Financial Planning Service

What is financial planning?

Financial planning is the strategic process of assessing an individual’s financial goals, resources, and circumstances. At Yellowtail, we help our clients devise a roadmap to achieve those goals through effective management of income, expenses, investments, and assets.

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What is a financial planner and what do they do?

A Financial Planner (not to be confused with a Financial Adviser) works closely with you to discover your financial aspirations. Once they understand your goals, current financial situation, and potential obstacles, they can use their skill and expertise to create your roadmap to financial independence.

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When might I need financial planning advice?

Clients typically seek financial planning advice when dealing with complex investments, considering estate planning and its tax implications, undergoing significant life events, or generally safeguarding their wealth for future generations or philanthropic endeavours.

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Securing your future through strategic financial planning.

Financial planning transforms ideas into achievable goals by creating tailored strategies, ensuring your money is aligned with your aspirations. It aids navigation through life’s financial complexities with confidence and clarity. Here are four examples where financial planning adds value:

Planning for retirement.

Planning for your retirement is key to unlocking the lifestyle you desire. Neglecting it might mean your savings don’t stretch as far as you need, creating vulnerability and possibly compromising the retirement you want to achieve.

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Smart strategies for Inheritance Tax Planning.

One of the simplest ways to avoid inheritance tax is to give assets away. But how much can you give without compromising your financial security later on? Financial planning gives you the insight needed to make these significant, often permanent decisions wisely.

Optimising your investment strategy.

Traditionally, investment portfolios are built around your risk tolerance. Yet, without a clear financial plan, you may be focusing too much on the ups and downs of the market, instead of the most important aspect: ensuring your money is working as hard as it needs to for your future.

Consolidating your pensions for better outcomes.

Pension provision has changed dramatically over the past 35 years, leaving many with outdated, costly pension plans. Financial planning shines a light on the advantages of moving pensions into newer, flexible, and cost-effective arrangements, helping your retirement funds achieve more.

How we help and what we do.

Here we describe our financial planning process, what we deliver for you and our costs.

STEP ONE…

Initial ‘Discovery’ meeting – Getting to know you.

Our initial ‘Discovery’ meeting is complimentary, with no-obligation to engage with us. The purpose of this meeting is to get to know you and capture a deeper understanding of your:

Future aspirations and dreams;
Vision for retirement and timelines;
Current financial arrangements;
Risk tolerance.

As part of this meeting, we will discuss our approach to financial planning and answer your questions about the process. Following this meeting, we send you a proposal outlining the work we’ll undertake for you and our charge for building your financial plan. If you decide we’re not the right choice, you don’t pay a penny.

This meeting typically lasts for 60 minutes.

Cost: No charge

Book Discovery Meeting

STEP TWO…

Build your customised financial plan.

If you decide to engage with us, we will begin to build your financial plan. This includes:

Setting your personal and financial objectives.
Conducting an analysis of your portfolio of assets, investments and pensions.
Conducting an analysis of your risk tolerance to guide future investment choices.
Crafting a detailed cash flow forecast for your lifetime.
Evaluating various scenarios and options for your financial future.
Identifying potential gaps in funding your long-term goals.
Developing strategies to enhance your financial prospects.
Revisions to your financial plan.
Presenting a comprehensive report that explains each aspect of our advice.

This process typically involves 10-25 hours of our time.

Cost: £3,500 to £10,000 including VAT* (depending on the complexity of your personal situation)

*VAT may not apply where our advice leads to the implementation of a regulated financial product i.e. a pension plan.

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STEP THREE…

Implementing, monitoring & reviewing your financial plan.

Once your tailored financial plan is in hand, how it comes to life is entirely up to you. You can embark on the journey to implement it on your own, or you can let us shoulder the burden.

To help your decision-making, we’ve compiled a comparison below. This contrasts the responsibilities and efforts required on your part with the peace of mind and support you would receive by allowing us to oversee the entire process:

OPTION 1

We build the plan, you implement everything:

➤ Self-manage opening & managing recommended accounts (e.g. bank, ISA, Pension, Investments etc.);

➤ On-going self-monitoring of changes to UK legislation, UK taxation, UK interest rates, Your investments;

➤ Self-manage investment rebalancing;

➤ Self-manage income drawdown;

➤ Self-manage switching savings accounts;

➤ Self-manage utilisation of annual allowances;

➤ Self-manage pension consolidation;

Advice cost: No charge

OPTION 2

We build the plan and implement everything for you, plus you get:

➤ Continuous access to a financial planner for queries;

➤ Regular planning meetings as frequently as needed;

➤ Continuous access to an investment platform for tracking your investments;

➤ Updating your goals and any personal changes;

➤ Keeping your financial plan and cash flow forecasts current;

➤ Ensuring your investments are in tax-efficient structures;

➤ Revising your risk profile as needed;

➤ Applying regulated professional expertise and oversight to investment decisions;

➤ Aligning your investment holdings and asset distribution with your financial goals;

➤ Adjusting and rebalancing your portfolio to stay aligned with your plan;

Advice Cost: Fixed charge of 0.6% of your total assets invested, charged monthly in arrears from your portfolio (*this is capped – see illustrative examples below).

Illustrative examples:

Example 1: An unmarried high earner with simple financial needs and £2 million in investable assets might only need to spend £3,500 (including VAT) for the financial plan, without any additional ongoing service fees.

