How we cut costs

Whilst we offer a low cost service, this doesn't mean we cut any corners. In fact, we believe our clients receive a better quality of advice and service than offered by typical 'full-price' advisers.

There is no catch, we simply trim costs through a combination of modest advice fees, efficiency and common sense.

Cutting costs requires reducing charges in three key areas: advice, portfolio and investment platform fees. The graphic below shows estimated annual costs via a typical financial adviser versus us for a £600,000 portfolio:

Keeping our advice fee low

We keep our advice fees low in several ways:

Low overheads

We rent a modest office, don't take fat salaries and are prudent about what we spend to run our business. There is no pomp nor ceremony at Candid!

Working remotely

Whilst you are always welcome to visit us in Bath, most of our clients deal with us remotely from across the country. This is far more time and cost efficient for everyone versus traditional home visits.

Working efficiently

We have a good work ethic and have developed our own extensive IT systems to help us work very efficiently. You won't find us having long lunches or down the golf course...

No external shareholders

The business is wholly owned by Ian and Justin, so we have no pressure from external shareholders to hit profitability targets (or hike our fees!).

Investment platforms & portfolios

As well as ensuring our own fees are ultra-competitive, we look for the same when recommending investment platforms and portfolios to our clients.

Investment platforms

All investment platforms perform the same basic function: safely keeping your investments in one place and sorting tasks like paying income.

However, charges vary widely, with some platforms costing thousands of pounds a year more than others for large portfolios. Some of the most popular with advisers are also the most expensive, suggesting they choose whichever suits them rather than what's best for their clients.

We choose whichever is most cost effective for you, often saving a small fortune in the process.

Portfolios

It's increasingly common for advisers to outsource choosing investments, either to make their lives easier and/or gain an extra slice of the fees pie. However, they seldom cut their own fee to compensate, so you'll invariably end up paying more.

We choose investments in-house, using a mix of very low cost index-trackers and best of breed active managers. The result is top notch portfolios without the extra layer(s) of fees.