Before you are engaged as a client, a financial adviser must tell you and make it clear how much they will charge you. It is part of the strict set of rules that we must follow. It is very important that you fully understand any fees we charge and we are more than happy to discuss these with you. We will breakdown any one-off fees and fees for ongoing advice.

Our initial consultation is usually free, if it is not, we will tell you this before the consultation and will not spring on you any surprise fees in the appointment.

Some financial advisers charge per hour, however, we usually charge a fixed fee or a percentage of the value of your investments and or pensions. We will outline this and make it clear before you agree to proceed with any of our services.

Due to the ongoing fluctuations in values of existing investments and pensions, we may not be able to tell you exactly how much you’ll pay but are able to give you an indication.

If we do take any commission from any product providers, we will make this clear to you before you agree to the product.

As a reputable and highly rated financial adviser in Leeds (please see our client and Vouchedfor reviews here), we will tell you what services we offer and we can confirm that we are an independent financial adviser. The phrase ‘independent financial adviser’ has a specific meaning that is set out in the rules that financial advisers have to follow as stipulated by their regulator the financial conduct authority.

To be classed as independent, we must be able to offer an unbiased, broad range of retail investment products and offer consumers unrestricted financial advice based on a truly comprehensive and fair analysis of the whole market.

For your information, a ‘restricted’ financial adviser tend to only be able to offer a limited range of investment products or products from a limited number of providers. Therefore, a restricted financial adviser does not provide an unbiased service or range of products, which could limit the investment products they can offer you.

Just to make it clear, Clarity Wealth Limited is an independent financial advice company based in Leeds, offering financial advice to people across the UK.

The FCA increased the minimum standards of qualification in 2013, stating that all financial advisers have to meet this qualification to ensure their knowledge is up to date. Financial advisers now need to have a qualification called QCF Level 4 (Qualifications and Credit Framework). We also need an SPS (Statement of Professional Standing), which is renewed on a yearly basis. The SPS ensures that each year financial advisers must complete 35 hours per annum of continuing professional development. This regular study ensures that our professional knowledge is always up to date and is refreshed on a regular basis to demonstrate competency.

At Clarity Wealth Limited, our Director, principal and IFA, Richard Platt, has the Diploma for Financial advisers, which qualifies him to give pension, protection and investment advice in line with FCA requirements. In addition to this Richard also has an award in pensions transfers at level 6. He is also a member of the London Institute of Banking & Finance

Richard has worked in financial services since 2006 and started out as a banking adviser at Yorkshire Bank. Richard completed all the exams through his own study and qualified as a financial adviser in 2009 and has given financial advice since then. After qualifying in 2009 Richard worked at AXA where he gave financial advice across West Yorkshire via the Yorkshire bank network. In 2013 Richard decided to become self-employed within the true potential network as a partner giving independent financial advice to private clients. After 3 successful years in 2016, Richard set up his own directly authorised firm “Clarity Wealth Limited” where he is the Independent Financial adviser, director and Principal.  Throughout the course of his career, he has maintained and grown a loyal client following.

We are fully regulated, authorised and abide by all rules and regulations that the FCA set. Our FCA registered number is 758444 and you can check our FCA registration right here. Because we are FCA regulated, you have the peace of mind in knowing that you have access to the financial services ombudsman Service (FOS) and Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) if things go wrong.

Financial planning is basically all about your money and you. In financial planning, a financial adviser looks at your current financial position. This includes your pensions, investments, savings and all your assets. They will then listen to what your goals are now, for the medium term and for the rest of your life! This information will then help them to construct a financial plan for you that is suitable for your own individual circumstances. It is important that your spouse/partner is involved wherever possible as often these plans are joint and there can be tax advantages to the financial plan also.

A financial plan is the plotted course set out by your financial adviser, taking you from your current financial situation to where you want to be. It outlines what will need to take place to make it happen, using various options and levels of risk to get there. It should be relatively comprehensive.

Everyone’s financial plan is bespoke and designed specifically around their needs. Clarity Wealth Limited focus on the needs that are most important to you first. We cover a range of key areas when developing your financial plan, with the focus on making it as easy as possible for you to understand why we are planning to recommend particular courses of action. They include:

• Tax Planning
• Goal Planning
• Cash flow analysis planning
• Retirement Planning
• Income planning
• School/University fee planning
• Older Age & Estate Planning
• Inheritance tax planning
• Saving & Investment Planning
• Financial Forecasting
• Financial Organisation & Budgeting
• Emergency Fund
• Disaster planning
• Contingency planning
• Life & Critical illness protection
• Property Planning
• Family Financial Planning
• Financial Protection

As with many situations, people who have a plan are much more likely to reach and achieve their objectives. Let’s face it, money is very important in respect to the more of it you have, the more options you have and life goals you can accomplish. Therefore, ensuring you have a solid financial plan in place is crucial.

