Fee Structure

Paying for services – Investments

Not all firms charge for advice in the same way. We will discuss your payment options with you and answer any questions you have. We will not charge you anything until you have agreed how we are to be paid. We have listed below the options available to you.

Paying by Fee

Whether you buy a product or not, on completion of our work, you will pay us a fee for our advice and services. If we also receive commission from the product provider when you buy a product, we will pass on the full value of that commission to you in one or more ways. For example, we could reduce our fee; or reduce your product charges; or increase your investment amount; or refund the commission to you. We will confirm the rate we will charge, in writing, before beginning work and we will tell you if you have to pay VAT. You may ask us for an estimate of how much in total we might charge. You may also ask us not to exceed a given amount without checking with you first. Our typical charges are:

Hourly Rate

Principal/Director/Member/Partner £175 per hour Financial Adviser £125 per hour Administration £25 per hour

Reviews

We will confirm what we will charge you, in writing, before beginning work. Our typical charges are: Initial Review: NIL Annual Review: £250

Paying by commission (through product charges)

. If you buy a financial product, we will normally receive commission on the sale from the product provider. Although you pay nothing up front, that does not mean our service is free. You still pay us indirectly through product charges. Product charges pay for the product provider’s own costs and any commission. These charges reduce the amount left for investment. If you buy direct, the product charges could be the same as when buying through an adviser, or they could be higher or lower. We will tell you how much the commission will be before you complete an investment, but you may ask for this information earlier. The amount of commission we receive will vary, depending on the amount you invest and (sometimes) how long you invest or your age. For example:
  • If you invest a lump sum of £10,000 in an investment bond, we would receive commission of 3% of the amount invested (£300) and 0.5% of the value of the fund (approximately £50) every year)
  • If you pay £100.00 per month into a personal pension (with a term of 25 years), then we would receive 53.4% of the first 12 month’s payments (£640.80) in the form of initial commission.
  • If you pay £100 per month towards a whole of life policy, then we would receive 135% of the first 12 month’s payments (£1,620) in the form of initial commission.
The commission noted above includes payment for any ongoing service such as a periodic or ongoing review.

Paying by a combination of fee and commission (through product charges).

In some circumstances, we may charge you a combination of fee and commission. The fee will not exceed the rates shown in this document. We will agree the rate we will charge before beginning work and we will tell you if you have to pay VAT. The fee will become payable on completion of our work. You may ask us for an estimate of how much in total we might charge. You may also ask us not to exceed a given amount without checking with you first. We will tell you how much the commission will be before you complete an investment, but you may ask for this information earlier. Where we charge a combination of fees and commission, our maximum rates are set out in the fee information and the commission sections above. In addition to the above, we may charge a fee on a different basis for a specific transaction or project, but we will agree this with you in advance.

Paying for services – Insurance

If you buy a non-investment insurance contract, we will normally receive commission on the sale from the product provider.

Paying For Mortgage Advice

D M Cager (Financial Services) Limited receive an introducers fee from lenders with whom we place mortgage business. As a result, we do not charge for mortgage advice and will not charge even for advice that does not ultimately result in a mortgage completing. As we are Independent Financial Advisers, you have the choice of whether to pay a fee for the mortgage advice we provide. If you would prefer us not to be remunerated by the lender and would rather pay a fee, this would typically be 0.5% of the amount borrowed. However, we will discuss your payment options with you and confirm the actual amount payable before we begin to provide our services.