about our services and costs

Veracity Financial Planning

1. The Financial Services Authority (FSA)

The FSA is the independent watchdog that regulates financial services. This document is designed by the FSA to be given to consumers considering buying certain financial products.  You need to read this important document.  It explains the service you are being offered and how you will pay for it.

2. Whose products do we offer?

Investment

We only offer products from a limited number of companies.  Ask us for a list of the companies whose products we offer.

We only offer products from a single group of companies. 

Insurance

We offer products from a range of insurers for non-investment insurance contracts covering pure protection such as term assurance, income protection and critical illness cover.

We only offerproducts from a limited number of insurers for non-investment insurance contracts.
Ask us for a list of the insurers we offer insurance from.

We can offer products from a single insurer for non-investment insurance contracts.
We only offer our own products for non-investment insurance contracts.

Mortgages

We only offer mortgages from a limited number of companies.

We only offer mortgages from a single lender.

3. Which service will we provide you with?

Investment

We will advise and make a recommendation for you after we have assessed your needs.

You will not receive advice or a recommendation from us.  We may ask some questions to narrow down the selection of products that we will provide details on. You will then need to make your own choice about how to proceed.

We will provide basic advice on a limited range of stakeholder products and in order to do this we will ask some questions about your income, savings and other circumstances but we will not:

• conduct a full assessment of your needs;
• offer advice on whether a non-stakeholder product may be more suitable.

• savings and investment,
• protecting yourself and/or loved ones in the event of death, serious illness or disability,
• retirement planning.

Insurance

We will advise and make a recommendation for you after we have assessed your needs for non-investment insurance contracts covering pure protection such as term assurance, income protection and critical illness cover

You will not receive advice or a recommendation from us for non-investment insurance contracts. We may ask some questions to narrow down the selection of products that we will provide details on. You will then need to make your own choice about how to proceed.

Mortgages

You will not receive advice or a recommendation from us. We may ask some questions to narrow down the selection of products that we will provide details on. You will then need to make your own choice about how to proceed.

4. What will you have to pay us for our services?

Investment

You will pay for our services on the basis of commission (through product charges) and/or fee.  We will discuss your payment options with you and will answer any questions you have.  We will not charge you until we have agreed with you how we are to be paid.

Paying by fee (Payable Through Product Charges or Directly)

Whether you buy a product or not, you will pay us a fee for our advice and services, which will become payable on completion of our work.  If we also receive commission from the product provider when you buy a product, we will pass on the full value of that commission to you in one or more ways.  For example, we could reduce our fee; or reduce your product charges; or increase your investment amount; or refund the commission to you’.

We will confirm the actual rate we will charge in writing before beginning work.  Our typical charges are:

Initial Review/Consultation – Free of Charge

Followed By:

Either;
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Hourly Rate by Qualification – (Payable Through Product Charges or Directly)
Chartered Adviser          £175 per hour
Diplomal Adviser             £150 per hour
Certificate Adviser           £125 per hour
Administrator                     £50 per hour
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Or;

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Initial Charge – (Payable Through Product Charges or Directly)
£1 – £50,000 – 4% of amount invested or £2,000 Capped Fixed Fee
£50,001 – £125,000  – 3.5% of amount invested  or £4,000 Capped Fixed Fee
£125,001 – £250,000  – 3% of amount invested or £7,000 Capped Fixed Fee
£250,001 – £500,000  – 2.5% of amount invested or £10,000 Capped Fixed Fee
£500,001+ – 2% of amount invested or £15,000 Capped Fixed Fee

PLUS

Annual Review – (Payable Through Product Charges or Directly)
£1 – £50,000 – 0.5% annual management fee or £250 Annual Capped Fixed Fee
£50,001 – £125,000  – 0.5% annual management fee or £550 Annual Capped Fixed Fee
£125,001 – £250,000  – 0.5% annual management fee or £1000 Annual Capped Fixed Fee
£250,001 – £500,000  – 0.4% annual management fee or £1750 Annual Capped Fixed Fee
£500,001+ – 0.3% annual management fee or £2500 Annual Capped Fixed Fee
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We will tell you if you have to pay VAT

You may ask us for an estimate of how much in total we might charge.  You may also ask us not to exceed a given amount without checking with you first.
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Paying by commission (through product charges).

If you buy a financial product, we will normally receive commission on the sale from the product provider.  Although you pay nothing to us up front, that does not mean our service is free.  You still pay us indirectly through product charges.  Product charges pay for the product provider’s own costs and any commission.  These charges reduce the amount left for investment.  If you buy direct, the product charges could be the same as when buying through an adviser, or they could be higher or lower.   

The amount of commission we receive will vary depending on the amount you invest and (sometimes) how long you invest and / or your age.

For example:

• If you invest £5,000 in an individual savings account (ISA) we would receive commission of 4.0% of the amount invested (£200.00) and 0.5% of the value of the fund (approximately £25) every year.
• If you pay £100.00 per month into a personal pension (with a term of 25 years) then we would either receive commission of 4% of the amount invested (£4.00 per month) and 0.5% of the value of the fund (£5 per £1000 of the fund value) every year or we may receive an initial indemnity commission of approximately 6 X the level of monthly premium (£600 in this example) from the provider which is paid for by increased charges to the product.
• If you pay £50 per month towards a whole of life policy then we would receive an initial indemnity commission of approximately 10 X the level of monthly premium (£1,000 in this example) from the provider which is paid for by increased charges to the product.

We will tell you how much the commission will be before you complete an investment, but you may ask for this information earlier. 

Paying by a combination of fee and commission (through product charges).

We will charge you a combination of fees and commission. The actual amounts will depend on the service provided to you, but will be in line with the arrangements set out in the above sections headed ‘Paying by fee’ and ‘Paying by commission (through product charges).

Other benefits we may receive

We advise on a range of products from a variety of firms; we may receive certain non-monetary benefits from these firms, which are used to enhance the quality of service we provide to you. Benefits we may receive include access to technical services, information technology support or the supply of product literature. Further information regarding any of these arrangements is available on request.

Information about other costs and associated charges

There may be other costs, including taxes, that are payable through other parties (such as the product provider) that we may not be party to.  Such charges are normally disclosed in relevant third party documentation, for example a Key Features Document.

Insurance

No fee specifically for non-investment contracts covering pure protection such as term assurance, income protection and critical illness cover although the costs involved in advising on these areas maybe incorporated in to any fee that you pay us for other services.  This will be made clear in your letter of engagement.

Mortgages

No fee.  We will be paid a procuration fee from the lender, or

A fee of £95 will be payable on application for the administration involved in submitting your application.  A broker fee of £300 is payable on completion for the mortgage advice given.  We will also be paid a procurement fee from the lender, or

A fee of £500 will be payable at the outset for the recommendation and arranging of a mortgage.  Any commission received from the provider will be returned to you, the client.

Refund of fees

If we charge you a fee, and your mortgage does not go ahead, you will receive:

5. Who regulates us?

Veracity Financial Planning, 16 Swallow Drive, Bingham, Nottingham, NG13 8QA is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.  Our FSA Register number is 501862

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.

You can check this on the FSA’s Register by visiting the FSA’s website www.fsa.gov.uk/register or by contacting the FSA on 0845 606 1234.

6. What to do if you have a complaint

If you wish to register a complaint, please contact us:

…in writing: Write to:

Veracity Financial Planning, 16 Swallow Drive, Bingham, Nottingham, NG13 8QA                     

…by phone: Telephone 01949 836173

If you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

7. Are we covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)?

Investment

Non-Investment Insurance

Mortgages

Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS.