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There are four stages to the financial planning process, each of which is separately costed, although the initial consultation is provided free of charge.
The initial consultation will consist of:
An initial meeting with one of our qualified Independent Financial Advisers This is often referred to as the ‘Factfind’
The cost of this initial meeting is met by Acorn
We will carry out an extensive assessment of your financial circumstances at the outset to establish your financial planning requirements. This will include:
There is a charge of £500 for this service however, this is only payable should you decide not to implement our recommendations as usually we would offset this fee against the adviser charge we receive at the arranging and setting up stage. When we provide you with our suitability report it will be your decision whether to implement our recommendations either completely or in part. If you wish to only implement part of our recommendation then costs will be re-calculated accordingly.
The arranging and setting up of our investment recommendation includes where appropriate:
Your financial and personal objectives may change over time due to changes in your lifestyle or circumstances. We believe it is essential to ensure that the financial plan we recommend continues to meet your lifestyle and investment objectives. Our on-going care package includes but is not limited to:
Sometimes the best advice can be to do nothing at all but how would you know that? Well our advisers can run complex cash flow modelling software and provide you with a financial plan giving you illustrations of what your investments, income and financial future could look like. For this service there is a minimum charge of £750 Areas of Advice offered by our Independent Financial Advisers include but are not limited to the following:
We do not provide advice on individual shares or private equity investments.
Similar to our investment services above, we will provide you with a personal and financial review prior to making our recommendation to you. As with our Investment advice our Protection Advice is Independent, and whole of market. It is important you know we act as an intermediary on behalf of you, the customer. Should you accept our recommendation we will arrange the implementation for you. The reasons for our recommendations will also be provided to you in a written report. We may also receive commission from the product provider which we will make you aware of during our advice meetings. You will not be subject to VAT for this service. You will receive a quotation which will tell you about any other fees relating to any particular insurance policy.
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.
Acorn Wealth Management Group is able to act on your behalf in advising you on investments and non-investment insurance contracts. We offer products and services as follows:
We offer you an initial consultation at our expense during which we will describe our services more fully and explain the payment options. If you decide to go ahead, we will:
We treat all our clients as “retail Clients” unless you request otherwise. This means you are provided with the highest level of protection under the regulatory system and should have the right to take any complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Any advice or recommendation that we offer to you, will only be given after we have assessed your needs and considered your financial objectives and attitude to any risks that may be involved. We will also take into account any restrictions that you wish to place on the type of products you would be willing to consider. We will confirm our recommendations to you in a suitability report along with details of any special risks associated with the products recommended.
Any advice we provide will be in accordance with that disclosed in our initial disclosure document which will be provided to you during our first meeting. Occasions may arise where we or one of our clients have some form of interest in business being transacted by you. If this happens or we become aware that our interests or those of one of our clients conflict with your interests, we will write to you and obtain your consent before we carry out your instructions, and detail the steps we will take to ensure fair treatment.
We are committed to providing the highest standard of financial advice and service. Your interests are very important to us and for any advice or service we provide we will:
We will provide you with our Key Facts disclosure document. We will comprehensively cover the contents of this during our initial meeting. You will recall that we comprehensively covered the content of this document which covers the services we provide and what they cost. You confirmed you fully understood this and were happy to proceed on the basis as confirmed within our service proposition agreement which you have signed. It is important that you keep the client agreement, service proposition and CIDD document together and if you have any questions you contact us immediately.
We charge for our services by way of an adviser charge. This charge is based on a percentage of the amount you invest or we charge for our services by way of a fee. These fees are based on an hourly rate or we charge for our services by way of a fee. These fees are on a fixed basis.
Under current legislation our services are not subject to VAT but should this change in future, and where VAT becomes due, we will notify you before conducting any further work.
In most cases you can exercise a right to cancel by withdrawing from the contract. Generally you will normally have a 30 day cancellation period for a life, pure protection, payment protection or pension contracts and a 14 day cancellation period for all other contracts. Instructions for exercising the right to cancel, if applicable, will be contained in the relevant product disclosure information which will be issued to you. If you cancel a single premium contract, you may be required to pay for any loss you might reasonably incur in cancelling it which is caused by market movements. This means that, in certain circumstances, you might not get back the full amount you invested if you cancel the policy.
Acorn Wealth Management Group is not permitted to handle client money or handle cash and we cannot accept a cheque made out to us (unless it is in respect of an item for which we have sent you an invoice).
We will endeavour to make arrangements for all your investments to be registered in your name unless you first instruct us otherwise in writing. All policy documents will be forwarded to you as soon as practicable after we receive them. If there are a number of documents relating to a series of transactions, we will normally hold each document until the series is complete and then forward them to you.
We prefer our clients to give us instructions in writing via email or letter, to aid clarification and avoid future misunderstandings. We will, however, accept oral instructions provided they are confirmed in writing.
We will act honestly, fairly and in your best interests. Occasionally situations may arise where we or one of our other clients have some form of interest in business transacted for you. If this happens or we become aware that our interests or those of one of our other clients conflict with your interest, we will write to you and obtain your consent before we carry out your instructions, and detail the steps we will take to ensure fair treatment.
