That’s down to you. It may be a short term engagement in relation to a specific task, or it could be an ongoing relationship borne out of wide ranging financial review. Alternatively, we may simply support your investing needs – be it professionally managing your assets, or providing an advisory or even online stock broking service.

Hopefully the plan that has been prepared is more than sufficient to deliver your goals. However, life being what it is, circumstances will change and at short notice, all of which will need careful consideration and likely adjustments to your financial planning needs along the way. Having an ongoing relationship means that together we will consistently monitor the progress and appropriateness of your arrangements – whilst being on hand to address any changes needed.

There is an abundance of general guidance and information available in the public domain. Be that the moneyadviceservice. org.uk or the Pensions Advisory Service, (pensionsadvisoryservice. org.uk), or information online from newspapers or advice sites. With today's readily available online resources, a lot clearly can be undertaken by oneself.

Technology too we feel should be used wherever possible to liberate, or to empower you. In that respect, we often feel that a mix and match proposition can work well for some, though for others a more self directed service is their preferred route. It may be you feel more comfortable with having a professional adviser consider and set out a personalised approach specific to your circumstances and then take on the responsibility for managing investments, removing another daily distraction. We're very deliberate in offering three different service levels, so should we engage, you will feel that you have just the right level of support.

We would expect to hold a no obligation engagement in the first instance, where there are no fees levied allowing you to feel comfortable to speak openly about your goals without fear of a pending bill. Due to our Spotlight service, we can accommodate those with more simple needs, with readily digestible charging structure that means your investments or needs are well catered for in a very cost effective manner.

The charges typically include an initial fee for providing a well researched and highly relevant set of solutions or arrangements for you in our opinion, to best meet your goals. Those charges mean that we can keep a well resourced team at hand, to keep up to date with the latest regulatory and financial market developments, so that we can keep you well placed at all times.

We have sought to offer different service levels for different price points. That being the case, regardless of the complexity of your affairs, we believe we can offer a service that means the value of recommendations, both in terms of the investment returns generated, and the tax that you may save, all contribute towards a very affordable and value for money proposition.

It is not the current value of your asset base that matters – more ensuring it’s longevity to continue to support you throughout your years. Generating sustainable income levels can be difficult in today’s low interest rate environment and therefore having access to specialist research and investment management resource can make all the difference. Moreover, the impact of inflation can be a major threat to the value of income streams and their purchasing power going forwards. As life expectancy generally trends up, considerations such as possible care needs and estate planning will inevitably become planning requirements well after you may have begun your retirement.

We offer both and it will depend on your choice of service level.

Our Highlight service is one whereby we will act as an intermediary between you and a whole market place of products and services. Depending on your level of wealth, we may employ a centralised investment proposition. This is where we have conducted extensive due diligence on a range of providers, including fund managers globally and drawn up a short list of those who provide either best in class or a differentiated proposition, so we can cater to a wide range of preferences and needs. Within the global selection of fund managers, we also offer our own funds, particularly where we feel there isn't a similar proposition available elsewhere.

Spotlight is our focussed advice service and it is limited to certain investment options that we feel are suitable for you, given the information we have to hand. In that respect, it reflects more of a ‘panel’ based approach. In providing solutions to clients we may recommend use of funds managed by us too. We are also likely to implement many of the investment solutions we offer, on our own bespoke wealth management platform. This technology is built on top of SEI Global Investments, one of the world’s largest custodians. To that extent, we do not hold your monies, but are regulated to arrange for custody with third parties

Yes we can. In fact, retirement planning is one of our areas of expertise, and a very common reason to seek out financial advice. However, we do not advise on Defined Benefit pension plans.

Highlight is our comprehensive wealth management proposition which includes both financial planning and investment advice. It often means completing a ‘holistic review’ of your circumstances, before highlighting certain aspects of your financial arrangements for you to consider further. It usually requires an ongoing engagement and within investments north of 200,000 GBP or currency equivalent. We would expect regular contact both through email, telephone and face to face meetings.