Our Costs
From the commencement of business in 2000 as Mitchell Neale Investment Services, we have always operated on a fee basis in the belief that a lot of financial advice was inappropriately motivated by the availability of high levels of commissions which were payable to financial advisers. This often influenced advisers to recommend products that were not the most suitable for their clients.
In order to reduce initial charges, remove the bias away from commission based products and to provide a more equitable method of remuneration, we prefer to work on a fee and performance related fee basis.
Minimum Investment Portfolios
Our minimum investment levels are:
• £500,000 for consultations with a Director
• £200,000 for consultations with a Qualified Financial Adviser
At outset we will agree a target investment return appropriate to your attitude to risk. The target will provide you with a realistic expectation of future long term investment returns adjusted for inflation, and therefore assist us in the financial planning process by providing cash flow forecasts around which planning decisions can be made. Where future alterations to your portfolio are made we will not make any charges as our objective will be to exceed the agreed target. Consequently our business is service and not sales orientated.
We will normally target a return in excess of inflation and the degree to which we will be required to exceed inflation will be determined by your attitude to volatility. We are happy to consider alternative targets such as your existing portfolio, property, the UK stock market or any other target which is appropriate to the level of volatility that you are prepared to accept.
Charges:
We provide an initial consultation at no charge to you, which provides an opportunity for us to get to know each other and assess whether we can work together.
Initial service
The cost of our initial service will be based on the cost of time spent on your affairs. The hourly rates charged reflect the knowledge, skill and experience of the person involved and are as follows:
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Director - £500 per hour
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Other qualified financial adviser - £250 per hour
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Paraplanner/Technical Support - £175 per hour
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Other business support staff - £100 per hour
Initial Charges
For advice on new money invested, we will apply an initial charge based on the amount invested. This charge will be confirmed to you prior to any investments taking place.
Our initial charges are as follows:
• 1.00% for portfolios under £750,000
• 0.80% for portfolios between £750,000 and £1,249,999
• 0.60% for portfolios between £1,250,000 and £1,999,999
• 0.50% for portfolios of £2,000,000 and above
Before commencing work, we will provide you with an estimate of the likely fee to be incurred. If this figure is likely to increase, we will contact you again before issuing the relevant suitability report.
Ongoing Service
In order to ensure fairness and equity to our clients, we apply a fixed percentage charging structure for our ongoing service. Our annual ongoing charge for funds under management is as follows:
• 1.00% per annum for portfolios under £750,000
• 0.80% per annum for portfolios between £750,000 and £1,249,999
• 0.60% per annum for portfolios between £1,250,000 and £1,999,999
• 0.50% per annum for portfolios of £2,000,000 and above
Performance Fee
We have integrated into our charging structure a performance-related fee, which is only charged if we exceed the returns of a pre-agreed benchmark. This performance-related approach also helps identify potential buying and selling opportunities within your portfolio.
The performance-related fee is equal to 10% per annum (including VAT) of any gains achieved on your portfolio in excess of a benchmark agreed between us. The performance fee is payable on an annual basis and, in assessing performance against the benchmark, we will make adjustments for any new monies added to the portfolio, as well as withdrawals you have made, so that the true underlying performance is considered.
