Churchouse Financial Planning, Independent Financial Advisers (IFA)

Welcome to Churchouse Financial Planning Limited

We are Chartered Financial Planners and Independent Financial Advisers (IFA) offering bespoke financial planning and advice for individuals, businesses and charitable trusts. Located in the High Street, Guildford, Surrey, (GuildfordIFA) we specialise in financial planning advice on Pension and Retirement Planning, including Pensions in Divorce and Self Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs), Investments, Insurance, Private Wealth Management, Tax Planning, Inheritance Tax Planning and overall Financial Planning.

We are happy to offer to work on a fee basis, commission basis or a combination of the two, whichever suites you best. An initial consultation, usually lasting approximately 1 hour, is at no charge and we can decide together in that time the way we can provide you with the appropriate advice and planning.

When working on a commission basis this usually requires the adviser to sell you a product and you have to buy said product to allow the adviser to be paid. This deal is sometimes ‘packaged’ under the heading of financial advice. This will also mean that when you meet your adviser for a review, they may not earn anything. Therefore, they may be keen to sell you something to make it worth their while. I have heard many clients say that they never really wanted to see their previous advisers because the hard sell would inevitably follow.

As an alternative, by working on a fee basis, the ‘deal’ for the advisers income has already been done, therefore there is no pressure to sell products. The subsequent financial advice may lead to a product sale, but only when it is required, rather than an objective for a sales person. The implementation of a pension or investment is a by-product of the process and may be arranged on a nil commission basis to ensure that double charging does not occur. Also, in the case of a review, you and your adviser can negotiate how this additional work is going to be paid for.

Keith Churchouse, director of Churchouse Financial Planning Limited, is a Fellow of the Personal Finance Society (FPFS), by examination from the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). Keith is also a Certified Financial Planner, Chartered Financial Planner and has a BA (Hons) degree in Financial Services. In addition, Keith was the 4th Adviser in the UK to achieve the certification of BS ISO 22222 Personal Financial Planner. He is also a Resolution Accredited Financial Neutral by examination (2006).

When considering their financial planning and wealth management, many clients have established their aspirations and objectives for the future. These plans can change as circumstances change and we recommend that you review your financial planning on a regular basis to ensure that your pensions, savings and investments are still in tune with your original (and changing) plans. Many feel that an annual review is appropriate, but personal changes can occur at anytime. However, don't forget that changes in legislation and investment markets can have an effect on what you want to achieve with financial services.

Using pensions as an example, a regular review is recommended to ensure that they are meeting your expectations and on target to meet your aspirations for the future. Having won a national pensions award (May 2007), we are well placed to help you with a review and to provide any additional recommendations if required. Let us know what you want to achieve in retirement and we will look forward to helping you with your financial planning strategy.

One 'planning tool' that should help with your investment or pension planning is asset allocation. This enables us to consider a spread of investment and pension funds over various sectors of the investment markets. This can provide diversity and the potential to reduce investment risk whilst helping to maintain returns.

We look forward to helping you with your independent financial planning. We thrive on the referrals our existing clients provide to us and hope that the service and advice that we offer meets your needs both now and into the future.