Our Fees

We like to kick things off with a free, no-strings informal meeting to help you – and us – decide if we’re the right fit.

Once we’ve decided to work together, we charge our fees in three ways:

• A fixed fee to produce Your Financial Plan.
• An implementation fee to invest your money. 
• An annual fee for ongoing advice and service.

These fees reflect the services you ask us to provide.

The fee for producing Your Financial Plan will be based on a combination of how many existing contracts we will be reviewing and the specific areas you have asked us to consider. We will provide you with a personalised invoice confirming Your Financial Plan Fee and the scope of work. 

Our financial planning fees are as follows:

• £3,000
• £5,000
• £7,000

For particularly complex planning requirements, we will provide a bespoke invoice which we will give you in advance.

Your Financial Plan may include recommendations for new investments and pensions, for example to invest in an Individual Savings Account (ISA) each year. 

First Wealth is remunerated at the implementation stage of any investments and pensions that we recommend to you. The charge includes the advice, administration and set up of these products.

Our implementation fee is 1% of the amount of money you invest through First Wealth.

For example, if you invested a lump sum of £500,000, our implementation fee would be £5,000.

Once the initial financial plan is put in place, our ongoing advice and service is designed to keep you focused on meeting your Life Goals® and objectives.

Naturally, aspects of your finances and your life will change over time, so our ongoing advice and service will adapt to these transitions before and after they occur. The ongoing advice and service includes both the financial planning and wealth management aspects of our relationship.

Our ongoing advice and service fee is tiered, depending on how
much you have invested with us and whether those assets allow
ongoing fees to be paid:

• Tier 1: £0–£2,499,999, 1% p/a
• Tier 2: £2,500,000–£4,999,999, 0.8% p/a
• Tier 3: £5,000,000 plus, 0.3% p/a

Please note the ongoing service fee does not apply to direct property investments or cash deposits. If for any reason this is not the case, we will let you know in advance of proceeding.

It is important to remember that with funds under management, as the funds grow and the value of your investment increases, so will the fee applicable. Conversely if the value of your fund falls in value, our annual fee will reduce accordingly.

In addition to the First Wealth fees, there may be additional charges associated with the funds we recommend, the structures or pensions we invest in and the wrap platform (also referred to as custodian fees). Where applicable we will inform you of the charges that will affect your investment and pensions.

Typical investment fees are applied for discretionary investment management, wrap platform and the underlying financial instruments we invest in on your behalf.

The specific amount you will pay depends on the portfolio you are invested in, the exact services you ask us to provide and the amount you invest with us.

For example, if you invested £1,000,000 into discretionary managed, First Wealth Evidence Based balanced portfolio P50, with the assets managed on the Fusion wrap platform, the annual fees would be as follows; discretionary management fee 0.09% (£900), costs of underlying financial instruments 0.273 (£2,730) and Fusion wrap platform 0.185% (£1,850).

Including the First Wealth fee of 1% per annum, this gives a total cost of ownership of 1.548% (£15,480 on a £1,000,000 investment).

The provision of ongoing advice and service is subject to a minimum fee of £2,000 each year. If the fees received from your portfolio fall below this level, we will invoice you for the difference between the fees received and the £2,000 minimum level.

First Wealth’s invoice policy is to request payment within 7 days of issue. In the event of late payment of the fees invoiced, First Wealth reserves the right to charge interest in respect of any sum due at a rate of 3% per annum above the Bank of England base rate from the due date.

Our implementation fee also applies if you wish to invest on a monthly basis. For example, if you invest £1,000 per month into an ISA, we would earn 1% on each contribution, or £10 on each contribution. In addition, our annual fee of 1% is payable on the cumulative value of your investments over time.

Occasionally we will be asked to undertake a piece of work that sits outside of our standard fee model. For example, helping the trustees of a pension scheme buy a commercial property via their pension fund.

If this is the case, we will let you know in advance, and will write to you with a Scope of Work brief including a project fee for the work requested. The fee quoted will be based on the amount of time required to successfully fulfil the specific project brief.

As we act on your behalf as an intermediary our fees are presently exempt from VAT which means we do not usually have to make an additional charge of 20%. If we do have to charge you for a service which is subject to VAT, we will inform you in advance.

Neither First Wealth or our employees are qualified to provide legal or accounting advice or to prepare any legal or accounting documents. It is hereby understood and agreed that the onus is on you, the client, to refer to a solicitor or accountant any point of law or taxation that may arise during our discussions.

The scope of our advice does not include will writing, advice on trusts outside of a protection product and tax calculations and advice.

Upon request, we will be happy to make a recommendation to a suitable solicitor or accountant to assist you with your planning.

We reserve the right to pass on any third-party expenses such as Capital Gains Tax (CGT) reporting or third-party discretionary management fees. If we do need to charge you for any of these services a fee will be agreed with you in advance and invoiced independently.

FCA research shows that average charges across the financial planning profession are 2.4% of the amount invested for the initial advice and 0.8% per annum for ongoing advice (FCA Evaluation of RDR Report, December 2020). We believe our fees represent excellent value for the advice and service that we provide; have a look at our Google Reviews, our clients say things a million times better than we can.