Terms of Business

Introduction

This agreement sets out the terms under which our services are to be provided.

Investments

We offer independent investment advice. This means that we consider a wide range of financial strategies and products. We are constantly reviewing the market to ensure that the services and products we offer are appropriate for our clients.

Where we recommend particular investment strategies and products to you, these will be selected based on your personal circumstances, financial goals and objectives.

Please note that we don't usually provide advice in relation to directly held individual shares, options, futures and other derivative contracts. We don't provide advice on them as we believe that they are unlikely to be suitable for the majority of our clients however we will provide generic advice where applicable. If you need individual advice we recommend that you refer to a stockbroker.

Non-investment protection contracts

We are an Insurance Intermediary and act on your behalf. Where we provide advice on protection contracts including life insurance, critical illness and income protection this will be based on a fair and personal analysis of the market.

Financial planning and how we charge for it

For any aspect of our financial planning, all actual charges and fees will be fully disclosed to you. We will not charge you until we have discussed your payment options and agreed with you on how we are to be paid. We will also let you know if there are any other costs that might arise in connection with the services we provide to you.

Our charges/fees will be VAT-exempt unless the work we provide for you only involves advice and/or preparing a report, in which case VAT may be applicable. We will always tell you if you have to pay VAT before we undertake any work for you. Charges for the ongoing service will not be liable to VAT (unless the initial service was liable to VAT) where both the initial and ongoing services are part of the same package.

Investment Planning

Investment Planning - Initial charges

Our charges relating to new work; for example where we take-on a new client, advise on new investments or the suitability of existing investments, are as follows:

Initial meeting

We charge our fees in two distinct ways.

• A fixed fee to produce Your Financial Plan
• An implementation fee to invest your money

Producing your financial plan

We would typically charge a fixed fee of £2,000, for both an individual or a couple, to build and present an initial financial plan. This fee can however typically vary between £1,500 and £2,500 depending on the estimated time to build the plan; the number of arrangements to be modelled; the complexity of the client's overall financial situation; and the number of different scenarios to be modelled. The cost will be agreed with you in advance of work commencing. Please note that these fees will be subject to VAT, meaning that our typical fee payable would be £2,500 but could vary between £1,800 and £3,000.

The production of your financial plan is an optional first step in the advice process that is suitable for clients wishing to obtain a holistic understanding of their financial position and the likelihood of them being able to achieve their future goals. For clients looking simply for advice on lump sum investments, or the transfer of existing arrangements, the production of an initial financial plan is not a mandatory part of the advice process.

Implementation of lump sum investments, including the transfer of existing arrangements

Our implementation charge, which may for example cover the transfer of existing plans to a more suitable solution or the investment of new monies, would be 1.5%, subject to a minimum of £1,000 and a maximum of £10,000. As an example of how our charges could apply: -

• If you invested or transferred £25,000, our fee would be our minimum fee = £1,000
• If you invested or transferred £200,000, our fee would be 1.5% of £200,000 = £3,000
• If you invested or transferred £500,000, our fee would be 1.5% of £500,000 = £7,500
• If you invested or transferred £1,000,000, our 1.5% fee would be capped at our maximum = £10,000.

Where implementation involves advice given to a couple, our minimum fee is reduced by 25%. For example, if we have recommended a husband and wife each make an ISA lump sum contribution of £20,000, the minimum fee will be reduced from £2,000 to £1,500.

Where we have provided you with a Suitability Report detailing the research undertaken and our recommendations, and you decide not to proceed, we will charge you our minimum fee of £1,000 to cover our costs.

Advising on and arranging specialist investments, such as VCTs, EISs, BPR

For specialist investments, such as arranging a VCT, EIS or BPR investment, our implementation charge would be 2.5%, subject to a minimum of £1,500 and a maximum of £10,000. As an example of how our charges could apply: -

• If you invested £25,000, our fee would be 2.5%, and in this case would be our minimum fee = £1,500
• If you invested £200,000, our fee would be 2.5% of £200,000 = £5,000.
• If you invested or transferred £500,000, our fee would be 2.5% of £500,000, which would be our maximum fee = £10,000

Again, where we have provided you with a Suitability Report detailing the research undertaken and our recommendations, and you decide not to proceed, we will charge you our minimum fee of £1,500 to cover our costs.

Paying our initial charges

Our charges are payable on completion of our work and must be settled within 14 business days.

Investment Planning - Regular contributions

Where you invest in a regular contribution contract, where for example pension contributions are made every month, the cost for our service is £1,000. Our normal approach is for the payment to be paid in full from the first one or two months contributions and typically over a maximum of three months. The exact details of any arrangement will be confirmed to you in writing, and an example of this is detailed below: -

This example shows how this works for a £750 per month savings/pension product.

• The £1,000 charge is funded by a £750 deduction in month one, meaning that none of the initial contribution is invested. The balance of the adviser fee due is £250.
• In month two, a £250 deduction is made to pay the outstanding balance of the adviser fee. The remaining £500 is invested.
• From month three onwards, the full amount of £750 is invested.