A financial plan allows you to focus on exactly what you need to do to achieve your goals by identifying any restrictions or obstacles that you need to overcome. Please be aware that cash flow modelling and financial planning use assumptions with respect to growth rates, inflation and spending patterns. These assumptions may not play out in reality. It is recommended that these plans are reviewed on a regular basis so that any shortfalls are addressed and revisited on a regular basis.

No, we are here to work with you and it is important to us that you feel you have our support throughout our relationship. Please be aware that there could be additional charges, depending on what you may need help with.  You will always be told of any charges in advance with absolute clarity, so you never have to worry about any hidden fees. If you have any concerns, please call or email us and we will do everything we can to help. We pride ourselves on responding to clients very quickly and we are passionate about ensuring you receive a great level of service.

This tends to be annually, depending on our client’s needs. It all depends on the level of service you have with us. All of our clients have a bespoke relationship with us as and we fully understand that they all have different needs.

Absolutely not. We feel that our service provides excellent value and hope you will never want to leave us. However, you are able to leave at any time. When we have our first meeting, we will explain that Financial Planning is a long-term project that is bespoke and designed around you and will evolve with you as you progress throughout your life. We will talk you through the benefits of utilising our services and offer insights into why we do things the way we do. Most of our clients never leave us and we truly hope you won’t either.

A core element in our service is the ongoing reviews that we undertake, as well as providing our initial recommendations. For example, within our wealth management service, this could take the form of an annual review to analyse the value of your existing financial investments and discuss any changes to your circumstances which may affect your finances. At this financial review, we will also make a fresh recommendation regarding your investment funds, risk analysis and we will assess the provider and make changes accordingly but always with your consent. You will receive a report explaining why we are making the recommendations. This will ensure we are regularly assessing the market for you and the suitability of your portfolio.

We will review changes in current tax rates and tax allowances. We will re-asses your income and expenses and your personal circumstances and will recommend what may or may not be appropriate for you based on all of these changes. We will signpost any improvements that we believe could be made to ensure you are utilising all the tax allowances in the most tax-efficient manner for your particular circumstances. In practical terms, this could be a change to how you structure your income or where to direct any savings contributions to. We will also review your risk profile too. You do not have to commit to using our ongoing service, however, if you do decide to, we will clearly explain all of the options and the costs involved so you are well informed.

We will help you to plan appropriately and sensibly for a secure retirement. We will get to know your finances in detail and your life objectives and will factor all of these into our planning for you. We use cash flow modelling and forecasting to help you plan with confidence and will include stress testing that will help ensure you have contingency plans in place for unforeseen disruptions to your plans.  Many clients find it difficult to explain what they want to achieve at first but as the initial meeting progresses and using our knowledge and experience we can help you understand and prioritise what is important to you and your family and will set you on a clear course of action.

At Clarity Wealth Limited, we like to get to know our clients, which we begin to do in greater details with an initial complimentary meeting. As we get to know you, we can then help you to identify your life goals. These always have a financial aspect to them. We then take this knowledge to create your bespoke financial plan, which shows how your goals can be achieved.

We will talk you through our process to help us decide how best to advise you and which investment and savings products are suitable and appropriate for you. As an unbiased Independent Financial Adviser, we will need to talk through your current provisions, plans and goals, as well as your attitude to risk and any future life changes that you are already aware of.

Our independent financial advice doesn’t always lead directly to a product sale. Clarity Wealth Limited’s role is to assess your financial needs and show you how to reach your goals. This is the service you pay for, rather than being dependent on you taking out a product.

Through our discussions with you and also by utilising specialist software and analysis tools for each of our clients, this enables us to assess your attitude to risk. We will then quantify with you your risk level in terms of asset structure and potential and likely returns. We also discuss your investment horizon and your level of comfort and understanding of risk. We will ensure you are satisfied with your risk profile before proceeding with any recommendations. Once all parties are satisfied with your agreed risk profile we then ensure that any recommended investments are aligned with this and updated on a regular basis.

Remember, you are entitled to ask any questions you like, it is your money after all. It is crucial that you have full confidence in us and we will actively encourage you to engage with us if your confidence is not 100%.

If you can’t find what you are looking for here, then perhaps it may be detailed somewhere else on our website. If you have looked already, then please feel free to contact us using any method that you prefer. Our ‘live chat’ is quite helpful and we can usually answer your questions quite quickly. If not, please just call us.

Our office is located in Horsforth, Leeds where we provide face to face meetings for potential and existing clients and we are able to offer our services across the UK through other means such as video calls via Zoom.

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Financial Adviser Horsforth
Financial Adviser Leeds