Providing Fair Value

Introduction and purpose

This document is aimed at providing you with a brief overview of our firm and to introduce our services. In this document, we intend to illustrate how we assess value and whether there is fair value between the total price of the service and the benefits and their quality that our clients receive.

Westpeak Wealth is committed to ensuring that its products and services provide fair value to clients and support good outcomes in accordance with the FCA’s Consumer Duty.

Our objective is that the overall cost of engaging Westpeak remains reasonable and proportionate to the services provided, the needs and circumstances of the client and the benefits that clients can reasonably expect to receive.

About us

Our Firm

Westpeak Wealth is an independent financial planning firm built around a simple principle: financial advice should be personal, clear and genuinely useful. We combine thoughtful financial planning with independent investment advice, transparent fees and direct access to experienced advisers. Our aim is to build long-term relationships with our clients, helping them make confident financial decisions and giving them the clarity to focus on what matters most to them.

Our Team

Our team brings together decades of experience in financial advice, investment management and looking after clients through every stage of their financial lives. As a founder owned firm, the people advising our clients are also the people responsible for the long-term success of Westpeak. This creates a strong alignment of interests: we are personally invested in the relationships we build, the quality of advice we provide and being there for our clients for many years to come.

Our Clients

Our clients come from a wide range of backgrounds, but they tend to have one thing in common: they value having a trusted adviser who understands them and their financial affairs. Many have accumulated significant wealth through their careers, businesses, property or investments and want help bringing everything together into a clear, coherent plan. We work with individuals and families over the long term, helping them make good decisions, simplify complexity and use their wealth to achieve the things that matter most to them.

Demonstrating value of service

Westpeak Wealth provides clients with both tangible and intangible value through an ongoing financial planning and advice service designed to improve financial outcomes and give clients greater clarity, confidence and control over their financial affairs. Tangible benefits include the development and ongoing review of a personalised financial plan, tax-efficient structuring, investment and retirement planning, appropriate portfolio management, regular reviews and access to experienced advisers when decisions need to be made.

Our advice can help clients avoid unnecessary costs, make effective use of available tax allowances and reliefs, manage investment risk appropriately and make better-informed financial decisions. Equally important are the less easily quantified benefits: simplifying complex financial affairs, providing an objective perspective, helping clients understand the implications of different choices, maintaining discipline during periods of market uncertainty, coordinating financial decisions over time and providing continuity and reassurance as circumstances change. Taken together, our proposition is intended to ensure that the fees clients pay are reasonable and proportionate to the nature, quality and breadth of the service they receive and the benefits they can reasonably expect to derive from it over the course of the relationship.

Our Services

The precise service received will depend upon the client's circumstances and needs but may include:

• Establishing and maintaining a comprehensive understanding of the client's financial circumstances, objectives and priorities.
• Development and ongoing review of a personalised financial plan.
• Cash-flow modelling and consideration of future financial scenarios where appropriate.
• Retirement and pension planning.
• Insurance cover
• Investment planning and portfolio recommendations.
• Tax-efficient structuring of investments and consideration of relevant allowances and reliefs.
• Estate and intergenerational planning.
• Regular suitability and planning reviews.
• Ongoing assessment of the continued suitability of investments and financial arrangements.
• Access to the client's adviser between scheduled reviews when advice or guidance is required.
• Support following significant life events or changes in financial circumstances.
• Liaison with other professional advisers where appropriate.
• Administration and implementation support.

The service is deliberately structured so that clients are able to contact us when they need assistance without being discouraged from doing so by additional hourly advice charges.

Tangible Client Benefits

Depending upon individual circumstances, clients may receive measurable financial benefits from our advice.

These may include more effective use of pensions, ISAs and other tax-efficient structures; utilisation of available tax allowances and reliefs; improved retirement income planning; more appropriate investment structures; reduction of unnecessary product or investment costs; improved diversification and risk management; and better coordination between different assets and financial arrangements.