Where you are paying our charge by instalments, if the regular contributions to your plan are cancelled before the charge has been paid in full, we reserve the right to request full payment of any outstanding balance of the charges for our services. Again, our minimum charge will be reduced by 25% where advice is given to a couple rather than an individual,

Our ongoing service/charges

The ongoing suitability of any products we have arranged for you will only be kept under review as part of an agreed ongoing service for which you agree to pay. Any ongoing service will be agreed with you and confirmed in our service agreement.

We can offer you three levels of ongoing service designed to provide periodic suitability reviews to ensure that recommended products remain relevant to your circumstances. Where we have agreed to undertake a periodic suitability review this will be done on at least an annual basis.

The minimum and maximum charges detailed in the above table will apply to both a couple, as well as an individual receiving advice. Where a minimum or maximum charge applies to a couple, this is typically apportioned 50/50 between the two individuals.

Description of service elements

Suitability Review

A review of your current financial situation, goals and objectives, attitude to risk and capacity for loss and a review of the continued suitability of your investments. A suitability report will be issued summarising our recommendations.

Six Monthly Meetings

An annual review as detailed above, with an additional bi-annual call held via Teams/Zoom to review progress.

Update of CashFlow Forecast

A review of your cashflow analysis to provide a high-level analysis of your current and projected financial situation, against your objectives.

Update of ScoreMy report

A review of your current levels of satisfaction and awareness across ten key areas of the financial planning process,

Valuation of investments.

Clarity provided regarding the current value of any investments/tax wrappers held.

Portfolio Review/Changes

We will review your portfolio to ensure this remains aligned with your ongoing objectives. Where necessary, we will realign your portfolio and recommend any fund switches.

ISA Utilisation & tax planning

Utilising your ISA allowances from existing holdingstransferring assets from taxed holdings to tax-privileged holdings to make use of your annual allowance as it arises (where suitable and appropriate). Utilising your CGT allowances. Other tax planning such as reclaiming of the personal allowance via pension contributions.

Financial Coaching

Mindset and financial behaviour coaching. Goal setting and financial prioritisation. Debt reduction and management.

Online Access

We will provide you with access to our client portal and arrange for you to access your information on your provider's platform (if available).

Legislative and Industry Updates

We will provide a regular newsletter highlighting topical industry updates and information

Review income requirements

We will regularly review your income needs and suggest the most tax efficient way to meet them.

'What-if' update of CashFlow Forecasting

Full CashFlow refresh undertaken to model multiple scenarios as agreed with the client as part of the review process.

Estate Planning Analysis

Review your financial situation and highlight any potential inheritance tax liability.

Professional Adviser Liaison

With your permission, we will liaise with your professional partners (Accountants/Solicitors) to support their advice and services to you

Project work fees.

We usually charge based on a percentage of assets for initial work and where we are providing an ongoing advisory and wealth management service. We may charge hourly rates where we are requested to produce one-off pieces of work. Where we use or refer to hourly rate fees the current rates used are as follows;

• Administrator: £30 per hour: Responsible for sending out paperwork, requests for information and providing additional administrative support.
• Para-planner: £125 per hour: Analysing information received and undertaking initial research based on the individual project criteria
• Adviser: £250 per hour: Responsible for conducting all fact-finding and constructing your financial solution.

You may ask us for an estimate of how much in total we might charge. You may also ask us not to exceed a given amount without checking with you first.

Protection Planning

Our advised protection planning services are suitable if you are looking for the best way to protect yourself, your family, or your business through products such as critical illness cover, health insurance and life cover.

Payment for our advised protection services is generally made by a commission payable by the product provider, which is a percentage of the annual premium.

Where we are paid by commission, we will tell you the amount before we carry out any business for you.

Our Obligations

Recommendations

We will confirm to you in writing the basis of our recommendations along with details of any special risks associated with the products recommended. Before making any recommendations, we will carry out a suitability assessment so that we are able to act in your best interests.

Where we agree to provide you with a service that includes an ongoing review of the suitability of the investments we have recommended, we will carry out this review at least annually. To do this we will need to contact you to assess whether the information we hold about you remains accurate and up to date. We will issue you with a report setting out the results of our assessment and, if relevant, any updated recommendations.

We may, where appropriate, recommend that some, or all, of your investments are managed by a Discretionary Fund Manager (DFM), a professional investment manager appointed to monitor your portfolio and make investment decisions on your behalf. A DFM operates on a discretionary basis which means that your consent is not required where a change to your portfolio is made. The DFM must ensure that any changes made are within the investment mandate agreed with us.

Where we recommend a DFM service this may be arranged on an 'agent as client' basis. This means that you appoint us to act as your agent and the DFM treats us as their client rather than you. Therefore, you will not have a direct contractual relationship with the DFM which means you will have no access to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) relating to any acts or omissions of the DFM.

