Celtic Financial meeting clients at Mold

frequently asked questions

We strive to be transparent to our clients and have a glass door approach, everything about our business is approachable just like our team. Below are some of the frequently asked questions about our business:

We wish to remain small enough to provide an individual and personal service, a size where every one of us knows every client. We have no desire to become so large that a client becomes an account number rather than a person.

We want to continue to build a team where experience and youth works hand in hand, we believe this approach brings together a wide range of skills whilst providing our clients longevity.

To create a culture where the fair treatment of our clients is at the core of everything we do, essentially we treat every client like mum and dad, even if that means we tell them we can’t help or it would be more cost effective for them to do it themselves, should they desire.

That culture extends to every member of the team and that everyone is accountable for their conduct, taking due care and diligence in all their actions.

  • All recommendations will be suitable, transparent and meet their needs.
  • Clients will face no barriers in communication when dealing with our company.
  • We are a service lead proposition meaning customer experience is paramount.
  • We want all clients to be confident in our service and fully understand our proposition and costs before entering into any agreement.
  • All communications and systems will be clear, accurate and always kept up to date.

We want to challenge others by providing a service-led goals-based financial planning solution for our clients. Instead of getting bogged down in jargon such as SIPPS and Wrappers, we aim to deliver a plan to meet your goal(s) such as retiring 5 years earlier. You won’t find sales targets and pinstripe suits here, just good, honest and friendly financial advice.

A further attribute is our connection with local trusted professionals in both accountancy and law. Our ability to work with them to help create the right tax structure for your investment portfolio is crucial in helping you achieve your financial goals. We believe this combined approach to planning provides an in-depth holistic solution that rewards our clients with the best possible service.

Acorn growing image like Investments

We also have a corporate social responsibility mandate which aims to help the local environment and community. One of these points is planting a native British tree for every new pension and investment client.

Trees are planted during the winter months in partnership with the North Wales Wildlife Trust, helping to offset our carbon footprint and encourage local wildlife. Clients also have the opportunity to help plant the trees and visit them in the future.

Firstly we discuss the financial goals that are important to you. We introduce our company and explain our services. We provide you with a client agreement and informative literature. If you wish to proceed and receive a written recommendation report, we then undertake a ‘fact find’ to ascertain your personal details, income, expenditure, assets, liabilities, existing plans and goals.

All of your personal information is treated as strictly confidential and not passed to any third parties, except with your signed permission to providers we recommend should you be happy to proceed with our recommendations.

We summarise your financial goals in writing and set out our recommendations in full, including any risk warnings and tax implications of our advice.

Any investments or plans we recommend are fully explained, and accompanied by supporting documents as appropriate.

We believe we have a simple fee and charges schedule when it comes to the services we offer, at a competitive rate. We review this regularly to ensure we offer value for money for our clients.

Free Initial Meeting – whether you are looking to purchase your first home or make a cash investment, we offer all new clients a free initial meeting.

Pensions & Investments – We typically charge an initial advice fee of between 2.00% and 1.00% (depending on investment amount and service), subject to a minimum of £750. This is payable from the investment/pension or separately via Cheque or BACS.

If you require ongoing advice then typically our fee is between 0.50% and 1.00% per annum depending on the level of service you require and the underlying investment solution.

We do not typically charge an initial fee for future cash top-ups or regular premiums, except for further pension switches where our standard charges are payable.

Mortgage Advice

For purchases, we typically charge a broker advice fee of £595 only payable on completion. We are also typically paid mortgage procuration commission from the lender.

Equity Release

We typically charge a broker advice fee of £995 only payable on completion, plus commission from the lender.

Protection Policies

We typically get paid commission from the insurance company direct, you do not have to pay a separate fee and this.

Please note the above is just a guide and as independent financial advisers we offer other ways in which you can pay us for our services. Please contact us to find out more and request our client agreement document.

We achieve this by harnessing the latest technology (including cash flow modelling and portfolio analysis) to help clients picture their changing financial circumstances now and the future, with a focus on stress testing any planning on a regular basis to ensure it continues to meet their needs.

All our clients have access to our personal finance portal where they can keep track of all their finances in one place, it allows securing messaging between us and our clients and offers a secure document vault to hold valuations, reports and other important documents.

Furthermore we further embrace technology via the cloud, allowing us to access information on the go and create more interactive meetings with our clients. Overall we are evolving and embracing technology to give our clients an unparalleled level of service and information.

All investments carry some degree of risk. By carefully assessing your attitude to risk, we ensure your investments correctly reflect the approach you wish to take.

Furthermore, in the event of failure of an investment provider, there are statutory protection schemes in place. These cover Banks and Building Societies, Insurance Companies and Investment Groups.

Our client agreement sets out in full the protection that applies to each type of investment through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Asset-backed investments may fall as well as rise in value, and you may get back less than you paid in. All risk warnings are detailed in the report we send you.

We believe our Conduct & Culture is vital to the success of our business. We strive to have the right ethics, mission statement and objectives within the business to ensure we have the right business purpose, good honest leadership, the right approach to rewarding people and corporate governance.

We make this a regular discussion point at our board meetings, as an example its why none of our team have sales targets.

Celtic Financial Planning Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority 809204, consequently we must adhere to a number of rules and regulations which includes managing business risk.

We have professional indemnity insurance to insure against the advice we give and we do not recommend non-regulated pensions and investments, ensuring all product providers are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme FSCS.

We conduct careful due diligence across all the products and product providers we recommend and perform regular risk analysis as a committee board. Lastly, we run a prudent business, ensuring we have surplus funds to meet our liabilities now and in the future.

We want to ensure our clients receive only the best and most appropriate financial advice. As members of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) Investment Advisers must obtain 35 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) each year to maintain our statement of professional standing (SPS).

An SPS can only be issued by an FCA appointed accredited body, such as the CII, and confirms that an adviser:

  • Has adhered to a code of ethical standards
  • Holds the required qualifications for the activities they undertake
  • Has completed appropriate CPD and complied with APER (Statements of Principle and Code of Practice for Approved Persons)

However, we go beyond this and working with our external compliance experts ThreeSixty conduct ongoing training and knowledge tests. We also conduct file reviews and regular supervised meetings.

Award Winning Financial Advisers
how can we help you?

Contact us at Celtic Financial to book a free no obligation initial meeting.