| 1. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) |
| The FSA is the independent watchdog that regulates financial services. It requires us to give you this document. Use this information to decide if our services are right for you. |
| 2. Whose products do we offer? |
 | We offer products from the whole market |
 | We only offer products from a limited number of companies |
 | We only offer products from a single group of companies |
| 3. Which services will we provide you with? |
 | We will advise and make a recommendation for you after we have assessed your needs. |
 | You will not receive advice or a recommendation from us. We may ask some questions to narrow down the selection of products that we will provide details on. You will need to make your own choice about how to proceed. |
 | We will provide basic advice on a limited range of stakeholder products and in order to do this we will ask some questions about your income, savings and other circumstances but we will not:- conduct a full assessment of your needs
- offer advice on whether a non-stakeholder product may be more suitable
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| 4. What will you have to pay us for our services? |
 | Before we provide you with advice, we will give you our keyfacts guide 'about the cost of our services'. |
 | We will tell you how we get paid, and the amount, before we carry out any business for you. |
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| PKF Financial Planning Ltd, New Guild House, 45 Great Charles Street, Birmingham, B3 2LX is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Our FSA Registered number is 137362. Our permitted business is to give independent financial advice and arrange transactions in connection with life assurance, pensions, mortgages, general insurance and other investments. You can check this on the FSA's Register by visiting the FSA's website www.fsa.gov.uk/register or by contacting the FSA on 0845 606 1234. |
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| We are owned by the partners of PKF (UK) LLP, an international firm of Chartered Accountants. |
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| If you wish to register a complaint, please contact us: In writing: Write to The Compliance Officer, PKF Financial Planning Ltd, New Guild House, 45 Great Charles Street, Birmingham, B3 2LX By phone: Telephone 0121 212 2222 If you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. |
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| We are covered by the 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. Most types of investment business are covered for 100% of the first £30,000 and 90% of the next £20,000 so the maximum compensation is £48,000. Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS. |
General Terms and Conditions
References to “engagement letter” are references to the letter of engagement of which these general terms and conditions form part.
PKF Financial Planning Ltd is a firm of Independent Financial Advisers regulated by the Financial Services Authority for investment business and is bound by FSA's Rules.
Applicable Law
This engagement letter is governed by, and construed in accordance with, English Law. The Courts of England will have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any claim, dispute or difference concerning this engagement letter and any matter arising from it. Each party irrevocably waives any right it may have to object to any action being brought in those courts, to claim that the action has been brought in an inappropriate forum, or to claim that those courts do not have jurisdiction.
Confidentiality
i)We shall take such steps as we, in good faith, think fit to preserve the confidentiality of any information concerning your affairs held in connection with the services we provide to you.
ii)you agree that, otherwise than with our prior written consent, any advice, opinions and statements, reports and other information that we provide in connection with the services (in whatever form or media) or any document or statement which bears our name,
a) will be held in strict confidence by you, your officers and employees and others engaged by you;
b) will not be disclosed to any third party; and
c) will not be used for any purpose except as provided for in this letter.
iii) You agree to indemnify us in respect of any claim against us, including the costs of defending such a claim, arising out of any unauthorised disclosure by you or anyone else engaged by you.
The above does not apply to any necessary disclosure to your or our professional advisors, or to our insurers or where there is a legal or regulatory right, requirement or duty to make such disclosure. In particular we may in certain circumstances have a right or a duty to report certain matters arising in the course of our professional work to relevant authorities under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 or other legislation without necessarily disclosing such fact to you.
It is possible that we may be prevented from completion of the assignment, or required to wait before acting or taking any step, by the operation of law and in that event we shall not be liable to you for the consequences of this.
Clients Assets
PKF FINANCIAL PLANNING LTD IS NOT AUTHORISED TO HANDLE CLIENTS MONEY.
This means that we may not accept cheques made out to this company in respect of investments; nor may we handle cash.
We will make arrangements for all your investments to be registered in your name unless you first instruct us otherwise in writing. We will forward to you all documents showing ownership of your investments as soon as practicable after we receive them; where a number of documents relating to a series of transactions is involved, we normally hold each document until the series is complete and then forward them to you.
We act as your agent in advising you and arranging investments. We never own the investments that you buy through us. All investments will be registered in your name unless otherwise agreed in writing.
