Independent Financial Advisers in Herts, Cambs, Beds and Essex & Surrounding Counties

‘The rewards for those who persevere far exceed the pain that must precede the victory.’ Ted W. Engstrom.

Welcome to the website of Colin Palmer Financial Services (CPFS). We have built this site without the use of ‘bells and whistles’, pretty colours or flickering, rotating banners (showing abstract things that have no relation to the provision of financial services, in our view). Financial Services is going through massive changes that will affect consumers and IFA businesses alike in the next 12 months and in anticipation of this we have therefore decided to rebuild our website to cater for this.

We have developed a site that is representative of us and our Client Proposition: We are not aware of any other sites dealing with financial services that take the same format as this one does, but we will see.

Our Pitch on Things Financial

Many IFA websites (if they have got one, that is) seem to be little more than the electronic equivalent of a sandwich board or advertising hoarding and we do not believe that this is the way for a website to deliver a service to its clients. Every day there is some headline or other which is relevant to the financial wellbeing of the individuals in the UK and so we intend to comment on them (not all of them, we do not have that unlimited, boundless energy!) and our views will be represented in the Posts section on this site.

Open, clear and transparent, honest and, we hope, pertinent and to the point.

We have taken the position of allowing comments on each and every page and post of this site and providing that the comments are relevant, pertinent, clean and not insulting, then we will publish them. We recognise that many will not agree with us and if their comments are printable, then even if they counter our own position in the Post, we will print them.

So, who are we?

CPFS are UK fee based financial advisers and we believe that our Client Proposition is simple and clear.

It is our belief that there are four principle reasons why many pension and investment plans under-perform:

1) The funds in most pensions and investments portfolios, once selected, are very rarely, if ever, changed or monitored – without a properly arranged asset allocation and diversification program of on-going assessment and review, this is pointless;

2) The vast majority of pension plans, especially if they originate from banks, or some of the old pension companies (Windsor Life, Pearl, Century Life – the list goes on) carry very high annual management charges which tend to ‘rip the heart’ out of pension fund performance;

3) and they never ever get the plans reviewed, properly, by a financial adviser, to ensure that they are on track to do what they are supposed to – most people MOT their cars – why not their pensions?

4. Many people who arrange a pension or investments tend to base their choice of provider on ‘shiny nameplates’ or ‘branding’, or on the posh sounding name of the provider – do not be swayed, they do not spend fortunes on advertising for no reason – in a lot of cases it remains the only way that they can get business because the quality of their investments tend to be dragged down by the high charges that they levy and are pretty poor in relation to that which can be achieved by asking an IFA to do the research for you!

All of this can be pretty disastrous, especially when people realise that there is little time left in which to rescue a bad situation.

So, our Proposition is to offer quality strategic financial planning advice, without compromise, to provide solutions  to these problems to help successful individuals and their families ensure that these things are properly evaluated and steps taken to ensure that they get the best from their pensions and investments.

Asset Allocation

We do not profess to be stock-pickers nor do we promise to search for the ‘best’ funds available in the market – we believe that the market is too dynamic and fast moving to predict with any degree of accuracy the stocks that are going to out-perform the market.

It is our experience that many IFA practices who advise on pensions and investment portfolios have an advice process that tends to ’shoehorn’ clients into (a bit like trying to wear clothes that are too small or too big for you, in our view) a pre-selected portfolio rather than fit the portfolio to the client.

We also know of many IFA practices who use DFM’s (Discretionary Fund Managers – they pick the funds and similarly ‘shoehorn’ clients to fit into them) which operate in the same manner, fitting the client into a pre-selected portfolio – this, however, also has an added cost that the client will have to bear which naturally pushes up the cost – the net result is that the fund has to work just that bit harder to compensate for the additional cost to the client – not value for money in our view, for the client at any rate, and one that the client has to bear in mind when appointing the IFA business to represent them.

Providing Value for the Fee

We therefore question whether this adds value to the client or detracts from it – inevitably it is the clients choice because it is his/her/their money and they must decide.

Our client proposition is to work closely with our clients, establishing their attitude to risk (or more correctly, their attitude to loss!), determine their long term goals and future plans, and then to design and implement a discounted cash flow forecast to enable them to plan for their future.

With appropriate asset allocation, tailored to match specifically a client’s attitude to risk profile, we can then build a diversified portfolio to match that profile to each individual client and then provide a review service tailored to a clients requirements, bi-annually, tri-annually or whatever is required to ensure that a clients plans and aspirations can, as closely as is possible, be met.

So, I think that our process can be called ‘made to measure’ – it fits your profile rather than the client having to fit it!

The Consumer takes Control

We believe that the consumer, for probably the first time, will be directly in control of the advice process following the changes to financial services (the RDR – Retail Distribution Review) and therefore be able to agree a cost that is both fair and compatible with the service provided by the IFA firm. Such control will give them the opportunity to ‘shop around’ until they find an IFA practice that will provide them with the advice they need, at a price that they agree and that provides value for money.

In short, it puts the consumer in control – a powerful concept!