FAQs

How do I choose a service?

The service you choose depends on your requirements and whether you are looking for comprehensive financial planning, investment planning or “one off” advice on a particular aspect of your finances. We can help you choose the right service when we speak with you.

Is Evolve independent?

You can be assured of completely independent advice from Evolve as we do not work for a Bank, Insurance Company or Fund Manager. We are wholly owned by the Financial Planners who advise you. Our advice is not biased by commission

How safe is my money?

At Evolve we recognise that our clients’ assets must be held securely and therefore we generally recommend that you hold your investments via investment administration services provided large financial institutions. Your money will be held separately from the assets of Evolve and any other organisation. Naturally, some of the investments we recommend will carry investments risks but these will be fully explained to you.

How much will it cost?

The exact cost will be dependent on your circumstances, requirements and the service you choose and we will ensure you are 100% clear as to the costs before you become a client. Whichever service you choose, we are certain that it will offer great value and we are so convinced of this that we offer a guarantee that if you are not satisfied with your initial Financial Plan we will refund whatever proportion of the fees paid that you see fit.

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, strategic financial planning and investment advice to the increasing number of young high earners who hadn’t yet become “High Net Worth”, whatever HNW might mean.

Please can you explain how your No Quibble Guarantee works?

We are fully aware that value of a financial planning service can only be appreciated once you have started the process and therefore committed to it financially. It’s not like buying a car, say, where you can touch and feel the item that you are spending your money on. We are very open and honest with potential clients about whether we feel we can add value both now and into the future and will only take on clients for whom we believe we can add significant long-term value. However, this is based on our opinion, not yours!

Therefore, we offer a no quibble money back guarantee whereby if you are not 100% happy with your initial Financial Plan (which we would expect to have prepared within the first 2-3 months of the relationship) and do not feel that it demonstrates that we can add sufficient value to you and your finances to warrant our service, we will refund fees paid up to that point and agree to part company amicably.

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 really. 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 give you independent financial planning and investment advice. A good private banker will be much more valuable to you than a bad financial planner and vice versa of course.

Why should I pay for ongoing advice?

It's a bit like going to the dentist really. 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.

Note that we are also happy to quote for "one off" advice in certain circumstances. If this is your preference, please let us know.

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 1804, 1904 or 2004. Our financial planners are amongst the best qualified advisers 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 Evolve expect to 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.

Evolve’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.

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.

Is the first meeting free?

The first meeting is an investment of your time and ours. It is an opportunity to have an adult 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.

No 1 Liverpool Street – that sounds like an expensive office?

Far from it. Our clients are more than aware that if we have a luxurious office they are paying for this out of their fees. Our office is a “serviced office” which gives us a convenient City location at a reasonable cost. Our financial planners spend their time between the Liverpool Street office and their home offices. We find that this is an extremely efficient, flexible and enjoyable way of working.

To request more information or to book a meeting, click here.>>