Fair Value Statement

About us

This document is aimed at providing you with a brief overview of our firm and to introduce our services.

Lawrence Clarke Financial Planning is a firm of financial planners and an Appointed Representative of Best Practice IFA Group Limited, which is a network that promotes a high level of market standards through the provision of back-up resource, technology, training, and support. Best Practice IFA Group Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The registration number is 223112 and a full list of Appointed Representatives can be found on the FCA register.

The business is based at the following address:

Lawrence Clarke Financial Planning
Pavilion 2, Little Park Farm Road
Segensworth West
Fareham
PO15 5TD

Our contact details are:

Email: lcltd@lawrenceclarke.co.uk
Phone: 01489 505200

We have a current team of 9 financial planners who provide advice across a range of areas including:

• Pensions
• Investments
• Protection – personal and corporate
• Long Term Care
• Equity Release
• Mortgages

We no longer provide advice on Defined Benefit Pension Transfers.
We provide various levels or service to our clients, and these are agreed and reviewed on a regular basis.

Our charges

Lawrence Clarke Financial Planning charges
Initial charges
All clients pay a starting initial advice charge of 1% of the amount invested. Where assets are over £500,000, the fee is tiered as follows:
Up to £499,999 Next £500,000 to £999,999 Above £1m	1% 0.50% 0.15%
There is a cap of £12,000.
Ongoing charges
We have 3 ongoing charging structures: Reactive service – there are no ongoing charges, and you pay for the services you require based on an hourly rate of £300 for financial planners and £100 per hour for paraplanners and administrators. Basic service – there is a basic review service for existing clients only where the value of assets is less than £100,000. This is charged at 1% per annum. Additional services are paid for as required. Ongoing service – where assets are over £100,000 you pay a tiered charging structure starting at 1% per annum and reducing to 0.50% for assets over £500,000 and 0.15% for assets over £1 million. Charges are based on the assets under management from which ongoing advice fees can be taken. Older style commission and renewals are paid in addition. Charges are usually paid monthly (dependent on the provider). We have a maximum annual fee of £12,000 for our ongoing service. Please note that older style commission may be payable in addition to this. Please note that a separate fee structure may be negotiated for specialist areas of advice.

The value of our service

Network member

The Network provide an institutional regulatory supervision and compliance framework service which provides us with a high level of regulatory assurance and leading-edge client management systems. This high quality and financially sound organisation ultimately provide us with a high level of assurance and comfort around the regulatory framework of the proposition and services we deliver to you, our clients. By leveraging the quality and services of an organisation like Benchmark, a Schroders plc group company, we have comfort that we will remain at the leading edge of our profession, ensuring we maintain a “Best Practice” approach to serving our clients. Many of the benefits we derive, we see as having direct value add relevance for our clients, including: The provision of an independent complaints handling process for all of our clients, Enhanced professional indemnity insurance. Integrated client technology systems, including the Wealth Platform client portal. Independent compliance supervision of our financial planners and the suitability of our client advice.

Our proposition – initial advice (onboarding)
Initial advice
The following initial advice process is followed with every new client, setting the baseline for an on-going value-based relationship. Our initial advice process takes the following steps: Discovery Meeting (at our expense) Full get to know you meeting. Establish your goals and objectives / needs and wants. Establish your priorities. Establish your attitude to risk and capacity for loss. Analysis of existing planning Research of potential solutions Construct a holistic financial plan. Meet to discuss the financial plan and recommendations. Agree implementation.

Advisory services – annual review service
Ongoing advice
For us and our clients, this is an integral part of the financial planning journey and our annual ongoing advisory service. It gives us an opportunity to sit down with you and your family, to reflect on the past year and to look forward and consider what might be on the horizon for you in the coming years. To give you reassurance and peace of mind about how your investments are tracking against your goals and to review our plans in the context of any changing circumstances in your life, new goals, or changes in your objectives. We consider the outlook for markets and the economic landscape and changing tax regulations which might impact on your current plans. We make sure everything we are doing remains suitable and is aimed at helping you and your family to achieve your goals. An opportunity to think about the coming years, plans for your family, begin to consider key life stages and events and how we might need to adapt our plans for them. Ensures your current position is still appropriate for you. Depending on the level of ongoing service, we will Bed & ISA your investments and recommend and effect top ups to your existing plans without additional charge or with a nominal charge.

