1. Introduction

The purpose of this agreement is to set out the basis on which we will act for you and to clarify our respective responsibilities. As it sets out the detailed terms of a legal contract between us, please do not hesitate to contact us if anything is unclear, or you would like further explanation of any of the terms used.

You will be asked to sign to confirm you have read and understood the contents of this agreement and to agree they accurately reflect the general services that you have instructed us to provide.

2. Regulatory Obligations

Advance Investments Limited (including trading name PES Pensions) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Our Financial Services Register number is 195786.

We are an Independent Financial Adviser.  We will act on your behalf in advising you on products from the whole market.  Our permitted business is advising on and arranging savings and investment products, pensions and insurance contracts.

You can check this on the Financial Services Register by visiting the FCA’s website www.fca.org.uk/firms/systems-reporting/register or by contacting the FCA on 0800 111 6768.

We will observe and act in accordance with the principles, rules and guidelines of the FCA. We accept instructions to act for you on this basis.

Unless we notify you in writing to the contrary, we will treat you as a retail client, which means you will receive the highest level of protection afforded by the UK regulatory system.

You should note that certain financial products and services are not regulated by the FCA, which means clients purchasing them may not be entitled to the protection of the UK regulatory system. We will notify you in writing if this applies to any of the products or services we recommend to you, before you decide whether or not to proceed with their purchase.

3. Our Products and Services

Investment

Independent advice – we will advise and make a recommendation for you after we have assessed your needs. Our recommendation will be based on a comprehensive and fair analysis of the market.

Insurance

We offer products from a range of insurers for: Critical Illness Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, Mortgage Protection Assurance, Private Medical Insurance, Term Assurance.

We will advise and make a recommendation for you after we have assessed your needs for: Critical Illness Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, Mortgage Protection Assurance, Private Medical Insurance, Term Assurance.

4. Product Provider Security

We use all reasonable skill and care to protect your interests and monitor the security of the product providers with which we transact business using information available in the public domain. However, we can give no guarantee of the financial stability of a product provider and we accept no liability for any financial losses or increased costs suffered by you arising from their financial insecurity.

5. Payment for our Services

Investment: Advised

Introduction

The following information explains our charging structure and your payment options in general terms.

You will pay for our services on the basis of a fee, adviser charge, or a combination. In this agreement we refer to these as ’charge’ or ‘charges’.

You will receive a separate Client Fee Agreement which sets-out the investment services you require from us and the specific charges we will make for providing these.

We will discuss your payment options with you and answer any questions you may have.

Value Added Tax (VAT)  Depending on the precise nature of the services we provide to you, we may or may not be required to charge VAT.  We will confirm this to you as part of our engagement process.  Where our fees are taxable, they will be quoted to you on a VAT-exclusive basis and VAT will be added at the prevailing rate.  

The cost of our services

Initial consultation. We will provide you with an initial consultation with an adviser of up to 1 hour. This helps us to understand your financial circumstances, objectives and priorities and establish how we can help you.

We will cover the cost of this service.

Financial review, advice and recommendations. We will carry out a financial review, provide advice and make recommendations to you in line with your requirements. For example, some clients could require a full review, whereas others might want us to limit our advice and recommendations towards addressing a specific financial need.

As part of this process we will:

• Gather relevant information about your circumstances, objectives and priorities
• Establish the investment risk you are willing and able to take and recommend investment products that are appropriate to this
• Provide a concise and clear explanation of any costs, charges and potential penalties involved
• Explain clearly why and how our recommendations are suitable to meet your needs
• Prepare and issue a letter or report to you presenting our recommendations; and
• Arrange a follow-up appointment or telephone call to explain our recommendations in detail and answer any questions you might have about them

Our charge for this service will reflect the time, amount of research, level of expertise and responsibility involved and the fee will be payable when we issue a letter or report to you presenting our recommendations.  We will provide you with an approximate cost after the consultation stage when we fully understand your needs.  

Arranging lump sum investments and / or transfers. If you instruct us to proceed with the purchase of a product involving a lump sum investment and / or transfer, we will:

• Arrange the purchase on your behalf
• Handle all the associated documentation and administration
• Deal with any queries you might have, or which are raised by the product provider and / or third parties (in the case of transfers)
• Ensure the final product documentation is prepared in accordance with your instructions and is issued in a timely fashion; and
• Keep you appropriately informed throughout the process.

Our charge for this service is based on a percentage of the amount you invest / transfer:

This charge is subject to a minimum of £500.