By signing this document, you are appointing us as your agent and providing us with the authority to appoint a DFM to manage some or all of your investments on a discretionary basis. Where we enter into an agreement with you on this basis our responsibilities are:-

• Collecting information on your financial and personal circumstances including your risk profile, ability to bear losses and investment objectives
• Recommending a suitable product and/or service
• Assessing the suitability of the DFM service
• Monitoring the investment decisions of the DFM

Similarly, the responsibilities of the DFM will be:-

• Ensuring your investments are managed on a discretionary basis in line with your agreed risk profile, investment objectives and the agreed investment mandate.

Best execution

Where we send investment applications on your behalf to third parties (e.g. to put an investment into force), we'll take all sufficient steps to ensure that we obtain the best possible result for you. This is referred to as 'best execution'.

We have a best execution policy. If you wish to see a copy, please ask us.

Conflict of interests

We have a conflicts of interest policy which is available upon request and if we identify any conflict of interest we will inform you.

Communicating with you

We may communicate with you by telephone, post, e-mail or in person. In certain circumstances, we may ask you to confirm any instructions in writing prior to implementation. All our communications with you will be in English.

Your Obligations

Our advice will be based on the information that you give so it's important that you provide us with accurate and up to date information when we request details about your circumstances and objectives. This will allow us to provide you with suitable advice. If the information you provide is inaccurate or if you limit the information provided this could affect the suitability of the advice we give.

Cancellation and amendments

Ending this agreement

We may terminate this agreement by giving you at least 20 business days' written notice. You may terminate this agreement at any time, without penalty. We will give notice of termination in writing and will take effect 20 business days from the date the letter was issued. Any transactions already initiated will be completed according to this agreement unless otherwise agreed in writing. You will be liable to pay for any services we have provided before cancellation and any outstanding fees, if applicable.

Ongoing services can be cancelled at any time by simply informing us but please note that we reserve the right to charge you for services provided prior to cancellation.

Product cancellation rights

If you cancel a single premium contract, you may be required to pay for any loss you might reasonably incur in cancelling it which is caused by market movements..

How you are protected

Intellego Financial Planning Ltd is an appointed representative of Sense Network Limited, Brookdale Centre, Manchester Road, Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 0SR which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, 12 Endeavour Square, Stratford, London, E20 1JN.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) does not regulate all forms of financial advice, including for example, advice on bank deposits, Auto-Enrolment pension schemes and tax avoidance schemes.

Sense Network Limited's Financial Services Register number is 465124. Our Financial Services Register number is 1021807. Sense Network Limited's permitted business is advising on and arranging pensions, savings and investment products, non-investment insurance contracts and mortgages. You can check this on the Financial Services Register by visiting the FCA's website or by contacting the FCA on 0800 111 6768.

Intellego Financial Planning Ltd is an agent of Sense Network in respect of advice which is regulated by the FCA. Intellego Financial Planning Ltd is not an agent for Sense in respect of advice not regulated by the FCA.

Sense Network will not be liable for any losses that may arise from advice in relation to non-regulated advice. In some circumstances, these may also mean that you will not have recourse to statutory protection schemes such as the FSCS or the FOS.

Unless we notify you in writing to the contrary, we will be treating you as a retail client. This means that you are afforded the highest level of protection under the regulatory system and should have the right to take any complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Complaints

If you are dissatisfied with a recommendation we have made, you are entitled to make a complaint. We have a complaints procedure that is available on request. If you wish to register a complaint, please contact us:

In writing:

The Compliance Director, Sense Network Limited, Brookdale Centre, Manchester Road, Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 0SR.

By phone:

01565 658 840

By e-mail:

Complaints@sense-network.co.uk

Please be assured we treat complaints seriously. For your further protection if you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service ('FOS'). Full details of the FOS can be found on its website at www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk.

Financial Services Compensation Scheme

We are also covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme ('FSCS'). You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our obligations. This depends on the type of business and the circumstances of the claim.

We may also, on occasion, advise on other financial products which are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The Financial Services Compensation Scheme does not apply to any of these products.

Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS at www.fscs.org.uk/consumer.

Client money

We are not permitted to handle client money and we cannot accept a cheque made out to us or a similarly named account or Sense Network (unless it is in respect of an item for which we have sent you an invoice) or handle cash.

Please note that Sense will not be liable for any losses which you may sustain because of your failure to observe this important protection.

General

Jurisdiction

This agreement is governed by and should be interpreted in accordance with English and Welsh law and you agree to submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English and Welsh Courts.

Insurance related

Providing information to your insurer

Your insurance / protection cover is based upon the information you provide to the insurance company. Where you are buying insurance as an individual, this means that you must take 'reasonable care' to answer all questions asked by the insurer fully and accurately. Failure to provide accurate and up to date information may invalidate your insurance cover and mean that a claim may not be paid.