Independent Financial Advisors - IFA Bolton, UK

Frequently Asked Questions

The following list is by no means exhaustive so if there is anything you would specifically life to ask us prior to deciding whether to meet one of our financial planners, please contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

What is your minimum portfolio size?

We have deliberately not imposed one. When we first set up the business, we realised that there were very few professional financial planning firms offering high quality, holistic advice to the increasing number of young high earners who hadn’t yet become ‘High Net Worth’ (HNW), whatever HNW might mean. There is therefore no minimum portfolio size however, our services are best suited to those with family income of £100,000 per annum plus or investments of £250,000.

How is a financial planner different from a wealth manager, IFA or private banker?

There isn’t a difference, just lots of different names for the same thing. A private banker may well be able to recommend an ‘in house’ bank account for you, which we can’t do, but other than that all of the above should be able to provide you with independent financial planning and investment advice.

Why should I pay for ongoing advice?

It’s a bit like going to the dentist. There might be some fairly major work at your first appointment but if you stick with the same dentist year on year and have regular check ups, further major surgery should be avoided. This improves long-term results and should also reduce long-term costs. Chopping and changing is never a good thing.

You are a relatively new organisation. Wouldn’t I be better off with a more established firm?

It is really a question of trust. Do you trust your financial planner personally and do you trust the ethics of the organisation they work for? In reality, you will have to meet us to make this decision, but if the answer is yes then it doesn’t really matter whether the business was founded in 1800, 1900 or 2000. Our financial planners and support staff are amongst the best qualified in the profession and we would hope that as you navigate our website you will get a good feel for our corporate ethics.

How can a relatively small company like Independent Financial Advisor Limited compete with all of the big private banks and wealth managers in terms of knowledge and information?

Firstly, we invest a significant amount of our time understanding you, what your objectives are, what your current financial position is and what your future is likely to look like. Our service is highly personalised and we do not try to pigeonhole you into a one-size-fits-all solution as many larger firms will do.

Independent Financial Advisor’s financial planners have extensive knowledge of all aspects of financial advice, including investments, pensions and tax planning but most importantly, are able to apply this to your individual circumstances. We believe that such skills are in very short supply.

There are less than 1,000 Chartered Financial Planners in the UK and Independent Financial Advisor Ltd are in the enviable position of boasting a team of advisers who all hold this prestigious title, ensuring that the financial planner you meet is suitably qualified to deal with your individual financial affairs.

Our view is that it would make very little difference to your personal financial success if we had a highly paid team of economists and strategists trying to predict the future direction of markets or interest rates. We recommend that you read the investment section of our website for further information on this aspect of our approach.

How do we calculate your fees?

These are calculated as a percentage of investable assets. The level of investable assets is often open to interpretation and we are usually happy to agree an initial fee that works in your favour until a longer-term picture has been finalised. We would be happy to give you an idea of this before we meet if this would be helpful.

Is the first meeting free?

The first meeting is an investment of your time and ours. It is an opportunity to have a discussion about mutual profitability and to agree whether to take the relationship forward or not. Your time is as valuable as ours and for this reason we do not make a charge.

How will I benefit from working with you?

Whether our role is to manage your investments, increase the tax-efficiency of your finances, advise you on pensions, make sure you are getting the most out of work benefits, help you to decide what is important to you in life, or a combination of the above, ultimately it is up to you to decide whether you get good value for money. We work on the concept of mutual profitability and if we don’t feel that our services will offer you good value for money, we will tell you politely.