Arranging regular contribution products. If you instruct us to proceed with the purchase of a product involving a regular contribution, we will:

• Arrange the purchase on your behalf
• Handle all the associated documentation and administration
• Deal with any queries you might have, or which are raised by the product provider
• Ensure the final product documentation is prepared in accordance with your instructions and is issued in a timely fashion; and
• Keep you appropriately informed throughout the process

Our charge for this service is up to 20% of the first year’s contribution – for example:

This charge is not subject to a minimum.  

Fees on a time-costed basis

It is possible to pay for our services on a time-costed basis as follows:

Director £200 per hour

Financial Consultant £175 per hour

Administration £50 per hour

These are actual rates and may be subject to VAT.  If you wish to pay for our services on this basis, we will provide you with an estimate of the cost in advance.  If VAT is applicable you will be informed when we provide your estimate. If you agree to proceed the number of hours we work on your behalf will be detailed for you and you will be notified upon completion of the work.  We will then issue an invoice and payment will be required from you within 7 days of receipt.  

Please note that if you choose to pay for our services on a time-costed basis, all additional services we provide to you or that you request from us such as (but not limited to) telephone calls, valuations, ad-hoc advice, enquiries and administration will incur a separate charge and we will invoice you for this.  Such individual services are likely to be subject to VAT.  

Compliance Fee  

If you instruct us to proceed with the purchase of a product involving a Discretionary Fund Manager, a compliance charge will be applied.  This fee is charged on an annual basis and is 0.2% of the fund value of your investment.  

Ongoing service

There will be an additional charge for any on-going work we carry out on your behalf.  This may include, but is not limited to, periodic or annual reviews; access to your adviser for guidance and advice; telephone calls; dealing with product providers on your behalf and any correspondence that may arise.  If you choose to take this service we charge a fee of up to 1% per annum of the value of your investments under management.  Your Client Fee Agreement will confirm the rate, frequency and length of this on-going service.  You may cancel the on-going service at any time by notifying us by email, letter or telephone.  

Your payment options

Charges for our service can be settled through a single payment, or you can pay these through your recommended investment product(s) via an ‘adviser charge’.

Settling your charge through a single payment

Whether you buy a product or not, you will be required to pay us a charge for our financial review, advice and recommendations service, which is payable on the completion of our work. Normally, this is when we issue a letter or report to you presenting our recommendations.

You will be required to settle the payment of your charge through a single payment within 7 days of receiving our invoice. We accept cheque payments. We do not accept payment by cash. You will be provided with a receipt upon payment.

Paying your charge through your recommended product

If you buy an investment product, you can choose to have your charge deducted from the product via an ‘adviser charge’. Although you pay nothing to us up front, this does not mean that our services are free. You still pay us indirectly through a deduction from the amount you pay into your product. This deduction settles the charge, but will reduce the amount left for investment.

Settling your charge by instalments

The option to pay your charge by instalments:

• Is only permitted where regular contribution investment products are recommended; and
• Does not relate to an ongoing service

Subject to these restrictions, if you buy an investment product, you can choose to have your charge deducted from the product through instalments via an ‘adviser charge’. Although you pay nothing to us up front, this does not mean that our services are free. You still pay us indirectly through deductions from the amount you pay into your product. These deductions will pay towards settling the charge. These deductions will reduce the amount left for investment.

Payment for on-going services

We offer an on-going service where we review your account every 12 months and inform you of new recommendations or changes that may be relevant to your circumstances. This service is provided at a charge of up to 1% of the value of your investment and can be either deducted from your investment or paid by annual direct debit.

The amount you pay will fluctuate with the value of your investment. If this increases in value, the amount you pay us will also increase – for example:

However, if your investment falls in value the amount you pay us will reduce – for example:

£40,000

If you have purchased a product which involves a Discretionary Fund Manager, a Compliance Fee will be added (as explained on page 4).  This would have the effect of increasing the annual charge shown in the example above by 0.2% to 1.2%. On an investment of £50,000 this increase the cost by an additional £100.  

Insurance

If we provide advice and a recommendation in relation to a protection product it is possible for us to be paid via a commission payment from the insurer.  If you are happy to proceed on that basis, we will not charge a fee for assessing your needs, advising and making a recommendation for you on: Critical Illness Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, Mortgage Protection Assurance, Private Medical Insurance, Term Assurance. We will be paid by commission from the insurer.

Alternatively it is possible for you to pay a fee for advice on a protection product and any commission that we receive from the insurer can be offset against the fee we have agreed.  

You will receive a quotation which will tell you about any other fees relating to any particular insurance policy.

6. Instructions

We require clients to give us instructions in writing, to avoid the risk of errors and omissions.

We will, however, accept oral instructions provided they are confirmed in writing.  

Any investment or insurance product is not in place until we have confirmed it to you in writing.

