Pensions & Divorce for Solicitors
If your client has asked you to recommend an IFA to advise them on their pension and divorce matters, who do you recommend and why? Are you confident the recommended IFA will enhance your brand, and the client will not end up blaming you?
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We are happy to conduct our meetings with your client at your office in your presence.
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Richard came from the accountancy profession, and so have a similar professional approach to solicitors, especially in charging fees rather than commissions, and putting the client’s best interests first.
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Of course, if we prepare a pensions report, our duty to the Court will override the client’s perception of his or her short-term tactical advantage, but we take the view that the client is best to have an unbiased expert report by which we can and will stand.
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We expect and encourage our clients to pay us on a fee, rather than commission, basis. Wexdon is of the opinion that a fee based approach is best, as it will drive out the small number of advisors who are over influenced by their remuneration from commissions. It also sits well with judges, as and when they have to decide which expert to prefer. In many divorce cases, one party will have been the high earner, who has built up the pension pot. The other party needs a good expert’s report analysing not only the value and best options, but a follow-through commitment to arranging the pension element of the settlement or Ancillary Relief Order for suitable growth until retirement.
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Unlike most IFAs, we are happy to tender for your client’s work. This works to protect the reputation of the Solicitor as it is the client who chooses which IFA they prefer.
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In appropriate cases, we will give a second opinion.
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Whilst most clients take minimum professional standards as “a given” in Regulated industries and professions, a team with shared values, working positively together, can achieve much more, more quickly and efficiently. Football provides an analogy. A Premier Division Team playing together each week can easily beat a side comprising the 11 individual best players in the world. At Wexdon, we are happy to work as part of a cohesive team lead by the lawyers (as divorce is a legal process). We aim to enhance the brand of all the professionals in the team. We want good quality recommendations and we believe that working effectively with fellow professionals such as solicitors and barristers is a very good way to achieve this.
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We understand that there are times when it is necessary to work to a deadline without compromising the quality of advice.
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In appropriate cases, we are prepared to consider deferring payment of our fees until the earlier of funds flowing or the end of the Ancillary Relief proceedings.
We give a bespoke service to our clients. If you need a question answered on offsetting, Pension Sharing or Earmarking, or one of your clients to meet with us immediately, we retain the flexibility for one of our team members to drop what they are doing and attend to your client’s (or your firm’s) needs.
To prove our worth, we would be delighted to spend the time presenting to you a couple of fictitious pensions and divorce scenarios. We expect our comprehensive and thorough demonstration will give you and your colleagues the confidence to recommend our services to your clients.