OUR SERVICES

01 PROVIDING INDEPENDENT ADVICE

We provide independent advice that is not restricted.

After we have assessed your needs, we will advise and make recommendations for you.
Our recommendations will be made on a comprehensive and fair analysis of the market.

Having worked with a wide range of clients in all areas of financial planning, being independent is how we believe financial advice should be provided. We feel that only by being independent can we deliver a comprehensive and fair analysis of the market for you.

We will provide you with a personalised research service. Over the years I have developed relationships with many companies and have been able to secure enhanced rates with many of these for my clients which greatly helps in keeping costs down. While we will research the whole of the relevant market directly for you, using various tools at our disposal this makes sure our service is of the highest quality and that it remains up-to-date and appropriate to meet your needs both now and in the future.

02 LOOKING AFTER OUR CLIENTS

We strongly recommend that clients check the progress of their plans once a year to make sure they’re still on track to meet their goals. Having a planning meeting means you don’t miss out on any of your allowances and you find out if you are affected by any changes in legislation or taxation.

Keeping you informed: We will only send you information which we feel is useful to you.

Plan review and valuation milestone: A milestone check ensures your plans are still on track to achieve your goals.

Personal safety net: This ensures that your income and assets are not affected by changes in taxation or legislation. We deliver this part via your next financial planning meeting, in the format that suits your lifestyle the best, such as face-to-face, by phone or using screen share technology. We will confirm your options in our Terms of Business and Authority to Proceed documents.

Virtually all of our clients select to take advantage of our Ongoing Service, this helps them to ensure that they are getting the best from their Investments and Pension plans and that the portfolio they are invested in is the most up to date that we are recommending.

All we ask is that when you would like to review your plans is that you contact the office (01622 618609) to arrange an appointment. Generally the review appointments are held at our office in Barham Court, Teston but we can also arrange to see you at your home, an online meeting or over the telephone if you prefer, if this is the case please request this when making the appointment.

Our clients have a review about once a year, this is important to review your financial situation formally but you can be sure that we will be regularly reviewing the investment and pension portfolios and contacting you if we think something should be discussed or altered. We will also keep you informed either via email or post if anything important crops up that you should be aware of, such as legislation changes or alteration to taxation rules.

03 OUR SERVICE AND WHAT WE DO

Investments

We provide individual personal advice on your investments, Castle has been advising on Investments for over twenty years and have considerable investment expertise. We work with you to ensure that your investment portfolio performs in line with your long-term financial plan. Looking to arrange the most suitable plan for you, taking into account your tax situation and the level of risk you would like to take. Helping you to achieve your goals is our goal.

Portfolio Design

Initially your investment will be placed in one of the Castle portfolios that matches the risk that you are willing to accept. You will at any point in time be able to change your risk profile and we suggest that you regularly review the level of risk you are willing to take to ensure you are always invested in the correct risk level.

We constantly review the funds we recommend; we decide which sectors we want to invest in, this is based on the economy at the time and our belief of what is likely to occur in the future. Meeting with fund managers, economists, and continual review of the economy by Castle Financial Services (South East) Ltd. and The Investment Committee enable us to structure an opinion of how the economy is most likely to perform in the future. The Investment Committee was set up in 2009 by myself and another Independent Financial Adviser, with a combined responsibility of Assets Under Management of in excess of £700 million. Each member of the committee controls and manages the assets within their company on behalf of their clients; our knowledge, experience and resources are shared in an effort to create a greater ability to research the whole markets place. Over time we have developed selection criteria to enable us to professionally filter the enormous range of funds in numerous sectors that are available to all Independent Financial Advisers. At Castle we will do our utmost to ensure that our advice works to your advantage and suits your needs. We will also ensure that we invest in a wide range of assets, diversifying your portfolio sufficiently helping to spread the investments across many different aspects so as not to “hold too many eggs in one basket”.

There is much more to Portfolio Design and Management than described in this brief section on our Website, this is a passion that John has worked on for over twenty years now and would be happy to discuss this with you if you wanted more information.

Retirement Planning & Pensions

We provide individual Retirement Planning advise for clients irrespective of their age, we have set up pensions for client’s children and grandchildren who are days old and have also advised clients on their options as they approach retirement.

It is really important to consider the options for your future, pensions are the most tax efficient way to plan for your retirement and are now so flexible and provide many options as to how to take the benefits from your pension plan. We look at your own circumstances and provide advise based on your plans for the future, tax situation and level of risk that you want to take, investing in assets and a portfolio that is suitable for you. It doesn’t matter if you are just setting up your pension, or you want to look at existing pensions and get advice on them, or if you are planning or in retirement, we can help.

Wealth Management

We help you by looking at the assets you have built up either over the years or maybe from a gift or inheritance. You may be unhappy with the way your savings and investments have performed, you may be concerned about tax, either now or in the future. You might be concerned about Inheritance Tax. All of the above and more are things we have advised on and helped our clients with, if you wanted to discuss any aspects of your savings and investments please contact us.

Inheritance Tax Planning

It is now not unusual or even that difficult to find yourself in a situation where you’re estate will break the threshold of Inheritance Tax. This doesn’t mean that there is nothing you can do and there are options for you to reduce or eliminate liabilities. This is a complex area and we work closely with clients to explore the various options and which ones that suit you, we have a great deal of experience in setting up suitable trusts to mitigate liabilities and assist you in reducing the tax burden. Please contact us so we can discuss how we can help.

Trust Advice

A Trust provides a legal protection for assets to ensure that they pass on to the correct person or persons at a set point in time or situation. Once a trust is set up this can mean that assets are passed on quickly, potentially speeding up the process particularly if the assets were to be transferred on death. Trusts can also potentially reduce or eliminate Inheritance Tax on those assets held inside the trust.

Income Planning

Organising an income from Savings and Investments can be complex and it is important to ensure that the most suitable methods are used to ensure that this is provided in the most tax efficient way and the income is sustainable. We have provided this advice for clients for over two decades and have provided advice based on each individuals needs making sure we arrange an income that can be provided for the period needed based on the level of risk that is desired. All our advice is provided for the individual client and is bespoke to your circumstances.

Financial Planning

We have been providing financial planning for our clients for over two decades, we do this by establishing what is required by you the client, analysing and assessing your financial situation, developing ideas, consulting you throughout the process to ensure we are developing the correct recommendations for you and finally advising you and implementing the financial planning recommendations. We consider all areas of financial planning, from protection, retirement planning, savings and investments and tailor our advice to meet your needs.

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A pension is a long-term investment. The fund value may fluctuate and can go down, which would have an impact on the level of pension benefits available. Pension income could also be effected by interest rates at the time benefits are taken.

The value of your investment can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount invested.