7. Cancellation Rights

In most cases you can exercise a right to cancel by withdrawing from the contract. In general terms you will normally have a thirty day cancellation period for a life, pure protection, payment protection or pension product and a fourteen day cancellation period for all other products.

Instructions for exercising the right to cancel, if applicable, will be contained in the relevant product disclosure information which will be issued to you.

If you cancel a single premium product, you may be required to pay for any loss you might reasonably incur in cancelling it which is caused by market movements. This means that, in certain circumstances, you might not get back the full amount you invested if you cancel the contract.

If you wish to cancel a contract, please contact us immediately.

8. Communications and Documentation

Unless agreed otherwise, all our communications with you will be in English.

All product documentation will also be in English – this will be prepared in accordance with your instructions and issued to you in a timely fashion. If we are dealing with a number of products on your behalf, we may hold some documents on a temporary basis until such time as everything can be sent to you. In these circumstances, any documentation in our possession will be held securely.

You should always check documentation to ensure all the details are correct – if this is not the case, please contact us immediately.

Documentation will confirm the basis of your investment or insurance contract and include details of the relevant provider. It is important that this is kept in a safe place as you may need to refer to your documentation (for example, in the event of a claim).   

9. Retention of and Access to Records

During the course of our work we will collect information from you and others acting on your behalf and will return any original documents to you following the preparation of our recommendations.

Unless you tell us not to, we intend to destroy correspondence and other papers that we store that are more than five years old, other than those records which the Financial Conduct Authority require us to retain indefinitely, or which we consider to be of continuing significance.

If you require us to retain any particular item you must notify us of that fact in writing. However, please be aware that we cannot hold original documents – such as birth certificates or policy schedules – on your behalf.

10. Client Money

Advance Investments Ltd is not permitted to handle client money. This means we cannot accept a cheque made out to us, or handle cash in connection with the purchase of an investment or insurance product or service. Payment should be made to the relevant product provider and we will supply you with appropriate details at the time of purchase.  The only exception relates to our own charges. We will send you an invoice for the amount due and accept cheques in settlement. You will be provided with a receipt upon payment.

11. Code of Ethics  

We are committed to setting, maintaining and supporting the highest professional standards in financial services. As such, our code of ethics requires our directors and staff to:

• Comply with the code and all relevant laws and regulations
• Act with the highest ethical standards and integrity
• Act in the best interests of each client
• Provide a high standard of service; and
• Treat clients fairly

12. Conflicts of Interest

We reserve the right during our dealings with you to deliver services to other clients whose interests might compete with yours or are / may be adverse to yours, subject to our normal confidentiality terms (see section 13 below).

We confirm that we will notify you immediately should we become aware of any conflict of interest involving us and affecting you, unless we are unable to do so because of our confidentiality obligations.

If a conflict of interest should arise, either between two or more of our clients or in the provision of multiple services to a single client, we will take such steps as necessary to deal with the conflict. We have safeguards in place to protect the interests of different clients if a conflict arises.

The rules of our regulator – the Financial Conduct Authority – prohibit us from accepting any payment (such as a commission or a non-monetary benefits) which is likely to conflict with our duty to our clients.

13. Confidentiality

We confirm that where you give us confidential information, we shall at all times keep it confidential, except as required by law or as provided for in regulatory, ethical or other professional statements relevant to our engagement.

14. Complaints

If you wish to register a complaint, please contact us:

….in writing Write to The Compliance Manager, Advance Investments Ltd, Courtyard Mews, Piccadilly Place, London Road, Bath BA1 6PL.

….by phone Telephone The Compliance Manager on 01225 338600.

Our internal complaints handling procedures for the reasonable and prompt handling of complaints is available upon request and if you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service  www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk  or by contacting them on 0800 023 4567.

15. Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)

We are covered by the FSCS. You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our obligations. This depends on the type of business and the circumstances of the claim.

• Investment: Most types of investment business are covered up to a maximum limit of £50,000; and

• Insurance: Insurance advising and arranging is covered for 90% of the claim, without any upper limit.

Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS (website www.fscs.org.uk).

However, as pointed out under section 2 of this agreement, certain financial products and services are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority which means clients purchasing them may not be entitled to the protection of the UK regulatory system – this includes the FSCS. We will notify you in writing if this applies to any of the products or services we recommend to you, before you decide whether or not to proceed with their purchase.

16. Applicable Law

This agreement is governed by, and construed in accordance with English law. The courts of England will have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any claim, dispute or difference concerning this agreement and any matter arising from it.

Each party irrevocably waives any right it may have to object to any action being brought in those courts, to claim that the action has been brought in an inappropriate forum, or to claim that those courts do not have jurisdiction.

