us both to find out if we would like to work together. We will ask you lots of questions so that we can understand your aims and objectives to ensure that any financial planning advice we give is tailored to your individual needs.

We will also record factual details at this meeting to ensure we have a full picture of your circumstances before we provide any advice.

At the meeting we positively encourage you to ask questions about our business, skills and experience before you commit to the next stage.

Depending on the complexity of your advice needs the next stage will either be to produce a bespoke Strategy Report or we will move straight to the implementation of our advice.

In many but not all cases we provide a full, clear, concise written report detailing your financial plan prior to implementing it.

If however your advice needs are relatively straightforward we will skip this stage moving straight to the implementation stage providing you with a specific report setting out what we are recommending.

A full Strategy Report will be set out in a logical fashion showing how we aim to structure your plan to achieve your objectives.

The report will generally cover areas such as tax efficiency, investment management, a review of your current financial products, tangible evidence of how we think the overall strategy will meet your objectives and finally how we would implement this strategy.

Now that we know what you want to achieve and how we are going to achieve it we must implement the various recommendations we have made.

We now bring your Financial Plan to life by beginning the mechanical process of implementing new solutions and maybe moving existing products if they no longer meet your needs.

This process may involve lengthy form filling exercises and this is where our Client Liaison Assistants excel at taking the strain and getting everything in place with minimum fuss.

We will also write to you with a formal Suitability Report detailing why our recommendations are right for you and how we arrived at particular products and providers to achieve your objectives

We now agree a frequency for reviewing your Financial Plan and the underlying investments that form part of the plan. This can be annually or more frequent if required and is generally delivered face to face in our offices.

The review will take into account any material changes to your circumstances as well as updating our records with the latest value for assets that we don't directly manage on your behalf. We will revisit the original financial planning strategy and make any necessary adjustments.

Change, whether political, economic, legislative or brought about by new product developments will impact on your circumstances and your financial plan. Regular reviews allow us to address all of these issues and ensure that your plans remain up to date and relevant.

We believe it is beneficial for both parties to have an initial meeting that is an opportunity for us both to establish if there is a good fit and the potential to add tangible value to your financial plans.

This meeting is provided at our cost.

Where your circumstances demand it we may recommend that prior to implementing any specific solutions a more detailed overarching financial plan would be of benefit.

The cost is dependent on the complexity of your circumstances but would generally fall within the range of £750 - £2,000.

To implement your plan and realign any existing products you might have we will agree a fee based on a percentage of the assets that you are investing or we are advising on. This percentage varies depending on the amount of assets you are investing.

Your ongoing review service is funded through a percentage based charge calculated on the value of the assets under our advice. The percentage is variable and is determined based on the amount of assets we are managing for you.

Sometimes our work does not involve the implementation of financial products and in this case we would agree either an hourly based charge or a fixed fee for a particular piece of work you require us to carry out.

We will clearly set out the fee structure and obtain your agreement before commencing any work for you. This means at every stage of the advice process you know the cost and agree it before we start working for you.

We check our fees against our main competitors and ensure that we remain competitively priced for Chartered Independent Advice. We strive to maintain a good balance between fair fees for our clients and ensuring we can invest in our people and business infrastructure to ensure we are with you as long as you need us.

We work with many business owners to develop strategies which enable them to tax efficiently enjoy the fruits of their labours. We regularly work with other professionals such as accountants and solicitors to ensure that all avenues are explored.

We put together plans that enable you to make the most of legitimate tax saving opportunities through considering the use of pension planning, tax efficient life assurance and other tax relieved solutions such as Enterprise Investment Schemes and Venture Capital Trusts.

Establishing how your business can tax efficiently provide you with personal funds and benefits is a key feature of working with us. We appreciate how focussed you are on running your business and endeavour to demonstrate how investing some time in your personal financial planning can reap rewards for you and your business.

We are specialists in this area and have helped many business owners to utilise their pension assets when purchasing a property for their business.

Owning your business premises in your pension provides control over the property, security of tenure, rental income added to your pension, capital gains tax free growth and not having property on the company balance sheet could reduce complexity if you wanted to sell the business in the future.

There are of course many variables to consider before deciding whether property purchase is right for your particular circumstances and we can advise you on your particular situation pointing out the pros and cons and arriving at a balanced decision.

As you and your business mature, thoughts will turn to an exit strategy. This might involve handing over the reigns to the next generation or potentially selling the business to a third party. Whatever the eventual route to exit is you will need to consider if the financial settlement is sufficient to support your living standards for the rest of your life.

This is likely to be one of the most difficult decisions you have to make in your lifetime; having a clear financial plan setting out how your assets can be arranged to provide the income and capital you need in retirement can provide you with the confidence you need to make a decision.

When establishing your business and then inevitably becoming totally focussed on ensuring it is successful you may overlook the value that you have created in your shareholding.

