A few months ago, a call came through to our office. It was from someone who wanted our advice who had found our information online.

Our team arranged him an initial meeting and sent him through a ‘introduction pack’ which includes biographies, our values, the guarantees we provide to our clients and (the important point in this story) the document explaining the cost of our services.

A couple of days after receiving the pack he cancelled his meeting. Highlighting the fact that he ‘didn’t appreciate the cost of financial advice’.

It’s interesting. Whilst certainly really good quality financial advice could never be considered a cheap service, it’s definitely a service which we know adds significant amounts of value when it comes to working with someone you trust.

We know that tax savings can be significant, making the right investment choices are important, saving time dealing with financial administration both removes hassle and give you time back to do something more important and much much more. We know that the clients who choose to work with us know the value we add…and appreciate it.

However it’s also important for us to be super transparent about the costs. It’s why you can find a breakdown of the costs of our advice here and are happy to send you, on demand, a glossy copy of our ‘our costs’ document.

We’re never going to be a ‘cheap’ service. Our intention is to deliver a high quality service, invest in the development of our people, and continue to work out better ways to support you on a deeper level.

Also, I don’t believe our clients want a ‘cheap’ service. We recognize the trust a client puts in us when they choose to work with us, and the fact that they’ve made this decision because of the quality of our service, not the cost.

However we’re all adults and having a transparent conversation about cost is important too. One of my personal core values is fairness. It’s one I hope you share and certainly my team at Cervello want to make sure we’re fair with everyone we work with.

It’s the reason we offer an initial meeting for free, and if we believe we can’t add value to a client, we turn them away. We simply won’t work with a client where we believe we don’t add enough value.

It does mean however that, if you choose to work with us, we’re fair and transparent about how much you’re paying and you can have an understanding about our fees before you ever speak to us (by looking at our costs page here).

By doing this, my hope and aspiration is that we continue to be the financial planner of choice for people looking for a high quality service, good value, fairness, transparency and care. 

As long as it’s not ‘cheap’.