If you wish to register a complaint, please write to Acorn Wealth Management Group, Crafton House, Rosebery Business Park, Mentmore Way, Poringland, Norwich, NR14 7XP or telephone 01603 234567 A summary of our internal complaints handling procedures for the reasonable and prompt handling of complaints is available on request and if you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
The information you will provide is subject to the Data Protection Act 1998 (the “Act”). By signing this document you consent to us or any company associated with us for processing, both manually and by electronic means, your personal data for the purposes of providing advice, administration and management. “Processing” includes obtaining, recording or holding information or data, transferring it to other companies associated with us, product providers, the FCA or any other statutory, governmental or regulatory body for legitimate purposes including, where relevant, to solicitors and/or other debt collection agencies for debt collection purposes and carrying out operations on the information or data. In order to provide services to you we may be required to pass your personal information to parties located outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) in countries that do not have Data Protection Laws equivalent to those in the UK. Where this is the case we will take reasonable steps to ensure the privacy of your information. The information provided may also contain sensitive personal data for the purposes of the Act, being information as to your physical or mental health or condition; the committing or alleged committing of any offence by you; any proceedings for an offence committed or alleged to have been committed by you, including the outcome or sentence in such proceedings; your political opinions; religious or similar beliefs; sexual life; or your membership of a Trade Union. If at any time you wish us or any company associated with us to cease processing your personal data or sensitive personal data, please contact The Data Protection Officer on 01603 234567 or in writing via email at Acorn Wealth Management Group, Crafton House, Rosebery Business Park, Mentmore Way, Poringland, Norwich, NR14 7XP You may be assured that we and any company associated with us will treat all personal data and sensitive personal data as confidential and will not process it other than for a legitimate purpose. Steps will be taken to ensure that the information is accurate, kept up to date and not kept for longer than is necessary. Measures will also be taken to safeguard against unauthorised or unlawful processing and accidental loss or destruction or damage to the data. Subject to certain exceptions, you are entitled to have access to your personal and sensitive personal data held by us. You may be charged a fee (subject to the statutory maximum) for supplying you with such data. View Our Privacy Terms and Disclosure
We are required by the anti money laundering regulations to verify the identity of our clients, to obtain information as to the purpose and nature of the business which we conduct on their behalf, and to ensure that the information we hold is up-to-date. For this purpose we may use electronic identity verification systems and we may conduct these checks from time to time throughout our relationship, not just at the beginning.
This client agreement is governed and shall be construed in accordance with English Law and the parties shall submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.
The authority to act on your behalf may be terminated at any time without penalty by either party giving seven days’ notice in writing or via email to that effect to the other, but without prejudice to the completion of transactions already initiated.
Acorn Wealth Management Group is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Our FCA Register number is 823702 Our permitted business Is advising on investments for both private and corporate clients providing financial and protection planning in line with client goals. You can check this on the FCA’s Register by visiting the FCA’s website https://register.fca.org.uk/ or by contacting the FCA on 0800 111 6768.
If you wish to register a complaint, please write to Acorn Wealth Management Group, Crafton House, Rosebery Business Park, Mentmore Way, Poringland, Norwich, NR14 7XP. A summary of our internal complaints handling procedures for the reasonable and prompt handling of complaints is available on request and if you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service at www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk or by contacting them on 0800 023 4 567.
You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our obligations. This depends on the type of business and the circumstances of the claim. Most types of investment business are covered up to a maximum limit of £50,000, whereas insurance business is covered for 90% of the claim, without any upper limit.
The information available through our website is for your general information and use and is not intended to address your individual requirements. In particular, the information does not constitute any form of advice or recommendation by Acorn Wealth Management Group Ltd and is not intended to be relied on by readers of this website in making (or refraining from making) any investment decision. Regulated independent advice should be sought before making any financial decision. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future returns. Investments may fall as well as rise in value and you may not get back your initial investment.
Please note that some of our services are not regulated by the FCA. These include (but are not limited to) Cash Flow Modelling, Estate Planning, Tax Planning/assistance with self-assessment, etc.
It’s important to plan ahead for your retirement. Here, we explain why pension planning is so important, and describe some of the options available to you. This information is intended only as guidance. For advice on your specific circumstances, please get in touch.
The value of your pension can fall as well as rise and you may not get back the original amount invested.
We all know it’s important to plan for retirement, but many of us are still not planning well enough. Despite all the media headlines and Government initiatives, many of us still have a ‘tomorrow will do’ attitude. This is worrying for one simple reason – we are going to live longer than most of us think.
Personal pensions may be suitable if you are employed, self-employed, if you are not working but can afford to put aside money for retirement, or even in addition to a company pension.
On 6 April 2015 new pension rules came into force, giving you much greater flexibility over how you use your pension savings and the options you have in retirement. This document does NOT apply to people who are in Final Salary pension plans.
The fundamental idea of a personal pension plan is simple. You put money into a savings fund and it hopefully grows in value. At retirement, you convert the fund into a regular income payment, which is designed to replace some (or all) of your employment income.
With pensions being most people’s second-largest asset, they can become a major consideration in any divorce settlement.
Annuities are historically the most popular option in retirement, with a great many looking for the security that they provide. However, it’s unlikely that they will continue to account for as high a percentage of retirement income products as they have in the past.
Acorn Wealth Management Group are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), number 823702.
Company Number 11580541.