Insuring major assets such as your home, business premises and vehicles is a given but what about you and the value of the shares you own in your business?

As a shareholder ask yourself these questions:-

If I died how would my family be paid for the value of my shares?

Would my fellow shareholders/the business be able to raise the necessary capital?

Is a formal agreement in place to set out what happens on the death of a shareholder?

Problems exist not only for the family of the deceased but also for the surviving shareholders who need funds to purchase the deceased's shares.

We can arrange the required insurance cover for you and ensure that the correct structure is in place to get the funds to the beneficiaries in a tax efficient and prompt manner.

Most businesses will have key individuals that through knowledge, experience or maybe sales skills contribute a significant amount to the profits of the business and would be difficult and expensive to replace.

The loss of a key person could be devastating to a business with the loss of revenue potentially causing the business to fail and/or diverting other skilled employees away from their role to fill the gap.

Insuring your key people can provide the business with the funds necessary to continue trading without financial pressure and cover the recruitment costs for a replacement.

We can arrange the required insurance cover for the business and ensure that the correct structure is in place to get the funds paid out in a tax efficient and prompt manner.

It's not only the death of a shareholder or key person that can have a devastating affect on a business and the surviving shareholders. The illness or incapacitation of an essential member of the team can drastically affect the profitability of the business as well as pose huge extra stress to the person who is ill, after all they still need an income even if they can't work.

Putting in place Income Protection insurance can solve both issues, firstly it can provide the business with a replacement income to perhaps fund a temporary replacement; secondly having this income and the replacement person enables the business to still pay the person who is unable to work thus aiding their ability to recover.

Many businesses carry cash reserves that are surplus to immediate operational needs. Very often this cash is held on an instant access account with the bank that they have their main business banking with. It can be an onerous and very time consuming task to actively manage this cash to achieve higher returns. The process of doing so can be administratively burdensome and very time consuming.

For businesses with more than £250,000 of investable cash we have a bespoke cash management solution to enable a portfolio of cash holdings to be put in place over various terms and spread across multiple banks. The administration of this management is dealt with by us and the cash management provider. Rates are constantly monitored and changes recommended as and when appropriate.

Get in touch today and we can provide you with a comparison report demonstrating the extra returns we could obtain for your company.

For capital in the business that is not required for more than 5 years it may be beneficial to consider investing in non cash assets via an appropriate product solution. The underlying investments may include equities, fixed interest stocks and other investments such as commodities, property and alternative assets.

Investing longer term and in assets that are subject to market fluctuations does carry more risk than remaining in cash but does offer the prospect of longer term returns in excess of inflation and cash deposits. Producing real returns tangibly increases the company's asset base.

To find out how you can achieve the required returns in a tax efficient manner speak to one of our experts today.

In an increasingly competitive recruitment environment, attracting and retaining quality employees is becoming key to a businesses success. By offering employees a package of attractive benefits and presenting these benefits in an accessible and easy to understand way an employer can save huge amounts of time and money through lower staff turnover and easier recruitment.

The cost of an attractive benefits package can be tailored to your needs and with time savings for your HR team together with various tax benefits it may be less than you imagine.

Call our experts today for an initial discussion as to how we might be able to design a scheme for your business.

Providing a pension scheme for your employees and contributing to it is now a legal requirement. The ongoing record keeping and rules surrounding the Auto Enrolment legislation can be daunting as can the number of pension schemes that are available to use. We can advise and take you through the process ensuring that you have a suitable pension scheme in place as well as ensuring you comply with all of the record keeping and communication requirements.

Our complete service provides you with peace of mind that all regulatory requirements are dealt with and your employees have a suitable pension scheme to build a meaningful pension fund for their retirement.

Take a look at our brochure for more details; we would be delighted to help you implement a suitable scheme or review the current arrangements you have if you would like some assistance.

Within our business we have specialist knowledge of these more niche pension arrangements. We can also call on external experts to assist with particularly complex situations such as legal, actuarial and scheme wind-up issues.

If you need assistance with this type of scheme please call to find out how we can help.

Our team demonstrates the great commitment we have to recruiting and supporting the best people to provide you with high quality, expert and reliable financial planning advice.

The financial services market is ever changing and to keep up with the latest developments all of our team commit to a life long learning program to ensure that the advice they give reflects the latest market developments.

Our advisory team consists of highly qualified advisers, many of whom are qualified at the highest level by exam, attaining the coveted title of Chartered Financial Planner. We also believe in developing the next generation of professional advisers and actively train and support our people who have yet to complete the journey to Chartered Status.

Behind our advice team sits an equally experienced and knowledgeable Technical Team ensuring that the advice we provide is relevant, complies with legislation, is tailored to your needs and is sourced from the most appropriate solutions from within the market.

Last but certainly not least we have a dedicated Client Liaison Team who provide you with a point of contact when you need it.