Fees v Commission

At first glance, paying by commission may appear tempting because you don't have fork out a lump sum up front. But it can affect the long-term return on your investment.

Paying by commission does not mean an adviser's service is free. Instead, you are paying indirectly through extra product charges, which pay for their commission. These charges reduce the amount of money left for investing.



In our experience the majority of financial advisers are more focused on trying to sell, arrange or implement new financial products. After all, that is how they get paid. And once they have received their initial commission, there is no real incentive to make sure their recommendations are working for you. In fact, their biggest incentive is to get you to switch investments or buy another product.

At Brett Investment, we are fee based, meaning that we work for you and not for the  financial institution whose products we may be recommending.

Being fee based means we provide truly objective advice. We have a strong incentive to minimise your costs and maximise your account value as this aligns our interests with yours. After all, the only way our fees can grow is if the size of your account grows.

Our pricing structure is based around the value we deliver, not the time we spend on providing services. 



All fees, expenses and transaction charges are fully disclosed and clearly accounted for.

Our fee includes personal cash flow forecast, consolidation, unlimited meetings, liaison with professional advisors and a lifetime relationship - all for less than the cost of an average UK unit trust fund. We only use investment funds, custodians and financial products which are commission free, and always negotiate with fund managers to reduce costs where possible.

Our fees are described in full within our Client Agreement, which you will receive at our Discovery Meeting.

The introduction in the next couple of years of the Retail Distribution Review, which recommends that commission be banned and instead be replaced by ‘adviser charging’, will force IFA firms to change their business models. At first they will change in order to survive but, in time, more and more will look to embrace lifestyle-linked financial planning.