The No Sales Patter Promise
Let’s face it, the investment industry can be a crusty, unedifying place. We know because we’ve been in it for a long time and we’ve groaned along with you at the shoes, the sales patter, the macho car analogies.
We guarantee no strained metaphors or pointless abbreviations. No the Rolls Royce of stuff that's got nothing to do with cars, no eggs in baskets, no helicopter views. We’ll talk to you like we’re all normal people. In our experience, most investors aren’t like most financial advisers. We’re not like most financial advisers either.
We also think there are a lot of people out there who want great financial advice, from well qualified professionals, but are put off by the traditional industry stuff – the gold brochures with curly writing and heraldic lions, loafers you can see your face in, perfectly symmetrical Windsor tie knots. If that stuff matters a lot to you, and we accept it does to some people (whatever makes you feel comfortable, no judging) we’re probably not a match.
Fully independent.
No waffle, no caveats
The Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates financial advisers, distinguishes between Independent and Restricted advisers, which they define as follows:
- Restricted advisers will generally focus on a limited selection of products and/or providers.
- Independent advisers can consider products from a wide range of firms across the market and will give unbiased and unrestricted advice.
We think it’s important to have full freedom to make the most suitable recommendations to our clients, from the entire marketplace of retail products and providers, at all levels. So, we’re fully independent, which means we can truly act in the interests of our clients, with no conflicts of interest and no compromises.
Planning ≠ products
Our focus is on helping clients articulate and explore their goals, so that any recommendations we make are genuinely tailored for them. Only then, and only if appropriate, do we make product recommendations. Historically, the financial advice industry has tended to get this back-to-front, with all the emphasis on pushing products.
All our clients have detailed lifetime cashflow forecasts, which are the foundation of our advice. This means that if and when we give you investment advice, it is engineered for your individual need for returns, risk tolerance and capacity for loss.
The solution often requires legal and accounting expertise, and we work closely with trusted professionals in these areas to make sure everything's covered.
Evidence-based investing
Our core approach to investing is all about getting individual investors what they deserve from the markets. It’s based on empirical research, light on clever speculation and heavy on investment science. See our approach to investing for more details.
Cyborgs, but nice cyborgs
We believe that, in financial planning, the optimum outcomes are achieved when you harness the best bits of technology and humans. Good planning is about both hard facts and slippery decisions. You have to weigh alternatives, explore trade-offs and tensions, prioritise, decide which elements it's worth trying to control.
Computers and humans find different bits of the process easy and difficult. Technology is great at answering questions, humans are better at deciding what questions need to be asked in the first place. This is called Moravec’s Paradox (if you’re as nerdy as us and want to read more). People are still better at marrying the art of goal setting with the science of investing.
So, we’re all over technology where it helps us do what we do best for clients. We use market leading cashflow planning software, and our evidence-based investment approach employs cutting edge indexing, smart-beta and platform technology. But we also believe unashamedly that there is value in traditional, relationship-based financial advice, from real people.
