Is the Financial Planning price war out of hand?


Schroders (along with Lloyds’ backing) are launching a new Financial Planning business and intends to enter direct competition with places such as St. James Place (SJP) and Brewin Dolphin – big players in the Financial Planning game!

Investigations into how this rivalry may pan out, as well as some internal research by Schroder’s (and Lloyds) has uncovered the average initial upfront costs of those in the marketplace, as well as what it is expected is reasonable for customers to pay.

The reasonable upfront fee was pinned at 3.65% and is much lower than the average of Brewin Dolphin at 4.7% and SJP at a whopping 7.95%.

Regarding ongoing fees, these were reasonably expected to be 1.9% per annum, again, much lower than Brewin Dolphin and SJP which are both in excess of 2.7% per annum. It really is baffling how they get so many people through their doors every year with fees like those!

We are ecstatic to be able to say that our fees come in way below both Brewin Dolphin and SJP, but even better, far below what is expected to be reasonable in the marketplace.

We charge a tiered fee structure based on the amount of the investment, but the maximum initial upfront fee would be 2% reducing to 0% on investments over £2 million. As well as that, our initial fee is a maximum of 0.9% per annum. We like to think that we offer a much more personal and bespoke service than many other Financial Planners – so you could say we offer much more for much less.

 

Paula O'Reilly

September 24, 2019