Financial planning can also help clients understand whether their existing resources are sufficient to meet future expenditure and lifestyle objectives, allowing informed decisions to be made about retirement, gifting, investment, expenditure and succession.

Advice may also prevent financially detrimental decisions. The value of avoiding an inappropriate investment, unnecessary tax liability, unsuitable withdrawal strategy or poorly timed financial decision can be significant even where that benefit is not immediately visible.

Intangible Client Benefits

A significant proportion of the value of professional financial advice cannot be measured solely in pounds and pence. One of our objectives is to reduce stress and worry that clients may feel about elements of their finances.

Clients may benefit from greater clarity over their financial position and a clearer understanding of what their wealth can reasonably enable them to achieve.

An ongoing adviser relationship can also provide reassurance during periods of financial or market uncertainty and help clients maintain an appropriate long-term strategy rather than making reactive decisions.

Other benefits can include simplification of complex financial arrangements, behavioural coaching, continuity of advice, organisation of financial information, support with important financial decisions and having an experienced adviser available when personal circumstances change.

For some clients, one of the most important outcomes of financial planning is confidence that they can afford to spend, retire, provide financial assistance to family members or pursue other objectives without unnecessarily compromising their longer-term financial security.

These benefits are important components of our overall value assessment.

Our Fees and Charges

Westpeak operates a transparent charging structure which is explained to clients before they enter into an ongoing advice relationship.

Our ongoing advice charge is tiered according to the value of assets under advice, with the percentage charge reducing as asset values increase. Our standard charging structure begins at 0.80% per annum and reduces through subsequent charging bands. We also group together families for additional fee savings.

Our charging structure is designed to recognise economies of scale and to prevent fees increasing indefinitely in direct proportion to client wealth.

A minimum annual charge may apply where appropriate to reflect the minimum resources required to provide a comprehensive ongoing advice service. We also apply a maximum annual advice charge of £30,000 under our standard proposition.

The applicable fee and the services provided are disclosed clearly to clients.

We do not assess value simply by comparing our percentage charge with headline adviser charges elsewhere in the market. We consider the actual monetary cost to the client, the nature and complexity of their requirements, the breadth and quality of services provided and the benefits the client receives.

Assessing Price Against Benefits

Our fair value assessment considers whether there is a reasonable relationship between the price paid by a client and the benefits associated with the service. Relevant factors include:

• The complexity of the client's circumstances.
• The value and nature of assets being advised upon.
• The range of financial planning needs.
• The amount and complexity of advice required.
• The frequency and nature of contact and reviews.
• The resources required to maintain the client's financial plan.
• Access to advisers and ongoing support.
• The financial and non-financial benefits arising from the relationship.
• The quality and breadth of the overall service.
• The total cost borne by the client.

Clients with similar portfolio values may therefore receive different forms of value depending upon their circumstances. Equally, the value of the service should not be judged simply by the number of transactions or meetings occurring within a particular year.

Financial planning is an ongoing service. Some years may involve substantial planning activity, while others may involve fewer changes because the existing strategy remains appropriate.

Maintaining oversight, identifying when action is required and providing access to advice when circumstances change are themselves important elements of the service.

Third-Party Costs and Total Cost to the Client

Westpeak recognises that clients incur costs in addition to our own advice charge.

These can include platform charges, investment management charges, underlying fund costs and other product-related expenses.

Our fair value assessment therefore considers the overall cost of delivering the recommended solution rather than assessing our adviser charge in isolation.

As an independent adviser, we consider the suitability, functionality and cost of available solutions when making recommendations. Cost is an important factor, but it is considered alongside matters such as investment strategy, service quality, financial strength, functionality and suitability for the individual client.

Where two solutions are capable of delivering substantially equivalent outcomes, cost will be an important consideration in determining which represents better value for the client.

Different Client Groups and Levels of Service

We recognise that percentage-based charging structures can result in clients paying different monetary amounts for services that may appear similar.

