  FREE
Care Funding Advice Line: 0800 043 4036
About Us & Long Term
Care Funding Advice
Retirement Planning Associates Limited (RPA),
is a firm of financial advisers specialising in asset management
for those in or approaching
retirement. Care fees advice is usually complicated,
specialist and deals with areas not usually encountered
in general financial services. As such, it is outside of the
scope of most general IFAs and we believe in most cases
should
only be given by dedicated advisers.
CareFeesAdvisers is
a trading style of the Retirement Planning Associates Care
Funding Department. Our Care Funding Department is specialised
and
dedicated, which means
that:-
-
All of our advisers are Authorised & Regulated
by the Financial Services Authority. This is
a legal requirement for
all financial advisers, first and
foremost, in any field.
-
Our care funding advisers
hold the specialist CF8 qualification with the
Chartered Insurance Institute, which is mandatory for someone giving
advice in care funding.
-
Mike Migan, who manages
the care funding department, is a member of Symponia, the national
association of care fee advisers,
for which we pay an annual charge. Symponia are an excellent technical
resource and have member
firms and advisers all over the UK.
Symponia make extra checks on advisers, including criminal record
checks and hold
an annual exam to ensure its members
are on top and stay on top of the field. Symponia are the preferred
partner for
many care homes and care home companies.
Members of Symponia abide by a code
of practice and conduct and
a customer charter.
-
We have links to other,
non-financial, specialist firms in this field, including personal care
advisers, legal advisers,
property sales & management
consultants - who can often release
funds pre-sale
for people going into care - and
so
on.
-
We are experienced in
the field. A good adviser will be suitably
qualified, but also have experience in what to do, all of
the ramifications, and who to deal with.
-
Our advisers can deal
with all aspects of care fee advice, not
simply immediate care fee plans/annuities.
Immediate care plans may not always be the relevant option, or
may be best
utilised in conjunction with other
savings and investments. If so, the same adviser will generally
advise on and arrange
these for you, rather than passing
you on to another adviser from another part of the company or parent
company to deal
with them.
-
We work face to face in
most most instances. We believe that this is usually too big an area
to fill in computer or other forms
and deal by post and telephone alone.
It is crucial that meetings are held with an adviser and all questions
asked,
and information correctly relayed and
explained.
-
We have no panel of
preferred providers and products with specially
negotiated commission deals to use them and financial incentives
for advisers to recommend them - we simply recommend the
providers and products from across the range whom and which
we think best suit our clients' needs.
-
We have no fee or
commission targets. Each of our advisers
runs his own practice within the firm according to business
principles, without the greed element of income targets to
which salary and bonuses are attached, or the fear of losing
their status within the firm or indeed their job for not
achieving set levels of income. It is worth asking an adviser
- especially from a national firm - (i) if he has a fee/commission
target per annum and (ii) what it is if he says yes.
-
All recommendations
are given on a no obligation basis, no
matter what remuneration route is selected. We believe our
recommendations to be sound, and obviously we wish people
to proceed with them (and most do). However, we do not make
that decision. We give advice, which our clients/potential
clients have to decide whether to take up in full, in part
or not at all.
-
We arrange all transactions
and paperwork for our clients.
If you do decide to proceed with our
recommendations, we complete the proposal/s and see the transaction/s
through
from beginning to end - liasing with
you and the contract provider/s as and where necessary.
-
We review arrangements
with you once they are in place for
as long as you remain our clients and
wish our advice. For example, if funding needs change we can reassess
and make
any changes necessary. If the individual
moves to a different home or back to their residence, we can arrange
for the funding
to be transferred. If the individual
passes we can arrange for funding to stop, and any relevant investments
to be transferred
to beneficiaries upon probate (or often
upon receipt of a death certificate if in trust), etc..
-
You usually deal with
the same adviser for servicing who gave
you the initial advice and made the arrangements for you
- you are not moved to a service centre.
Notes & Disclaimers
- Guides (which includes all information, data and views expressed) on this site are brief introductions, as such they cannot be relied upon: full
research needs to be conducted or professional advice sought
before investment and financial decisions are made.
- In the case of new investments,
pensions, insurances or mortgages, literature from the
investment provider needs to be read and understood: including product guides, key features and illustrations, which give details of product aims, benefits, risks, commitment needed, charges and commissions, before financial decisions are made and action taken.
- Guides published on this site
express the opinions of the authors which may not always
concur with our own if from other organisations.
- Guides are published by the permission
of the authors and/or copyright holders.
- You will be leaving our website to access some of the above.
We may not always concur with data and opinions expressed
and are not liable for the content.
- Your home is at risk if you do
not keep up repayments on a mortgage or other loan
secured upon it, this can include some forms of equity
release.
The FSA do not regulate some types of mortgage.
- Past performance is not an indication
of future returns.
- The price of bonds, properties
and shares, income from them and investments in them can
rise and fall.
- Investments in bonds, property
and shares should be deemed mid to long term, meaning at
least five years. Early surrender increases the risk of
the investor receiving back less than invested.
- Investments in capital protected
funds are only as good as the ability of the investment
provider and/or any guarantors to meet their liabilities.
A default on their part may mean that the investor receives
back less than invested.
- Tax concessions and legislation
may change and reduce the benefits of investments.
03/01/07
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