How We Work
Most of what happens before you are a client has nothing to do with pensions.
It is about understanding your life, and making sure we are the right fit for each other before either of us commits to anything more.
Before we begin
A short, honest call
Before we ask for any real time, we have a short call, usually 15 to 20 minutes. It is not a sales call, and there is nothing you need to prepare.
We simply want to understand roughly where you are and what you are looking for, and to be upfront with you about whether we are likely to be a good fit. We work best with people who want a genuine planning partnership, not just someone to check in on a portfolio once a year. This call is where we figure that out together, honestly, before we go any further.
If you are part of a couple, we would like to meet you both from the start. We find planning works best as a shared conversation, not one partner making decisions on behalf of the other.
Meeting one — free, no obligation
Understanding your life
This is where the real work starts. We do not start with your pension or your portfolio. Instead, we want to know where you have been, where you are now, and what you want the next chapter of your life to look like.
This meeting is arguably the most important part of the whole process. Everything else we do is built on what we learn here.
Meeting two — free, no obligation
Building your financial plan
Now that we understand your life, we begin building your financial plan, using cashflow modelling to bring it to life: a first look at what your finances could look like well into the future, and a useful picture of whether your plan holds up and if there are any changes required to help you achieve your goals and objectives.
We will stress-test it together: what happens if markets fall? If your circumstances change? This meeting is still free, and there is nothing to decide yet — just a clearer sense of where you stand.
Meeting three — if needed
The right recommendations
Only once your life and your financial plan are properly understood do we talk about investments, pensions, or other products, and only where they are needed to support the plan we have built together.
Not every client needs this conversation as a separate meeting. Sometimes it happens as part of meeting two, and for some clients, a further product recommendation is not the right next step at all. We would rather take the time to get this right than rush towards a recommendation that does not need to exist.
If you decide to go ahead, we develop this further into your full, formal financial plan, thoroughly stress-tested, written up, and finished off with our recommendations, where appropriate. More on how that works on our Fees page.
Investment philosophy
Straightforward investing, in service of the plan
Your financial plan comes first — investments are there to support it, not the other way round. We favour evidence over prediction, broad diversification, and sensible control of costs, using index-based, passive investing as our default starting point, with active management only where there is a clear and justifiable reason for it.
The right level of investment risk is the one that makes sense for your plan, your goals, and your capacity for loss — not a generic score or description. We want you to understand what you are invested in and why. Your portfolio is monitored as part of our ongoing planning relationship, not left to look after itself.
After that
An ongoing relationship
Once you are a client, the relationship continues. Every year, we hold at least one full annual planning meeting, where we revisit your financial plan and cashflow modelling in detail against whatever has changed in your life.
In between, that includes ongoing oversight of your investments, tax-planning considerations within our scope, and updates to your plan as your circumstances or the rules around you change. We would rather have a conversation when life changes than wait for the next annual meeting.
If you want to add further money to an existing arrangement, that does not usually attract another initial fee. Where a new product, arrangement, or a materially different piece of advice is involved, we will always agree any additional fee with you first. Full details are on our Fees page.
You can get in touch at any time when something changes or you need to talk something through. We are a sounding board, not just an annual meeting.