FAIR VALUE ASSESSMENT

Introduction

This document is intended to provide you with a brief overview of our firm and introduce our services.
In this document, we illustrate how we assess value and show there is fair value between the total price of the service, the benefits and the quality that our clients receive.
One and All Financial Services Ltd are based in Belfast, Greater Manchester and Royal Tunbridge Wells. All of the directors have decades of experience in financial services and established the firm in 2012, to provide financial planning guidance for clients from all walks of life.
Our service proposition has been designed to meet and exceed the needs and objectives of our clients. We want to provide maximum value and ensure fair value is received by clients engaging our services.

Our Wealth Management services are typically suited to clients with the following profile:

Net capital assets of between £100,000 and £10 Million
Clients seeking income or capital or a combination of the two
Long term investors prepared to invest for longer than 5 years
Working, at retirement and post-retirement
Prepared to pay for ongoing advice
Would like to understand the financial planning and investment process

The portfolios we utilise from our preferred portfolio managers aim to deliver returns in excess of inflation over a period of 10 years or longer, by investing in various Assets (such as Stocks and Shares and Bonds) globally. By diversifying, keeping costs low and adopting a patient, disciplined and evidence-based approach we aim to avoid the behavioural mistakes that often damage returns. Our strategies provide clients with robust financial plans to provide stability and peace of mind for the future. The value of pensions and investments and the income they produce can potentially fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you invested.

Our Mortgage services are typically suited to clients with the following profile: -

First Time Buyers, Next Time Buyers
Those looking to remortgage
Those looking to invest in property on a personal basis or via Ltd Company
Those looking to borrow into retirement
Those looking for a Lifetime Mortgage/equity release facility that requires no monthly servicing, and facilities that do require servicing

We are unrestricted and independent in the service we provide- i.e. we can work with any product provider that works with Financial Intermediaries (firms like ours). Our primary service is to function as a trust Advisory firm in the provision of suitable first charge residential mortgages to retail clients. This includes mortgages on a fixed or variable rate basis, Lifetime Mortgages and mortgage protection plans for the term of the mortgage.

When recommending the most appropriate mortgage, we will assess a lender’s Fair Value Assessment, a document designed under the Consumer Duty regulations, to summarise the key features and benefits of why a product or service offers fair value to the customer. One and All will only offer a product or service if the total package offers fair value.

Our Protection (Life Insurance style products) services are typically suited to clients with the following profile:-

Homeowners looking to repay their debts in the event of major illness or death
Those looking for an insurance policy to replace their income in the event of illness
Those looking to provide their family/dependents with a lump sum in the event of death or illness
Business owners looking for Protection Insurance arrangements (see section titled “Protection arrangements for Entrepreneurial Families and Business Owners”)

As unrestricted and independent advisors, we work with all product providers in the marketplace that work with Financial Intermediaries. We always look to provide a solution that offers our clients “best value” which we define as lowest price coupled with best quality of cover.

The Value of our Service

As a Directly Authorised Advisory firm, One and All Financial services employ the support services of various reputable organisations- Including Paradigm Compliance Services to provide a compliance framework service which supports us with a high level of regulatory assurance. This ultimately provides us with a high level of comfort around the regulatory framework of the proposition and services we deliver to our clients. In addition, by leveraging the quality and services of other research assistance organisations- like FE Analytics, Iress Trigold, Iress Assureweb, Iress Solution Builder and The Mortgage Brain- we are confident that we remain at the leading edge of our profession, ensuring we maintain a “Best Practice” approach to serving our clients. Many of the benefits we derive, we see as adding value for our clients, including:

Integrated client technology systems, including our client focused Personal Finance Portal.
Independent compliance supervision of our advisers and the suitability of our client advice.
The provision of an independent complaints handling process for all of our clients.

Price and Value

In relation to Mortgages and Protection policies, for all the business types within scope, we will be paid a procuration fee or commission directly from the provider. There is no further client fee invoice for the provision of Protection policies.

In addition, when arranging Mortgages we charge a professional fee for the arranging of said mortgage. This fee can in principle be as high as £1495 (VAT exempt) but is typically £395-695.

You will be notified prior to any obligation to instruct us to act for you if a fee is applicable and precisely how much that fee will be. We periodically compare our Mortgage fee’s to other Advisory firms to ensure that it offers fair value.

With regards to Wealth Management (i.e. the managing of client money) we charge a fixed onboarding/implementation fee of up to 3% of the capital value of the proposed investment. However, this fee is typically around 1% (with a minimum of £495). Again, we will advise you the proposed fee upon making a recommendation and before you commit to instructing us to act for you.

