There are loads of Financial Planning firms out there, and there are some absolutely brilliant Advisers. How do you choose one?
The traditional way was to ask your friends or colleagues who they use. But today’s world is very different – we all look online first. Hence, this blog.
Is quality of advice an issue?
The regulations make rogue advice pretty rare. You’re unlikely to encounter a cowboy in this day and age, especially if you check their authorisations first.
Everyone with the licence to practice must undertake a rigorous regime of Continuous Professional Development. For example, we take annual competency assessments… not because we love exams, but because we think it’s important.
So on the assumption that each Financial Adviser is (at least) a safe pair of hands, how can you separate them?
In our view, the key is whether you like them. The relationship side of it is hugely important. After all, a successful relationship with a Financial Adviser is likely to be a lengthy one – think years, even decades, and maybe spanning generations of your family.
So it’s really important you actually get on well.
How do I know if Spiritus Wealth is right for me?
We think it comes down to 7 key things and whether you see value in them:
1. Honesty
It’s important to tell the truth because without truth there can’t be trust, and trust is what all meaningful relationships are built on.
Whether that’s the truth about our fees, outlining our onboarding process, how to know if we’re not right for you, we will always be up front with you.
It means when you ask us what we think, or how to make things better in your financial plan… you can trust that what we say is in your best interests. And that’s massive.
2. Qualifications
All regulated advisers are qualified. But very few Financial Planning firms can boast what we can boast…
Everyone who works here – the Advisers, the Office Manager, the Paraplanner – they’re all qualified Financial Planners.
Which means we have technical expertise and practical experience everywhere in our process.
I don’t know of another firm where that’s the case. And it means that usually three financial advisers see every case before any action is taken – which adds another layer of safety to our processes.
3. Focus on tech
We use the very best planning technology available in the market. And we’re so good at it we’ve won a national award. Again, not many firms can say that!
It costs us a small fortune for our tech stack. We spend hours and hours in training each year to keep at the very cutting edge of its capability.
We don’t do these things because we like spending money for the sake of it.
We do them because we think they make a massive difference to the lives of the people we serve – our clients.
If you want to know what your chances of running out of money in retirement are, we can tell you. In fact we might say “as it’s currently set up you’re likely to be successful 70% of the time. But if we change a couple of things, spend a bit less here or take a little more risk there, you would not have run out of money in 95% of historical market conditions”.
That’s such a worthwhile & valuable conversation, and it delivers huge peace of mind. Most Financial Planning firms can’t have conversations like that.
If that sounds helpful or refreshing, we could be the perfect fit for you.
4. No jargon
Financial Services is, in our opinion, the worst industry for using obscure three-letter acronyms and keeping things needlessly complicated. We’re on a mission to simplify things as far as possible.
Over the years we’ve discovered an obvious point that most Advisers seem to ignore: if you understand what we’re talking about, your engagement levels go up. There is almost perfect correlation between the two.
So we keep it simple, and you stay interested in the process.
5. Our age
The average age of our advisers is 37 (writing in 2022), so we’re quite young when compared to the average in the industry (the average Financial Adviser is 58).
Why is that relevant? It means we’re probably going to be around for longer than most, which means we’ll be here to look after you and your family when others have long retired…
We might be here to look after your children, and possibly your grandchildren.
Choosing Spiritus means you’re choosing your advisers with the future in mind.
6. Evidence-based advice
Our approach to Financial Planning is based in evidence. Not in hunches, or guesswork.
We believe in efficient markets, and the disciplines of asset allocation, diversification, and rebalancing.
We know we can only control four things: Cost, Risk, Time, and our Behaviour. What the market does is entirely outside of our control.
We never make promises about investment returns, because they are impossible to keep.
7. Fixed fees
Sometimes people come to us and they need help with a specific area of their planning, or they need a one-off review to sort out a problem.
We call this ‘Initial Advice’, and it might be recommending a change of portfolio, or consolidating old plans into a product you already have… or setting up a new product if we really must.
We charge fixed fees for this work, which depends on how much work is involved (rather than how much you have invested). So you know what it’ll cost before we start.
Some advisers charge a fee based on what you invest through them. And we think that’s a conflict. They charge a fee if you invest – so their fee relies on them selling a new product.
The way we charge, you pay for our expertise – our advice – not for a new product which you may or may not actually need. Charging this way means we are impartial. The review costs the same amount whether you have £100k or £1m invested.
That’s different, and it sets Spiritus apart from others in the market.
What it does mean is that our fee structure becomes really great value for money if you have somewhere north of £100k invested in total. But it’s not right for everyone. If you have £10k in a pension scheme, it’s probably not worth paying us £1,000 to review it for you.
So that’s it – a whistle-stop tour of Spiritus Wealth and why we’re different. We hope it’s been helpful.
Choosing the right advice team is a crucial decision and one you shouldn’t take lightly. If there’s anything you’d like to know that we haven’t covered, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch via the contact form and we’ll come straight back to you.
We look forward to speaking to you.