If any provision in this standard agreement – or its application – are found to be invalid, illegal or otherwise unenforceable in any respect, the validity, legality or enforceability of any other provisions shall not in any way be affected or impaired.

17. Changes in the Law

We will not accept responsibility if you act on advice previously given by us without first confirming with us that the advice is still valid in light of any change in the law or your circumstances.

18. Force Majeure

Advance Investments Ltd shall not be in breach of this agreement and shall not incur any liability to you if there is any failure to perform its duties due to any circumstances reasonably beyond its control.

19. Internet Communication

Unless you instruct us otherwise we may, where appropriate, communicate with you and with third parties via e-mail or other electronic means. However, internet communications are capable of data corruption and therefore we do not accept any responsibility for changes made to such communications after their despatch.

We do not accept responsibility for any errors or problems that may arise through the use of internet communication and all risks connected with sending sensitive information relating to your financial affairs are borne by you. If you do not agree to accept this risk, you should notify us in writing that e-mail is not an acceptable means of communication.

It is the responsibility of the recipient to carry out a virus check on any attachments received.

20. Data Protection Act 1998

To enable us to discharge the services we have agreed and for other related purposes – including updating and enhancing customer records, analysis for management purposes and statutory returns, crime prevention and legal and regulatory compliance – we may obtain, use, process and disclose personal data about you.

We confirm that, when processing data on your behalf, we will comply with the relevant provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998.

In order to provide services to you we may be required to pass your personal data to parties located outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) in countries that do not have Data Protection Laws equivalent to those in the UK.

Where this is the case we will take reasonable steps to ensure the privacy of your information.

We may contact you or pass your data to other companies associated with us to contact you (possibly by telephone) for marketing purposes – for example, with details of products, services or promotions we think you might be interested in.

If at any time you wish us – or any company associated with us – to cease obtaining, using, processing and disclosing personal data about you (including contacting you for marketing purposes), please contact us:

….in writing Write to The Data Protection Officer, Advance Investments Ltd, Courtyard Mews,   Piccadilly Place, London Road, Bath  BA1 6PL

….by phone Telephone The Data Protection Officer on 01225 338600

Subject to certain exceptions, you are entitled to have access to your personal data held by us. You may be charged a fee (subject to the statutory maximum) for supplying such data.

21. Contracts (Right of Third Parties) Act 1999

Persons who are not party to this agreement shall have no rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any terms of this agreement. This clause does not affect any right or remedy of any person which exists or is available otherwise than pursuant to that Act.

The advice that we give you is for your sole use and is confidential to you and will not constitute advice for any third party to whom you may communicate it.  We accept no responsibility to third parties for any aspect of our professional services or work that is made available to them.

22. The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Money Laundering Regulations 2007

In common with all financial businesses, we are required by the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 to:

• Maintain identification procedures for clients and beneficial owners of clients
• Maintain records of identification evidence and the work undertaken for the client; and
• Report, in accordance with the relevant legislation and regulations

We have a duty under section 330 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to report to the National Crime Agency if we know, or have reasonable cause to suspect, that another person is involved in money laundering. Failure on our part to make a report where we have knowledge or reasonable grounds for suspicion would constitute a criminal offence.

The offence of money laundering is defined by section 340(11) of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and includes concealing, converting, using or possessing the benefit of any activity that constitutes a criminal offence in the UK.

It also includes involvement in any arrangement that facilitates the acquisition, retention, use or control of such a benefit.

We are obliged by law to report any instances of money laundering to the National Crime Agency without your knowledge or consent. In consequence, the firm’s directors or staff will not enter into any correspondence or discussions with you regarding such matters.

We are not required to undertake work for the sole purpose of identifying suspicions of money laundering. We shall fulfil our obligations under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 in accordance with the principles, rules and guidance published by the Financial Conduct Authority.

23. Agreement to our Appointment and Terms

Our appointment will start once you inform us that you want Advance Investments Ltd to act on your behalf.

This agreement supersedes any previous agreement for the period covered. The terms it contains take effect immediately you countersign the agreement and return it to us. If we are instructed to start work before receiving a signed copy of this agreement, we will treat your instruction as acceptance of all the terms of this agreement, unless we hear from you to the contrary within 30 days of you giving us that instruction.

You or we may agree to vary or terminate our authority to act on your behalf at any time without penalty. Notice of variation or termination must be given in writing.

Once it has been agreed, this agreement will remain effective until it is replaced.

Please confirm your acceptance of these terms by signing the enclosed copy of this agreement and returning it to us immediately. If this agreement and the terms it contains are not in accordance with your understanding of our terms of appointment, please let us know.