We charge for ongoing management costs for Pension and Investment Accounts, this forms part of the overall running costs of said investment vehicle. For the vast majority of our clients the total overall running cost of Pension and Investment accounts tends to be 1.10-1.30% per annum (i.e. of the value of the account), from this figure we receive 0.5% per annum for our share of the work. Again, we benchmark this against other IFA’s. The latest comparison information we have has informed us that the average Advisor annual ongoing management fee is 0.82% (source- the lang cat) therefore we are satisfied that our management fee is competitive and offers excellent value in comparison.

Initial Advice

A vital first step of the financial planning journey is initial introduction of clients to One And All Financial, our initial advice process will include the following:

Discovery Meeting
Full get to know you meeting
Establish your goals and objectives / needs and wants
Establish your priorities
Establish your attitude to risk and capacity for loss
Analysis of existing plans
Research of potential solutions
Construct a plan
Meet to discuss the financial plan and recommendations
Agree implementation

The purpose of our initial advice process is to start a valued partnership with clients. We explain the necessary regulatory disclosures to our clients and provide a full explanation of our services, how we work, our professionalism and our service proposition and fees.

The Periodic Review Service (Wealth Management only)

For us and our clients, this is an integral part of the financial planning journey. This is our opportunity to sit down with our clients and their families, to reflect on the past year and to look forward and consider what might be on the horizon for them in the coming years. To provide reassurance and peace of mind about how their investments are tracking against their goals and to review their plans in the context of any changing circumstances in their lives. We can agree and set new goals, make changes and confirm new objectives.

In particular, we will consider the following:

The outlook for markets and the economic landscape and changing tax regulations which might impact on their current plans. We make sure everything we are doing remains suitable and is aimed at helping our clients and their families achieve their goals.
An opportunity to think about the coming years, plans for the family, consider key life stages and events and how we might need to adapt our plans for them.
Ensure our clients’ current positions are still appropriate for them.

Our service includes arranging ISAs every year as well as top ups to existing investments and pensions.

Cashflow Planning/Forecasting

Cashflow planning/forecasting is an important tool to help our clients to gain greater clarity of their financial future and any determine action that may be required. In particular, cashflow planning/forecasting will help to consider the following:

The cash flow forecasting provides a visual illustration of how a client’s investments and wealth will move over time in relation to the financial plans that we formulate to meet their goals. This gives clients considerable comfort knowing that there is mathematical rigour to our advice and how it will help them to meet their goals.
Cash flow planning allows us to scenario test our clients plans against historical market events and simulate how our clients’ goals could be impacted by these types of events. It allows us to show how risk events might impact portfolios. It is a really great way to help clients understand more about investment risks and how this translates to their plans. This helps our clients to feel more informed and comfortable about their financial planning.

Protection Insurance

It may be an uncomfortable subject, but we all need to plan for the unforeseen in life and how this would impact our clients and their families. We can help them to consider different scenarios which could occur and identify if there are any shortfalls in their protection planning. We can explain what options clients have to address these shortfalls and how they would ensure they are able to maintain their lifestyle and still meet their longer-term financial goals, in the event of ill health or death.

We have access to professional tools and paraplanning resources/staff to conduct analysis and research to find the most suitable products. We consider the use of trusts to provide ease of access and control for the plan benefits.

Inheritance Tax (IHT) and Estate Planning

We work with our clients and their professional advisers to ensure we have a deep knowledge and understanding of HMRC tax rules in relation to clients and their estate’s assets. We can help our clients to understand the value of future liabilities and design and implement strategies to reduce this burden, often saving clients thousands of pounds in potential tax charges. This provides real value and peace of mind to our clients that their families will be looked after when they are gone.

Retirement Planning

This is an area of planning which deserves significant time in reviewing for our clients each year. Often in the background, we are continually checking the progress of plans and investments clients have made to fund their life in retirement. Our research incorporates adapting to market swings and modelling various impact scenarios. Retirement planning is one of the most valuable services we provide our clients.
Many of clients are currently in retirement, following our advice and drawing on their assets to live a stress-free life in retirement. Our retirement planning aims to take away the worry from our clients

Tax Efficiency

We make sure to consider tax reliefs and allowances, enabling clients to maximise their after-tax wealth. If they do not take advantage of annual tax reliefs, clients will almost certainly pay more tax than is needed. We can evidence the amount our clients have potentially saved through our wealth planning service.

Market and Product Research and Analysis

We recommend the most suitable solutions for our clients, we use professional tools to conduct research and analysis of provider and product solutions. This ensures we make recommendations to best suited to our clients’ needs and goals.

