OUR SERVICE
We serve private individuals with their personal financial situation, advising on how best to arrange their affairs when they are considering moving to, or are already living in France. Our investment service is available for amounts above €250,000.
What is the process?
Good decisions are based on good information, so the first step to becoming a client of Kentingtons is to tell us all about your current financial position. This can be achieved by completing a confidential financial questionnaire, either in a meeting with us or via the telephone, e-mail or post. The initial discussions are mutually beneficial as they permit us to have a better understanding of your situation and allow you to learn more about our services and how they will be of value to you. This initial discussion is free of charge and obliges you to nothing.
All subsequent advice will be given in writing in the form of a financial report. The latter is designed to protect you, the client; in terms of evidence of the advice you were given, when and by whom.
Kentingtons work on a fee basis. Any costs for work carried out on your behalf will be fixed and agreed upon during our initial discussion. In fact, by the time we conclude our initial discussion, you will have a full understanding of what you will receive from us, when and at what cost, which will be set out in writing before any work commences or any charges are made.
The financial report will be sent to you directly, allowing you to read and analyse it in your own time. A follow up appointment will be scheduled to review the report together and answer any questions you may have.
We will then help you through the process of following our recommendations, referring you to other professionals, such as notaries, should this be required.
We will not send you an invoice for the fee until you have informed us that you are happy with the advice you have received and that you have no immediate further questions.
Why do we charge a fee?
Many advisors continue to work on a commission basis and will not charge fees directly for their advice. They earn their money from selling investments to you and in turn receive payment from the investment issuer.
Understandably the advisors main objective is to sell you something before you even meet!
We at Kentingtons are focused solely on
providing you with high quality advice; our objective is not
to sell you a product. The fee gives us the liberty to
select companies that do not even pay commissions to the
advisor. However, in the event we do receive commission from
an investment provider we recommend, this will be used to
cover your fee, thus many of our clients end up not paying
any fees at all.
Why is there a minimum
investment value of €250,000?
Indeed we are, to our knowledge, unique in setting a
minimum investment level. Maybe surprisingly, we are looking
to reduce the number of clients that we look after. Most
advisers set no minimum and will serve very large numbers of
clients, making it impossible to offer any kind of ongoing
service, because client numbers are simply too high, meaning
that they simply do not have the time to serve you. If you
have taken advice before, you may have met the adviser for
the first and last time when you took up their service, or
you may have found the adviser difficult to reach and did
not return your calls. By reducing the number of clients, Kentingtons are able to
offer a high quality service, engaging regularly with our
clients and responding quickly to their needs.
Another reason for the minimum is costs. Kentingtons reduce
investment fees as standard, way below the cost of the
standard fees of any investment provider we may recommend.
Setting this minimum allows us to do this, by being cost and
time efficient.
A final reason is providing value. High net worth
individuals simply need the service we offer and we can very
easily demonstrate how much our advice can save them.
Smaller investors rarely need the level of sophistication
that we offer (the more assets you have, the more
complicated your finances tend to be) and may find better
value elsewhere, since we cannot offer the same service or
the same cost reductions due to economies of scale. In
conclusion the minimum is there to permit Kentingtons to offer
our clients the very best in service and value.
Ongoing Service
Whether you require just general tax and inheritance advice or you choose to invest through Kentingtons, we are always here to help. Those who decide to invest via us will be secure in the knowledge that we are carefully monitoring their investments and are available to assist them with their tax and administration on an ongoing basis, which is part of being a Kentingtons client and is offered at no cost.