We therefore consider value at both proposition and client cohort level rather than assuming that the same percentage charge automatically represents fair value for every client.

Particular consideration is given to clients at the upper and lower ends of our charging structure.

For clients subject to minimum charges, we consider whether their needs and anticipated use of the service are sufficient to justify the monetary cost.

For clients with larger portfolios, our tiered charging structure and maximum advice charge are designed to mitigate the risk of charges becoming disproportionate to the service and benefits provided.

Where circumstances indicate that the standard proposition would not provide appropriate value, we will consider whether a different service or charging arrangement is required or whether Westpeak is the appropriate firm to provide the service.

Vulnerable Clients and Clients with Additional Needs

Westpeak seeks to ensure that clients with characteristics of vulnerability receive outcomes that are as good as those received by other clients.

Vulnerability does not in itself mean that an advice service provides poor value. Indeed, clients experiencing vulnerability may derive particularly significant benefits from continuity, accessibility, clear explanations and professional support.

Where additional needs are identified, we will consider appropriate adjustments to the way our service is delivered.

We will also remain alert to circumstances in which a client is paying for a service they are unable or unlikely to use effectively and will consider whether changes are required to ensure the relationship continues to represent fair value.

Evidence and Management Information

Westpeak will monitor the delivery of its proposition and use appropriate management information to assess whether clients are receiving the services and outcomes upon which our fair value assessment is based.

This may include information relating to:

• Completion of scheduled client reviews.
• Delivery of agreed ongoing services.
• Adviser contact and client engagement.
• Client feedback and satisfaction.
• Complaints and their underlying causes.
• Client cancellations and reasons for leaving.
• Adviser charges and the distribution of charges across client cohorts.
• Total product, platform and investment costs.
• Portfolio and investment outcomes where relevant.
• Clients receiving minimum or maximum charges.
• Clients who make limited use of the ongoing service.
• Vulnerable client outcomes.
• Instances where services have not been delivered as expected.

Management information will be considered both quantitatively and qualitatively. No single metric is regarded as sufficient evidence of fair value.

Fair Value Assessment and Conclusion

Having considered the nature and quality of the services provided, our charging structure, our intended target market and the tangible and intangible benefits clients can reasonably expect to receive, Westpeak considers that its ongoing financial planning and advice proposition is capable of providing fair value to its target market.

Our tiered charging structure, together with our minimum and maximum charges, is intended to maintain a reasonable relationship between the monetary cost of advice and the service provided as client circumstances and portfolio values vary.

Fair value is not assumed solely because a client has agreed to pay our fees. It depends upon the service being appropriate for the client, being delivered as agreed and continuing to provide benefits that are reasonable in relation to the price paid. Where our monitoring identifies clients or groups of clients for whom this relationship may no longer exist, we will investigate and take appropriate action.

Governance and Ongoing Review

Fair value is an ongoing responsibility rather than a one-off assessment.

Westpeak will review its fair value assessment periodically and whenever there is a material change to its proposition, charging structure, target market or the underlying products and services used to deliver client outcomes.

The review will consider relevant management information and determine whether the assumptions supporting the previous assessment remain reasonable.

Where actual client outcomes or other evidence indicate that the proposition is not delivering fair value to a particular group of clients, Westpeak will consider appropriate remedial action. Responsibility for overseeing the fair value assessment rests with the firm's senior management, with the outcome and supporting evidence appropriately documented.

Overall conclusion

Westpeak's objective is not simply to provide financial products or investment management. It is to provide an ongoing professional relationship which helps clients organise their financial affairs, make better-informed decisions and use their wealth effectively.

We believe that the combination of personalised financial planning, independent advice, investment oversight, tax-aware planning, ongoing accessibility and long-term adviser relationships provides meaningful value to our target clients.

Our responsibility is to ensure that this value continues to be delivered in practice and remains reasonable and proportionate to the total price clients pay.