Protection arrangements for Entrepreneurial Families and Business Owners

Many of our clients fall into this category and we provide the following services:-

Business advice – key person insurance / shareholder protection planning – these arrangements can ensure the survival of the business and compensation for the family and partners of a business owner in the event of a tragedy.
Relevant life cover can be arranged for Directors which will allow the company to establish protection arrangements which are tax efficient. The tax savings that can be illustrated in pounds and pence, can be very significant- with effective savings of over 50%.
Referrals to professional services firms which can leverage years of experience, particularly with solicitors and accountants. This saves our clients the time and energy required to develop these connections for themselves.

Communication with Customers

One and all Financial Services will communicate with clients in the most appropriate way that is in accordance with the customer’s wishes. Often mortgage and protection discussions will be by phone or video conference, but face-to-face or written communications will be used as appropriate in line with customer preferences. Wealth Management discussions are typically face-to-face and written communications, but phone and Video conference will be used, again, as appropriate in line with customer preferences.

Investment Philosophy

One of the biggest challenges that all investors face is deciding what to invest in and what to avoid. At One and All Financial Services we have conducted extensive research into the various approaches investing may take and our findings have led us to adopt an “evidence-based” philosophy.

An evidence-based approach is founded on the belief that markets are hard to beat consistently. Beating markets involves trying to pick the best stocks and correctly time market trades to exploit potential opportunities. This adds an additional layer of risk for which investors may not be adequately compensated. Very often, these approaches do not stand up to scrutiny. They can also necessitate higher costs, to pay for the supposed “expertise” of those making the critical investment decisions.

Evidence-based investing is an approach grounded in empirical research and the long-term observation of markets and how they work. Using this research, investment portfolios can be designed which base their success on the application of a few key factors: portfolio structure, controlling costs and maximising diversity (i.e. mitigating risk).

The use of our recommended portfolios will give access to a broad range of funds across a number of financial and geographical sectors. This provides diversification in line with the agreed risk profile, at the same time structuring the investment strategy. This diversification potentially reduces the impact of negative performance of a particular asset class or market.

By using our “preferred portfolio-manager partners” we can manage the investment objectives, performance and asset allocation more closely and ensure that the integrity of the investment strategy is maintained during the term.

Once an investment portfolio is in place, it is important to monitor the progress of the portfolio and to “rebalance” the investment funds back to the agreed allocations when necessary. This will ensure the portfolio remains on track to deliver its intended goals. Other than rebalancing, trading should be kept to a minimum, to minimise costs.

Our role as the managing Advisors is to effectively govern the Portfolio Manager(s) by way of reviewing and assessing their performance and costs- including their fair-value assessments- and challenging them when their decisions go against the general consensus of their peers. We may replace them with an alternative Portfolio Manager- or introduce additional Portfolio Manager(s) to blend strategies.

Overall, adopting an evidence-based and effective-outcomes approach helps to focus the principles of investment success on the fundamentals that we believe, provides the best results for our clients.

Environmentally & Socially Governed (ESG)- or Ethical- considerations have become increasingly important in investment markets in recent years. However, these terms convey different meanings to different people, which translates into differing expectations for what impact clients wish to see on their investments from the application of these factors.

In short-listing a suite of ESG portfolios available on the open market for our clients, we have had to balance the various ESG considerations with our investment philosophy. The objective has been to provide a choice of ESG portfolios that is sufficiently distinguished from our short-list of “regular” portfolios, whilst retaining the integrity of our investment philosophy as far as possible. This is because we want to ensure clients who adopt a more socially responsible approach to investing do not do so at the expense of real returns and diversification.

Vulnerability Policy

One and All Financial Services has a vulnerability policy which includes the following:-

Training is provided to all staff to ensure that customers are supported with their temporary or permanent vulnerabilities.
There are various means of support available to vulnerable clients including the offer of having another person (friend, family or professional) attend customer meetings to assist them.
Encourage clients to take out Powers of Attorney, where appropriate.
Refer clients to relevant charities or support organisations.
Advisors are skilled in asking appropriate questions to establish if clients need support.
Keeping clear records of client vulnerabilities so we can be constantly aware of their need for support.
Financial resilience is an area that can particularly affect mortgage clients and the ability to withstand various perils and risks- such as the value of investments going down, increasing mortgage rates.

Summary

When considering the service we offer to our clients, it is not just about monetary goals. Our holistic approach towards planning for our clients is also about life and family and the next generation. This enables us to help clients think about things they may not have considered and how plans can work together to create a cohesive timeline of advice.

Considering all areas included in the assessment of value, we believe the services we provide demonstrate fair value.

OAAFS FVS Ver 1.4 Feb 2025