Communication
We require our clients to give instructions in writing to avoid possible disputes. However, we will accept oral instructions provided they are subsequently confirmed in writing, but we accept no responsibility for any errors or omissions resulting from misunderstandings in respect of oral instructions.
There may be occasions when we will need to contact you without your express invitation. For example, it may be in your interest to buy or sell a particular investment and we would wish to be able to inform you of that fact. We therefore may contact you in such circumstances. We shall, of course, comply with any restrictions you may wish to impose which are notified to us in writing.
Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999
Persons who are not party to this agreement shall have no rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any term of this agreement. This clause does not affect any right or remedy of any person which exists or is available otherwise than pursuant to that Act.
Correspondence and Papers
Records of our business transactions are kept for at least 6 years. Unless you specify otherwise in writing, we may destroy all correspondence and other documents held by us on your behalf after that time. We may, however, retain any document we believe to be of continuing significance.
You may inspect copies of all contracts notes, vouchers and entries in our books (whether kept manually or electronically) which relate to your investments.
Data Protection Act 1998
We may obtain, use, process and disclose personal data about you in order that we may discharge the services agreed under this engagement letter, and for other related purposes including updating and enhancing client records, analysis for management purposes and statutory returns, crime prevention and legal and regulatory compliance. You have a right of access, under data protection legislation, to the personal data that we hold about you.
In order to ensure that the services offered by us and our associates are appropriate to your needs, you agree that information held by us may be shared between us and our associates.
Fees
Our fees will be billed at the completion of the services or on termination by either party if earlier and will be due within 14 days. Any queries concerning an invoice must be raised within 30 days of the invoice date.
The firm reserves the right to charge interest at 8% above the Bank of England official dealing rate. The Bank of England official dealing rate at 30 June and 31 December in each year is used as a reference rate for the following 6 months. It is not our intention to use this right in any way that is unfair or unreasonable.
In addition the firm reserves the right to claim compensation in accordance with the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.
Liability
We will perform the engagement with reasonable skill and care but you agree that any liability on the part of this company, its directors, employees and agents for any loss or damage resulting from the provision of the services or other work we carry out for you, however caused and regardless of the action (whether in contract, tort, statue or otherwise) shall not exceed 5 times the fees actually received by us for such work or £200,000 whichever is higher. This liability shall be limited to the proportion of the total loss or damage after taking into account your contributory negligence (if any) and the negligence of any other party also liable or potentially liable to you in respect of the same loss or damage.
We accept the benefit of this arrangement as agent and trustee for each of our directors, consultants, employees and agents.
Nothing in this letter shall have the effect of excluding or limiting our liability for:
a) death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or the negligence of our employees acting in the course of their employment,
b) any fraudulent pre-contractual misrepresentations made by us upon which you can be shown to have relied
or
c) any other liability that we cannot exclude by law or under the regulatory system.
Notice of Information
You agree to provide us with all documents and information we may need to complete the engagement and unless stated otherwise, you confirm that the documents and information provided are correct and accurate. We will not be responsible for any losses arising due to their inaccuracy or completeness nor as a result of undue delay in providing the documents and information.
We shall not be treated as having notice of information provided to members of the firm other than those engaged in providing the service.
Intellectual property rights
We will own all copyright in any document prepared by us during the course of carrying out the engagement save where the law specifically provides otherwise.
Reports and Advice
No reliance on shall be placed by you on any draft reports or advice (whether written or oral) issued by us, as such draft reports and advice may be subject to further revision and other factors which may result in them being substantially different from any final report or advice issued.
Any reports or advice issued by us are provided solely for your use and for the purpose for which our services are being provided, and we neither accept nor assume any responsibility of duty or care to any third party for such reliance.
Retention of and access to records
During the course of our work we will collect information from you and others acting on your behalf. Whilst certain documents may legally belong to you, unless you tell us not to, we may destroy correspondence and other papers that we store which are more than seven years old, other than documents that belong to you. You must notify us in writing that you do not want your documents destroyed.
Severability of terms
If any of the terms of this letter are deemed unreasonable by any court, tribunal, ombudsman, arbitrator or other person, it is the intention of the parties that the remaining terms continue to have full force and effect.
Termination
Both parties shall have the right to terminate this engagement by notice in writing to the other at any time, but termination will not affect our rights of remuneration, indemnification or any contractual provision intended to survive termination or any other accrued rights.
Working for other clients
We will not be prevented or restricted by virtue of our relationship with you, including anything in this engagement letter, from providing services to other clients.
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