Our fees, like the rest of our service, are based on your requirements; they will depend chiefly on the nature and complexity of the services you engage us for, along with the amount of funds we manage on your behalf.

There is no fee for the initial meeting and our follow up initial thoughts email or letter. If you would like to proceed to the next stage and engage us to advise you, we will state our fees and obtain your agreement before proceeding.

Whether you are a new client or an existing client engaging us to provide further advice, the fees we charge fall into two categories.

Initial Fee

With most pieces of advice, the bulk of the work is required at outset – determining what the needs to be addressed are, researching how best to address them and then implementing the advice.

When investments are made or when policies are set up, BWM charges an initial fee. This fee covers the costs involved in the process. With new clients, it also covers the cost of all that is required to bring the client under the auspices of BWM.

Generally we express this fee as a percentage of the assets to be invested.

Sometimes, particularly with insurance contracts such a life assurance, we will receive a commission from the recommended insurance company. Where appropriate, this can be used, to offset some, or all, of our agreed fee.

As mentioned, our fees depend on several factors and the scope of work but a typical initial fee might be 1% of the assets invested.

Ongoing Advice Fee

Financial plans and investment portfolios require constant monitoring and we need to keep in contact and meet with you in order to deliver our service. To cover the cost of this and all the associated overheads and administration, we charge an ongoing annual fee.

Again, we normally express this as a percentage of the funds we manage for you but we can also work on an hourly rate or on a fixed basis if you prefer.

A typical ongoing advice fee might be between 0.5% and 1% of the assets under management per annum.

Payment of fees

We often use wrap accounts to manage client assets (more about these can be found elsewhere on the website); wrap accounts offer a convenient way to pay fees/ The wrap provider will deduct the agree fee from the portfolio and pay it to us.

Where no wrap is used, or if you prefer, we can be paid a direct fee by any normally accepted method. In this case, we will invoice you and payment will be due within 14 days.

Most fees for advice that results in a transaction – e.g. the purchase of a fund, will not attract VAT.

Some fees will attract VAT, fees for a service that does not result in a transaction, e.g. the preparation of a financial plan or cash flow that involved no subsequent transactions, attract VAT.

We will always clearly state our fees before proceeding with any chargeable work; this is the case whether you are a new or existing client. We will also ensure that you know the difference between fees charged by BWM and fees charged by any recommended services, such as a wrap account or an investment fund, so that you can clearly see the cost of the advice we have provided.