Independent Pension and Retirement Advice
Planning for your future is essential, whether you’re approaching retirement or making the most of your pension today. At Bloomfield Financial, we specialize in pension advice and retirement advice tailored to your goals. With our help, you can confidently plan your financial future and understand your options for sustainable retirement income.
Considering Pension Consolidation?
Bringing all your pensions together can simplify your retirement planning, but it’s not always the right choice. Our pension consolidation advice helps you evaluate whether this step is in your best interest. We thoroughly assess:
- Special benefits that may be tied to your existing pensions
- Current charges and fees associated with your plans
- Investment performance across all your pensions
By analyzing these factors, we ensure you make an informed decision about whether a consolidated plan is the best path forward.
We believe in complete transparency—our pension transfer advice costs are detailed below in the FAQ section. If you’d like to explore your options further, you can book a free, no-commitment initial appointment to see if we’re the right fit for you.
Independent Financial Advisers in Houghton le Spring
As local, independent financial advisers, we prioritize unbiased, client-focused advice. While we’re based in Houghton le Spring, we also offer virtual consultations, so you can access our services from the comfort of your home.
What’s Next?
Looking for more details about fees or how to book an initial consultation? Check out the FAQ section below. It provides clear answers to common questions and guides you through the next steps to start planning your retirement with confidence.
FAQs, Appointment Booking, Legal Bits, Costs Etc
Whose Products & What Services Do We Offer?
We offer an ‘Independent’ service. This means that we are not restricted to using any one provider or using any particular products.
We will advise and make a recommendation for you after we have assessed your needs. Our recommendation will be based on a comprehensive and fair analysis of the market.
We do not offer an ‘information only’ service we will always provide personal advice and a recommendation based upon your specific needs and circumstances.
We do not offer an ‘insistent client service’ for occupational/safeguarded pension transfers this means we will not implement pension transfers against our recommendations. We will, however, certify that you have received advice.
Initial Advice
After thoroughly exploring your financial situation, goals and objectives, resources and attitude to risk as well as your capacity for loss and level of risk you need to take we will make an initial recommendation for pension products and investment funds as appropriate, this may, of course, include recommendations to stay with your current plans.
As part of the initial advice service, we will also implement those recommendations where accepted and to the extent that recommended product providers will allow. If we recommend against an action we will not implement it even if you insist. For example, if you wish to transfer away from your employer’s pension scheme and our findings and recommendations are that you would be better off staying. We will, of course, be happy to certify that you have had advice should you decide to make arrangements against our advice on your own.
If you elect not to take an ongoing service we will ensure that you are clear on how you can administer your new plans going forward. Where an initial advice service only has been selected we will not check or confirm that any recommendation remains suitable in future years as your circumstances and the legislative and financial landscape may change. Our obligation to you is discharged when your initial advice and recommendations have been delivered.
Ongoing Advice and Service
Ongoing advice can only be provided after initial advice and is not available on a ‘stand-alone basis’.
Ongoing Advice and Services include where appropriate the following, but are not limited to;
- At least one annual meeting in person or remotely to assess your arrangements and make any changes where necessary.
- Access to our in house investment portfolios that are managed on an ongoing basis.
- An online portal will be supplied to all clients who require one that will allow access to investment valuations, policy details and documents if supported by the individual products.
- Unlimited communication and administrative assistance during normal office hours.
- For clients with ongoing service, there are no further initial charges for moving money we are already managing for you from one plan to another. For example, moving investment monies to your ISA when your new allowance becomes available each tax year.
Where we feel that your plans are simple and do not require an ongoing service, for example, a ‘lifetime annuity’ or ‘fixed scheme benefits’ we reserve the right to refuse to provide an ongoing service.
How Much Do The Pension Services Cost?
Initial Advice.
We classify the initial advice as either Standard, Complex, or Safeguarded.
The charge for “Standard” initial advice service is 2% of the funds advised upon subject to a minimum fee details of which we will take you through in your free initial meeting or you can request a copy of our comprehensive charges guide as a pdf.
If you opt to have a holistic financial plan first the initial advice fee is reduced to 1% without any minimum charge.
Complex advice would apply where your scheme has a ‘Guaranteed Annuity rate’, you have more than 2 existing schemes to be analysed or you have already had a ‘crystallization event’ meaning that you have accessed a pension or put another pension into payment.
The charge for “Safeguarded” initial advice service is a little more complex – they’re often final salary schemes and the FCA has a lot of rules on how we charge for that.
We charge a fixed fee for Safeguarded advice of £5,000 for one scheme, and this includes a full Holistic Financial Plan if you have more schemes it gets a bit more complex – full details in our PDF guide.
Of course we ill go through all costs in your free initial meeting before any work ever starts.
Ongoing Advice
Where an ongoing advice service is selected the cost will usually be 1% per year of funds managed subject to a minimum annual fee.
When & How Will You Have To Pay For This Service?
Initial Advice: The charges for initial advice are payable at the point that advice is issued.
For “Safeguarded Advice” the fee is payable regardless of the recommendation and whether you choose to act upon it.
For “Standard or Complex Advice” Should you decide not to proceed with the recommendations no payments would be due.
Should you decide to cancel the advice process after work has begun but before advice is delivered a charge equal to 35% of your expected bill will be issued to cover costs incurred.
Ongoing Advice: Ongoing advice charges are payable monthly at a rate of 1/12th of the annual total.
Where the investment is a regular sum rather than a lump sum the initial charge can be divided into 11 instalments, and collected by direct debit or deduction from the investment product.