Example 2: The same individual, but opting for ongoing financial advice, would spend the same £3,500 (including VAT) for the financial plan, with an additional £12,000 (including VAT) per year for continued advice.

Example 3: A married couple facing complex financial decisions with £5 million in investable assets, engaging in our ongoing service, could expect to pay £10,000 (including VAT) for the financial plan, with a capped annual advisory fee of £18,000 (including VAT).

*Our capped fees and what they mean for your annual financial advice

We cap our annual fees at £18,000 (including VAT) for financial advice to give you certainty. This cap is reassessed every three years with the UK Retail Price Index to ensure our pricing keeps pace with the economy.

Breakdown of additional fixed charges.

Additional expenses include the fund administration platform which carries a typical charge of 0.15% of the assets held on the platform. For those choosing our index-tracking discretionary portfolios, the fund cost is around 0.25%, depending on the mix of funds.

Defined benefits pension transfers.

For clients with a defined benefit pension transfer, separate fees will apply.

How our pricing works.

At Yellowtail, transparency and value drive our pricing. However, the uniqueness of each financial situation, makes it challenging to provide a standard cost without knowing the specific circumstances. To address this, we have a pricing model which provides an estimate of our financial planning cost.

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Why clients choose our financial planning service.

Whether you’re a high-earning professional couple or individual, a wealthy retiree, or affluent widow or widower, our service can help you devise a financial plan so you can achieve the retirement you’ve worked hard for. These are some of the reasons why clients choose Yellowtail for their financial planning requirements:

WHY CLIENTS CHOOSE US

We simplify your life.

We simplify your life with clear, step-by-step guidance, meticulous organisation, and concise summaries for confident management of your financial affairs. 

WHY CLIENTS CHOOSE US

We empower your financial journey.

We empower your financial journey through building personalised strategies, providing expert support, and enhanced knowledge for executing your retirement plan with confidence.

WHY CLIENTS CHOOSE US

We give you control.

We help you retain control of your financial situation by enabling you to make informed decisions, giving you peace of mind, and active engagement for a brighter financial future.

WHY CLIENTS CHOOSE US

We give you optimism for the future.

We give you renewed optimism for a prosperous retirement, through our regulated expertise, and a personalised, caring approach that understands your unique needs.

WHY CLIENTS CHOOSE US

We provide honest and transparent assurance.

We provide honest and transparent assessments, evidence-backed strategies, and an empowering, uplifting approach that’s aligned with your values.

What clients say about our financial planning service…

FAQs.

We appreciate that if you have not previously used a financial planner, you may have several questions about the process and costs. Here we answer the most frequently asked questions by individuals who become our valued clients.

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How long does it take to get my financial plan? 

There’s no set timescale for financial planning. There may be delays whilst we await financial information from you or your existing providers. In an ideal world we would expect to complete our work in 6 – 8 weeks, but more complex situations can take longer.

How much information do I need to disclose? 

To paraphrase Aristotle, you get out what you put in. The more information you can give us the better the resulting financial plan. However, we don’t expect you to have everything to hand straight away and we will support and guide you in finding the information we need.

What happens if I can't find all my financial information? 

We can make a start on your plan with high-level information and if you are having difficulty locating up to date valuations and other details, you can provide us with authority to obtain this direct from the providers. Sometimes we can work with assumptions in order not to delay things too long.

Do I need to see you in person? 

Not necessarily, one of the changes borne out of Covid and lockdowns is the ability to conduct meetings online. The most important thing is we set time aside for a focused discussion.

How much wealth do I need for your service? 

It’s not necessarily about the level of assets you have, you may benefit from financial planning if you haven’t yet built up a high level of savings and investments, but where you have a high income instead and want to make the right choices for the future.

How accurate do my financial numbers need to be for the Discovery Session? 

The Discovery Session is a general conversation to see whether we’re a good fit for each other. We only need to have a general understanding of your financial situation, not the exact valuations of everything you have.

Do I need to involve my partner in the financial planning process? 

Yes. The potential for financial harm that can be created by not involving your partner can be understated, I even wrote a book about it “Who Will It Hurt When I Die” by Dennis Hall

How often do I need to see you each year? 

Whilst we try to have at least one review meeting each year we find that there are reasons to catch up at other times between formal review meetings. Things change, and they don’t always occur at the same time each year, so we’re always available between times to chat things through.

Contact us.

If you would like to discuss your financial situation, simply get in touch to book a meeting at a time that’s convenient for you.

Get in touch

Exeter (Head Office)

Financial Planning Service – You're at the heart of everything we do

What is financial planning?

What is a financial planner and what do they do?

When might I need financial planning advice?

Securing your future through strategic financial planning.

Planning for retirement.

Smart strategies for Inheritance Tax Planning.

Optimising your investment strategy.

Consolidating your pensions for better outcomes.

How we help and what we do.

Initial ‘Discovery’ meeting – Getting to know you.

Build your customised financial plan.

Implementing, monitoring & reviewing your financial plan.

We build the plan, you implement everything:

We build the plan and implement everything for you, plus you get:

Illustrative examples:

*Our capped fees and what they mean for your annual financial advice

Breakdown of additional fixed charges.

Defined benefits pension transfers.

How our pricing works.

Why clients choose our financial planning service.

We simplify your life.

We empower your financial journey.

We give you control.

We give you optimism for the future.

We provide honest and transparent assurance.

What clients say about our financial planning service…

FAQs.

Contact us.