Financial Advice FAQs answered by 121 Financial Services
Q. Do you offer financial advice from the whole of market?
A. Yes, we offer financial advice from the whole of the market as we are Independent Financial Advisers (IFA’s). This includes Investments, Pensions, Mortgages and Insurances. The term “Independent Financial Advisor” was coined to describe the advisers working independently in the whole of market for their clients rather than representing an insurance company, bank or bancassurer.
Q. How much does your advice cost?
A. We usually meet with new clients for an initial consultation at our expense (as explained above/below). Once we have assessed your needs and objectives and if you are happy to use our services we will discuss our charges before we go ahead. We receive a commission for insurance business (which saves you paying anything up front), for mortgages we charge a small fee for our research if, after our first meeting, you want us to find you the best deal and for investment/pensions we offer the option of either an hourly rate or a fee based on the percentage invested (we would discuss this at the first meeting to ensure you are aware of what you can expect for your money and are happy to proceed).
Q. What locations do you cover?
A. We are able to carry out a large amount of work via telephone and email and have clients all over the world. We are based in Eastbourne and are happy to visit locations such as Hailsham, Polegate, Pevensey Bay, Bexhill-on-Sea, Crowborough, Hove, Lewes, Ringmer, Ore, Peacehaven, Rye, Telscombe, Wadhurst, Robertsbridge, Alfriston, Herstmonceux, Cooden, Hawards Heath, Newick, Hastings, Battle, Seaford, Newhaven, Rottingdean, Heathfield, Uckfield etc… We often travel to clients in East Sussex, West Sussex, Kent, Surrey, London and further afield.
Q. How long will it take?
A. The initial meeting will usually take around 1 hour. At that meeting or then next we will perform a fact find which could take up to 2 hours, dependant on your current position, but is usually around 30 minutes. We will then go away and do the independent research. How long this takes is dependent on what area we’re researching and the complexity of your requirements. Once we have completed the research we will then arrange for another meeting for us to present our recommendation to you which will take up to 1 hour.
Q. What makes you different to other financial advisers?
A. We’re a team of fresh enthusiastic financial experts primarily helping personal and business clients in the Eastbourne and surrounding area. We have extensive experience dealing with a wide range of clients and this breadth of knowledge means we are expert at taking complex solutions and making them easy to understand and jargon free. We know many of our clients live busy lives. Balancing your work, family and social life rarely leaves time to study, research, compare and analyse your current finances let alone plan for the future. We all know at times we need to review our life insurance, pension, mortgage or savings but often we don’t know who to trust to give us advice and who will take our individual situation into account. We bring high quality friendly advice to everyone and we promise not to be boring and stuffy!
Q. What is the difference between you and going to my bank?
A. The biggest difference for many of our clients is that we’re Independent (whole of market) and most banks only ‘sell’ their own products or at best have a panel of providers to pick from which ultimately limits the advice they can give you. Being Independent means we look at many more options for our clients. This greater choice brings greater competition which drives down prices and means that our clients get the best deal and the best price.
Q. What is the purpose of your Initial consultation?
A. The purpose of this is to identify your personal needs and objectives, establish what benefits would result from using our services, outline our associated costs and give you the opportunity to appoint us. The ‘Initial consultation’ is at our expense, it has no charge to you and will usually last no longer than one hour.
Q. Are you prepared to visit your clients in the home and how flexible are you with times?
A. We see many of our clients in their own homes at a time that suits them. We also see clients at their place of work and of course they are welcome in our office to see us.
Q. Do you offer advice on starting a new pension as well as existing pensions?
A. Yes, we are very keen for our clients to be financially comfortable in retirement and do offer financial advice on new start up pensions and many types of existing pensions including Personal, stakeholder and work based schemes.