By law, every employer with at least one member of staff has a duty to enrol those who are eligible into a workplace pension scheme and contribute and towards it.

This is called "Automatic Enrolment" because it is automatic for staff, as they don't have to do anything to be enrolled into the pension scheme.

However, it is often the case that staff don't receive any financial advice on their workplace pension scheme Investments.

If you'd like to understand any old or exisiting workplace pension(s) then we can help. 

 We offer a free and detailed pension review to all potential clients, with no obligation.

 We can advise on pensions, investments, insurance, property investment and finance, IHT planning and a number of alternative investments like crypto and crowdfunding.

We want to get the conversation started!

If you are employed (or have been employed in the past) you will probably have a current or ex-workplace pension scheme that you know nothing about.

You will be invested somewhere in the market and you will be paying fees to a fund manager.

 Do you know where your money is invested?

Check how much investment risk you're taking. You might want to take more, or less risk, or invest in different markets.

 Do you know what fees you are paying?

Check what annual, platform and fund management fees you're paying. Are you getting value for money?

 Do you know how your investments have been performing?

Review the past performance of your investments. You may be able to move your funds into alternative investments. We will run a comparison against a risk-relative benchmark and other options.

 Do you know your pension drawdown options?

Our advisers can show you the most tax efficient way to draw your pension income & discuss annuities.

 Do you want to forecast your future pension income?

We can forecast your retirement income with cash flow modelling to help you choose when to retire.

Let us help with all of the above, for free! Maybe we can do some business together after?

 We can provide access to a number of Model Portfolio Services (MPS) through our main partner platform, Fundment. 

Fundment were recently runner-up in the Equisoft award for “Best platform service” at the Schroders UK Platform Awards, in 2024.

Fundment has been carefully chosen as our main platform provider due to it's growing reputation, transparent fees, range of available funds and product wrappers (such as ISAs, GIAs, Pensions, Bonds), functionality, adviser support and security. The platform technology has been continuously developed to enable advisers to service clients efficiently.

 We also have a relationship with InteractiveBrokers for ISA, JISA and GIA Investment Accounts, SIPP/SSAS Pensions and Corporate Investments. However, we cannot offer on-going advice for SIPPs using this platform, only reviews.

InteractiveBrokers offers low trading fees and access to stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds and funds from a single unified platform.

Here's a helpful video - https://vimeo.com/969146846

 Initially, we offer a free detailed review of your existing arrangements.

This includes a full report that we prepare for you on the pros and cons of your current arrangements, including analysis of past performance.

After the review, if you'd like us to make a formal recommendation we can prepare a Suitability Report, detailing our advice.

 We charge a fixed fee for pension and Investment advice of £1,500.

The advice fee of £1,500 is taken when our advice is implemented. If it is not implemented within 30 days of the advice being given we charge £250 for the work undertaken. If the advice is implemented after 30 days we reduce the advice fee to £1,250, to take the £250 paid into account.

 There is no VAT on financial advice.

If you receive Investment advice (on a stocks and shares ISA, for example) at the same time as pension advice, the fee is still £1,500, in total. There are no additional advice fees. 

When investing in stock markets you need to keep an eye on your investments in order to make changes quickly, when necessary. In times of a market correction you may want to sell your higher risk investments.

 "On-going" advice is when you pay an adviser to oversee your fund and manage the money on your behalf, at all times. When we propose changes to your investments we will contact you for authorisation and explain our recommendation in writing. The monthly fee paid also includes access to regular adviser reviews, usually every 6 or 12 months.

Alternatively you can pay for ad hoc reviews with an adviser at a time of your choosing, and pay a fee for the review meeting (and any changes made to your Investment strategy). An ad hoc review usually costs £375-450 in total.

 On-going advice is typically more expensive, but you receive the added benefit of on-going oversight from your adviser. In volatile markets this oversight is usually beneficial.

In the long term this might equate to a higher fund value, but there are no guarantees.

 In a scenario where the platform provider itself became insolvent and clients were to suffer a loss because of the platform provider’s insolvency, investors would be protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), up to £85,000 per client.

When it comes to platforms, though, it’s important to remember that the insolvency of the provider doesn’t directly lead to clients losing money. There are other important protections outside of the FSCS, which is what I’ll come onto next.

 From our experience, a lot is made of the FSCS. This may be because it’s straightforward to understand and it comes with a Government guarantee.

There is also, however, a system of protections in the background governed by rules such as the FCA’s Client Asset Sourcebook (CASS) rules. These are designed with the purpose of keeping client funds safe if an investment platform were to become insolvent and unable to continue operating. And it might actually be these that provide more comfort to nervous investors.

In terms of client cash, the rules require platforms to hold cash in trust accounts with authorised UK banks. These accounts carry a client money designation, and they’re monitored and reconciled on a daily basis.

As for client assets and investments, these must be held separately in the name of a nominee company or authorised third-party custodian.

 Rest assured that your investments are in safe hands.

 We will need you to sign a "Letter of Authority" (LOA) for each pension policy (or investment policy) to be able to prepare your review report and to be able to provide any subsequent advice.

 A signed "LOA" will ensure that your current provider provides us with the information we need on your exisiting policy.

To start the initial review process you will need to create an account here:

CREATE MY ACCOUNT

 Once we have your details registered within our secure portal we will send out the authority letters by DocuSign and follow up by email and phone call.

 I'm pleased you asked!

Please check the FCA register of authorised firms here:

www.fca.org.uk/consumers/using-financial-services-register

Sutherland Financial Planning Ltd is authorised & regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under Firm Reference Number (FRN) 1019359.

You can cross-check our office address and contact details (phone/email).

You can also search for Adam Sutherland under "Individuals". 

 Adam's individual FCA reference number is: AXS00507.