Advisory services – annual review service with cash flow planning/forecasting
Ongoing advice with cash flow modelling (for appropriate clients)
Helps us to show you visually how your plan has been set up to meet your objectives. The cash flow forecasting provides a visual illustration of how a client’s investments and wealth will move over time in relation to the financial plans that we formulate to meet their goals. This gives clients considerable comfort knowing that there is some mathematical rigour to our advice and how it will help them to meet their goals. Cash flow planning allows us to scenario test your plans against historical market events and simulate how our clients’ goals could be impacted by these types of events. It allows us to show how risk events might impact portfolios. It is a really great way to help you understand more about investment risks and how it translates to the plans you have in place. It helps you to feel more informed and comfortable about your plans.

Advisory services – family protection planning
Protection services
It may be an uncomfortable subject, but we all need to plan for the unforeseen in life and how this would impact ourselves and our family. We can help you to consider different scenarios which could occur and identify if there are any shortfalls in your protection planning. We can explain what options you have to address these shortfalls and how they would ensure you and your family are able to maintain your lifestyle and still meet your longer-term financial goals, in the event of ill health or death. Access to professional tools and paraplanning resources/staff to conduct analysis and research to find the best/most suitable product. Use of trusts to provide ease of access, control.

Advisory services – holistic financial planning
Holistic planning
It is not just about monetary goals; this is about life and family and a consultative approach. This enables us to help clients to think about things they may not have considered and how plans can work together to create a cohesive timeline of advice.

Advisory services – IHT and estate planning
IHT and estate planning
We work with your other professionals who have a deep knowledge and understanding of HMRC tax rules in relation to clients and their estate’s assets. We can help to understand the value of future liabilities and design and implement strategies to reduce this burden, often saving clients thousands of pounds in potential tax charges. This provides real value and peace of mind that your loved ones will be looked after when you are gone.

Advisory services – retirement planning
Retirement planning
A key life phase. This is an area of planning which deserves significant time in reviewing for our clients each year. Often in the background, checking on progress of plans and investments you have made to fund your life in retirement. Adapting to market swings and modelling various impact scenarios. Retirement planning is one of the most valuable services we provide our clients More than 50% of our clients are currently in retirement, following our advice and drawing on their assets to live a stress-free life in retirement. Our retirement planning takes the worry away from our clients.

Advisory services – mortgages
Mortgages
Whether you are buying your first home, taking a step up to a larger property or looking to release money for home improvements, we can help you to understand your options and find the best deal to suit your needs. The mortgage process can seem daunting but with our expert advice, we can guide you through the property buying process. With access to the whole of the market for mortgage lenders, we can source the best deals for you, taking into account your budget, term, and preferences.

Advisory services – equity release
Equity release
Equity release can be a valuable source of financial planning for clients aged 55 and over. It is not something to enter into lightly and with our experience and expert advice, we will ensure you fully understand your options and that any advice to release equity from your home is suitable for your circumstances and needs. There may be other options to consider before taking this step and we will ensure these are understood before you make any decision about an equity release loan.

Advisory services – long term care
Long term care
Long Term Care can be a complex, emotional, and difficult topic. Whether thinking about yourself or exploring options on behalf of a loved one, we will simplify and explain all the options available and how best to plan for them.

Advisory services – tax efficiency
Tax efficiency
Making sure we consider tax reliefs and allowances, enables clients to maximise their after-tax wealth. If you do not take advantage of annual tax reliefs, then you could quite literally be paying more tax than you need to. We can evidence the amount you have potentially saved through our planning.

Advisory services – market and product research analysis
Research
To recommend the most suitable solutions for our clients, we use professional tools to conduct research and analysis of provider and product solutions. This ensures we can make recommendations to best meet your needs and goals. We use a variety of research tools including cash flow modelling, investment research, platform, annuity and protection comparisons, and mortgage research. These are all provided on a monthly subscription basis.

Advisory services – advice for entrepreneurial families
Entrepreneurial families
Protection – key person insurance, shareholder protection planning and relevant life protections These corporate services provide valuable tax efficient benefits. Referrals to professional services firms, leveraging years of experience cultivating trust-based relationships with professional services firms, particularly solicitors.

 

Non-advisory services – other services
Other non-advisory services offered by Lawrence Clarke Financial Planning include:
Life goals planning
To help clients consider their short / medium / long term goals in life and provide financial solutions to help them in their plans to achieve these goals.
Financial coaching
Financial Coaching can add value at various times throughout the financial planning journey and help you to make considered financial decisions. Amounts to invest to meet your goals. How and when to release capital or take income. Reassurance in volatile market conditions Understand how markets work and the journey you can expect. Understanding legislation and tax changes Financial coaching – professional sense check – behavioural guidance – we help to take the emotion out of financial decision making and helping clients avoid falling into common mistakes.
Education planning
Many clients want to support their children through university, and we can help you put in place a financial plan to meet these costs in full or in part. This will provide you with the knowledge and peace of mind that this very important goal is in hand and will be reviewed year on year to make sure you are on track.
Market briefings and investment updates
We provide a quarterly financial newsletter and budget briefings to keep you up to date with changes that may affect you.
Maintaining professional competency – annual CPD
As a Financial Planner, each year we evidence the learning activities we have completed to maintain competence in our role and improve our knowledge This allows us to continue providing suitable and up to date advice to our clients, year on year.

