Principled

10/01/2025

We were recently asked by Parmenion, an award wining financial services company, to contribute to their series on "ESG" investing.

This style of investing considers a company's Environmental, Social, and Governance scores and impact before deciding whether they should form part of the investment portfolio.

At Principled, we think it is really important that our clients understand the options they have to align their investments with their personal beliefs.

However, this complex subject that can be tricky to navigate. If you'd like to read how we walk clients through this process, check out the link below:

Neale Cooke from Principled Financial Services shares his top tips on how to start having ESG conversations with your clients.

19/09/2024

Today we attended Goodstock – a conference organised by NextGen Planners, focused on sustainable and impactful investing.

Held in the fantastic Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh, this conference spoke to us in so many ways.

Our entire reason for being is to help people make decisions with their money that provide them with good outcomes and peace of mind. We love working with people who want their money to have a positive impact on the world, as well as having a positive impact on their own personal finances.

We leave full of inspiration, confidence, and excitement for the future.

17/05/2024

We had a fantastic day at Adviser 3.0 yesterday, put on by one of our trusted investment and technology partners, Timeline.

The event was held in Magazine, on the Greenwich peninsula, overlooking Canary Wharf. There were fantastic speeches and presentations from various people, including Dragons' Den's Deborah Meaden, and author, speaker, and entrepreneur Gino Wickman

14/03/2024

Vibe

Toast Brewing

14/03/2024

We're spending a couple of days in London, hosted by one of our most trusted investment partner Dimensional Fund Advisors

19/01/2024

𝘼𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙛𝙞𝙭𝙚𝙙 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙨

Our latest blog is live, with the link in the comments below 👇

As you might have guessed, it discusses our fixed fee financial advice service.

If you hadn't already realised, we passionately believe in charging fixed fees! We don't understand why more firms don't do this, but we have a sneaking suspicion that people will follow our lead in future.

The blog takes you through the reasons why we feel this approach is superior, namely:

· Transparency and Predictability
· Alignment of Interests
· Incentive for Efficiency
· Better value for people with more savings
· More appropriate for a modern financial planning service
· A fair fee for a set service

If you are curious to know how much our service would cost for you, please feel free to get in touch either with a direct message on here, or by using [email protected]. We can arrange a no obligation, no pressure conversation, so that we can find out more about your situation.

13/01/2024

𝙄𝙣𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣

We've been posting about protection products recently.

Whilst most people know what life insurance or critical illness cover is, fewer people know about i̲n̲c̲o̲m̲e̲ ̲p̲r̲o̲t̲e̲c̲t̲i̲o̲n̲.

For many people, we believe that income protection is more important than critical illness cover. It's usually a lot cheaper, too.

If you were seriously ill, or if you were incapacitated due to being involved in an accident, how long could you afford to pay the bills?

Statutory Sick Pay will provide you with £109.40 per week - which may even be less after income tax and national insurance have been considered - and even then, only for a maximum of 28 weeks.

If you are unable to work due to illness or incapacity, an income protection policy will pay you a guaranteed amount of tax free income up until your chosen retirement date. Policies usually come with extra benefits to aid you with your recovery.

If you are self-employed or running a business, or if your employer doesn't offer comprehensive sick pay options, we strongly recommend that you look into these policies.

For more information, please drop us a message, or check out our blog (link in the comments 👇🏻)

09/01/2024

In our previous post about protection products, we mentioned that we don’t take commission for advising on protection.

Instead, we charge a clear fee for the service.

The only reason we do this – we think it is much fairer to the client.

We could certainly make more money by taking commission, but that’s not what we are about at Principled. The clue is in the name!

Commission available to advisers is typically linked to the premium, so a higher monthly premium for the policy recommended typically equals higher commission available to the adviser.

However, if we are recommending a life policy, the amount of work we need to do to research, recommend, and implement a policy is very likely to be the same, regardless of whether your premium is £25 a month, £50 a month, or even higher.

We therefore think our remuneration should be the same, too.

When advisers take commission, the policy providers don’t give this money away for free! Instead, they increase your monthly premiums in order to claw back the commission.

These higher premiums often leave you paying hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds more over the policy term, compared to paying the fee upfront and benefitting from reduced monthly premiums.

For an example of just how much you could save by paying a fee, check out our blog: https://bit.ly/3SaKimS

As always, if you’d like to find out more or as any questions, just get in touch.

Introduction Many people do not realise that we provide advice on financial protection products, such as: Principled are holistic financial…

04/01/2024

𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

Many people are surprised when they find out that we provide advice on financial protection products, such as:

• 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲
• 𝗖𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿
• 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

Principled are holistic financial planners. That means we look after every aspect of your finances.

It’s never enjoyable to discuss illness, incapacity, or even an early death. However, it’s so important to consider these eventualities, particularly if you have a family, or a mortgage, or if you are running your own business.

Unlike standalone life insurance brokers, we are holistic financial planners. When considering your requirements for protection, we take into account your pensions, death in service, and all other assets, liabilities, and your future plans.

If you do not need any extra financial protection, we won’t try to sell you any.

We do not earn our money by commission, so we have no incentive to “sell” protection products when they are not needed. After all – no one wants to pay unnecessary insurance premiums.

We simply want to make sure that you, and those most important to you, are protected if anything happens to you.

For an informal, no pressure chat about any of the above, just get in touch via this page, or by emailing [email protected]

02/01/2024

A happy New Year from Principled!

2023 will always be a special year for us, as it was the year our firm received authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority to commence trading. This was a key landmark for our principal, Neale Cooke who had spent many years working for other firms as a practising Financial Planner.

We are really excited as to what 2024 has in store for us, and we look forward to you coming on the journey with us.

Sort your finances, and live your life!

All the best!