This document sets out the terms under which we agree to act for you and contains our regulatory and statutory responsibilities. It also sets out some of your responsibilities.
Commencement/Termination
The provisions of these Terms of Business will take effect immediately that they are provided to you and will continue in force until they are cancelled by you or us, or they are replaced by updated Terms of Business.
Investor Profile Ltd
Our registered address is: 230 Acre Lane, Northampton, NN2 8DX.
We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). We are listed on the FSA register and our Registration Number is 481396. You can check this, and our address, on the FSA’s Register by visiting the FSA’s website www.fsa.gov.uk/register or by contacting the FSA on 0845 606 1234. We are permitted to advise on and arrange financial products on a whole of market basis.
Client Classification
We have classified you as a “retail client”. This means that you are afforded the greatest level of protection available under the Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA).
You have the right to request a different categorisation, however this may result in the loss of some of the protections available under the FSMA.
The FSA may not regulate all investments referred to on our website, which means the protection available under the Financial Services and Markets Act may not apply when dealing with non-regulated investments.
Communicating with you
We will normally communicate with you by post or e-mail, or where necessary by telephone. This may include proactive communication.
We may communicate with you by e-mail, which may include electronic data. By consenting to this method of communication we and you accept the risks involved regarding unauthorised access, interception, corruption, and the risk of viruses or other harmful devices although we and you will be responsible for taking all reasonable steps to mitigate such circumstances.
Please note that you cannot assume instructions sent to us by e-mail have been processed until you receive our confirmation.
We may retain details of communications with you for our records and regulatory purposes. In the case of any dispute we may rely on such records.
Our Services – Advisory
We offer an independent financial advice service, which means we are authorised to give advice from the whole market. Our advisory services will focus on arriving at a solution that best meets your needs and circumstances. Any recommendations made are based purely on the information discussed with you and disclosed by you. For this reason we may need to operate on a ‘limited information, limited advice’ basis if we feel this is necessary from time to time, however we will inform you if this is the case.
Conflicts of Interest
Occasions can arise where we, or one of our other clients, will have some form of interest in the business that we are transacting for you. If this happens, or we become aware that our interests conflict with your interests, we will inform you in writing and ask for your consent before we carry out your instructions. We maintain a Conflict of Interest Policy which enables us to identify and manage conflicts and potential conflicts of interest. The policy is designed to ensure that you are provided with an appropriately independent level of service by putting in place appropriate procedures, supervision and monitoring techniques. Further details of the policy are available upon request.
Remuneration – Advisory
We want to be as open as possible on the charges we make so that you may decide for yourself more easily whether our service is right for you. For this reason we set out in plain terms what we charge.
Advisory Fees:
£40 – Investment Surgery
£250 – Investment Recommendation Report
£250 – Retirement Planning Report
£250 – Inheritance Tax Planning Report
£750 – Financial Planning Report
£1,500 – Lifetime Planning Report
£2,500 – Life Changing Report
Portfolio Management Fees:
0.00% – Initial
0.50% – Annual; or
1.00% – Annual
Refunds Policy
Investor Profile reserves the right to retain any fees paid by you.
Client Money
Investor Profile does not handle client money. We will not handle cash or accept cheques made payable to us for money that is intended for investment by you.
Quality of Service
If you have any complaint about the service you receive from us please write to: Compliance Oversight Officer, Investor Profile Ltd, 230 Acre Lane, Northampton, NN2 8DX. If, after we have reviewed your complaint you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Copies of our complaints procedures are available on request.
Investor Profile maintains a professional indemnity insurance policy for the protection of clients in the event of any negligence by any member or employee of Investor Profile. Details of this, including the current limits of indemnity, are available on request.
Investor Profile accepts no liability for products or investments made or purchased via any other company or broker and does not provide advice as to the suitability of new investments unless you specifically ask us to do so during an advisory session.
Are we covered by the FSCS?
Yes we are which means you may be entitled to compensation from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme if we are unable to meet our obligations. This depends on the type of business and the circumstances of the claim. Most types of investment business are covered for 100% of the first £30,000 and 90% of the next £20,000 so the maximum compensation is £48,000. Further information about the compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS website at www.fscs.org.uk.
Risk factors
We will write to you separately regarding any specific risk factors that apply to the service we provide for you. You should be aware that the past performance of investments is no indicator of future performance and that the value of investments can go up or down, which means you may not get back the full amount invested.
Money Laundering
Where we are required to verify your identity in accordance with the FSA rules, no investment will be made until such verification has been obtained. If the required verification is not forthcoming within a reasonable period we will not arrange any investment for you.
We may use and search the records of credit reference or fraud prevention agencies to check your identity to satisfy the requirements of the UK Money Laundering Regulations 2007, the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (as amended), the Terrorism Act 2000, the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 and FSA rules.
Such searches will not affect your credit rating. Where such searches prove unsatisfactory for this purpose, we may ask you to supply at least one document to verify your identity and/or address.
Documentation
All investments will be registered in your name unless otherwise agreed in writing. Unless you instruct us in writing to the contrary, we will forward to you all contract notes and documents showing ownership of your investments as soon as practicable after we receive them.
Personal Information
Personal information provided by you may be maintained on computer and paper records, where you consent to us or any company associated with us for processing, both manually and by electronic means, your personal data for the purposes of providing advice, administration and management. Investor Profile Ltd is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office for the purposes of complying with the Data Protection Act 1198.
Your personal information will be held in electronic form using web-based service providers and remote hosting servers. By agreeing to these terms of business we and you accept the risks involved regarding unauthorised access, interception, corruption, and the risk of viruses or other harmful devices although we and you will be responsible for taking all reasonable steps to mitigate such circumstances.
The information Investor Profile holds will not be disclosed to other parties except representatives of our compliance advisers, our auditors, third party investment providers, third party product providers, or other selected third party organisations under exceptional circumstances, as well as any organisation requiring access to such information for regulatory purposes only, or any person having a legal entitlement to access.
We may from time to time use the information that we hold about you to contact you by post, telephone or e-mail to bring your attention to products, services or information that we feel you may benefit from.
All cheques, documents of title, etc, may be sent by post to your latest known address and shall be sent at your own risk. The Recorded Delivery service will not normally be used.
Future Changes
In accepting these Terms of Business, you agree that we may change the future content without receiving your prior consent to do so, but we will not conduct any investment business for you following any change unless we have given you reasonable notice, unless it is impractical to do so.
Cancellation
These Terms of Business may only be cancelled and our authority to act on your behalf may only be terminated in writing, at any time, without penalty, by either party and with immediate effect without prejudice to the completion of transactions initiated prior to receipt of such notice. Other than as stated in this paragraph, there are no cancellation rights that apply to these Terms of Business.
However specific cancellation rights do apply to certain products available through our service. Clients will be entitled to a 30 days cancellation notice period for all SIPP and ISA contracts whether opening a new account or transferring existing investments to our service. More details regarding the cancellation rights of individual products can be found in the product Key Features document, which is made available prior to investment. Clients will not be entitled to receive cancellation rights in relation to unit trust purchases, whether inside or outside of a product wrapper such as an ISA or SIPP.
Law
English law will be the basis of this contract and the language in which this contract will be interpreted, and in which all communications will be conducted, will be English. The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 shall not apply to this Client Agreement.