Our investment proposition and philosophy
Investment proposition
Our investment proposition is researched to provide the most suitable investment solutions to cater for your needs. We choose to outsource investment management to professional money managers. Our skill is in selecting which ones to blend together to build portfolios aimed at meeting your goals. We have the time and professional skillset to monitor your investments and the investment managers to make sure we stay on track to meet your goals. We tend to your investments while you give all the other things in life your full attention. We believe that passive investment management is suitable for some of our clients who are able to invest for the long term, 15 years plus. This is because these investments are cost efficient and are likely to outperform active investments over the longer term. We adopt a blend of active and passive investment management strategies in some of our client solutions because we believe the combination of the two options provides optimal performance whilst keep ongoing charges at an affordable level. Our investment proposition is researched to provide the most suitable investment solutions to cater for your needs. This ultimately gives our clients great comfort that their investments are being managed by investment professionals and their financial plans are being looked after by highly qualified financial planning professionals. This is the value that a relationship with our firm provides. It is what our clients pay for.
Discretionary fund management/multi asset portfolios
We recommend discretionary investment management solutions for some of our clients. We believe this adds value by constantly monitoring the underlying investments and making changes where appropriate. Our approach means that our time is focused on you. We let the professional investment managers monitor the markets on a day-to-day basis. We feel this combination delivers some clients the best value.
Centralised investment proposition
We have a centralised investment proposition which contains passive funds, blended funds, and discretionary investment management portfolios. We also include funds for clients who would like to invest using sustainable or ESG principles. We believe this approach allows our financial planners the greatest opportunity to spend their time and energy focused on you and your family’s goals and objectives, where we add the greatest value.
Rebalancing
Auto-rebalancing of your portfolio on a regular basis, to reset your investments back to your agreed initial investment mix. We will also proactively consider the tax consequences of these actions and will ensure we are taking advantage of any tax reliefs or allowances to which you are entitled. This is a proactive investment management service which helps to keep your investments on track to meet your goals and saves you money through utilisation of your annual capital gains tax allowances. Helps to ensure your investments and selection of funds / asset classes remain aligned to your chosen attitude to risk and capacity for loss. Helps to reset your investments on a regular basis back to your strategic investment plans, by adjusting dynamically for swings in markets.

Technology
Technology
One of the reasons we chose to work with Benchmark, was their technology. Something they have won numerous awards for. Ultimately backed by Schroders, we have every confidence that the security of our client’s information within Benchmark’s client management technology systems, is in very safe hands. This decision is something we know our clients expect us to get right. It is incredibly important to them and a reason they feel safe working with us. Our client management systems create efficiency –by ensuring that our client information is held in one place and can be accessed as appropriate when required to provide our service to you. You will benefit from the options of accessing our online client portal, Wealth Platform. This allows us to send you information in a secure manner and you can view your plans at your convenience.

Our staff/financial planner training and development programmes
Training and development
All our team at Lawrence Clarke Financial Planning are encouraged to take financial services qualifications and are support with this through study time, coaching and financial rewards for achievements. We believe that training our team allows them to add value by improving their knowledge and their discussions with you. Our financial planners all have to undertake a programme of continued professional development (CPD). This ensures that they maintain their professional knowledge and keep up to date with regulatory and tax changes. This allows them to ensure that the solutions they recommend are the most suitable for the client at the time.

General value statement – working with Lawrence Clarke Financial Planning – tangible and intangible benefits
Benefits
Working with a professional financial planner provides expertise and peace of mind. We build multi decade trust-based relationships with our clients. We get to know what really matters most to them and their families. What they are trying to achieve in life and help them to achieve it. Our relationships are often the longest standing relationships our clients have. They lean on us for so much more than the financial plans we cultivate and manage for them. This does not happen without trust.

Summary

Lawrence Clarke Financial Planning aim to provide a service which offers a fair value to all our clients.

Clients pay a maximum 1% annually of their assets under management (usually on a monthly basis). We have different tiers of service, and any additional services are paid for on an hourly basis. Clients can also opt for a purely reactive service which incurs no standard fee and pay for any services they request on a fixed charge basis.

We believe that the added value of engaging with Lawrence Clarke Financial Planning far exceeds the cost to the client of engaging our services.