Last updated: 11 May 2026
1. How Do You Charge?
We charge a flat monthly fee of £852, regardless of how much money you have with us.
Most wealth managers charge a percentage of the assets they look after — typically 1% a year, sometimes more. On a £2m portfolio, that’s £20,000 a year. On £5m, it’s £50,000. The work involved doesn’t change much between the two; the bill does. We never quite understood why advising on a bigger number should cost five times as much, so we don’t do it that way. You pay us for the advice, not for the size of the number we’re advising on.
2. Why A Flat Fee Rather Than A Percentage of Assets?
Because the alignment is better, and the maths is fairer.
Percentage fees create a quiet conflict every time you ask your adviser whether to pay off the mortgage, gift money to your children, or buy a holiday home — all of which reduce the assets they’re paid on. With a flat fee, we have no view on whether money sits with us or somewhere genuinely more useful to you. We’ll tell you to pay off the mortgage if paying off the mortgage is the right answer. The fee doesn’t move.
3. What Does “Independent” Actually Mean?
It means we can recommend any product, from any provider, anywhere in the market. We’re not owned by a bank, an insurer, or a fund house, and we don’t have a preferred-partner list quietly steering us toward in-house options. Some advisers claim to be independent but only recommend from an in-house range of funds, we don’t.
The FCA distinguishes between restricted advice and independent advice for a reason. Restricted advisers are perfectly competent — they just operate inside a fence. We don’t.
4. Who Do You Typically Work With?
Clients tend to have £1m or more of investable wealth and the kind of complexity that comes with it — trusts, business interests, inheritance tax exposure, share schemes, surplus cash, occasionally all five at once.
Two groups dominate. The first are still working: lawyers, senior managers and above, with bonus structures, pension allowance issues, and the slightly anxious feeling that things have become complicated. The second are retired or close to it, sitting on capital they’ve accumulated over a career and starting to think seriously about what happens next — to them, and to it.
5. Can You Advise My Whole Family?
We will always include advice to minor children as part of the fee. Advice to your adult children can be as complex as your own advice, but we offer this at a deeply discounted rate (60%-70% less) and this fee can be deducted from your own portfolio if you want.
6. What Does An Adviser Actually Do For The Fee?
Three things, roughly in order of how much time they take.
Plan. We build a financial plan covering retirement, tax, inheritance, protection, and the question of what the money is actually for — which is usually the one that’s been left unanswered. Invest. We run portfolios designed around the plan, not the other way around. Maintain. Tax rules change, markets move, your life changes; the plan needs to keep up. The maintenance bit is most of the work, and it’s the bit nobody sees.
7. Are You Regulated?
Yes. Altor Wealth Management LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, FCA number 769033. You can verify us on the FCA Register.
Capital is at risk with any investment. Past performance is not a guide to the future.
8. What’s a B-Corp, And Why Does Altor Bother Being One?
B Corp certification is a third-party assessment of how a business treats its staff, clients, suppliers, community, and the environment. It involves an audit, a public score, and a recertification process every three years — it’s not a logo you buy.
We did it because we wanted an external check on whether we were running the firm the way we said we were running it. The honest answer is that some of the assessment was uncomfortable, which is rather the point.
9. Do I Need To Be Near Hook to Work With You?
No. We’re based in Hampshire and a good chunk of our clients are in Hampshire, Surrey, Berkshire, Sussex, and Kent — but we look after clients throughout the UK using the same video tools everybody got fluent in around 2020. If you’d rather meet in person, our office is on Station Road in Hook; if you’d rather not drive to Hook, you don’t have to.
10. How Do You Handle Inheritance Tax Planning?
Carefully, and usually over years rather than weeks.
IHT planning is where the largest mistakes — and the largest savings — tend to live. The toolkit includes gifting, trusts, Business Relief-qualifying investments, life cover written in trust, pension structuring, and the occasional Deed of Variation when a beneficiary wants to redirect an inheritance they didn’t need. Which tools fit depends entirely on the family, the assets, and the timeline. Tax rules change, individual circumstances differ, and what worked for the client before you may be exactly wrong for you. Our flat fee model means that we don’t lose revenue if you gift money away to your children, unlike most advisers.
11. Can You Work Alongside My Accountant And Solicitor?
Yes — and we usually prefer to. Most £1m+ situations have a tax adviser and a solicitor already in place, and the worst outcomes happen when those three relationships operate in separate rooms. We’re happy to sit at the same table, share drafts, and make sure the financial plan, the tax position, and the legal structure are telling the same story.
If you don’t have an accountant or a solicitor and need one, we know good people.
12. What Happens At A First Meeting, And What Does It Cost?
Nothing, and nothing.
The first meeting is a conversation — an hour or so, in person or on video, to understand what you’ve got, what you’re worried about, and whether we’re the right firm to help. No fee, no obligation, no follow-up sales call from someone in a different department. If we’re not the right fit, we’ll usually be able to point you at someone who is.
13. How Is My Money Kept Safe?
Your investments are held by a third-party custodian, not by us. We have permission to advise on and manage your money; we never have permission to take it out of the account and walk off with it. Cash and investments held with regulated UK providers are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to the prevailing limits, which differ by product type.
The shorter version: we advise, somebody else holds. That separation is deliberate.
14. How Often Will I Hear From You?
At least annually for a formal review, more often if your situation calls for it. Most clients also get an occasional email when a tax change, market event, or piece of legislation lands that actually affects them — and crucially, no email when it doesn’t. The financial services industry generates an enormous amount of noise. We try to add to it sparingly.
15. What Makes Altor Different From A Private Bank Or A National Advice Firm?
Three things.
We’re independent and whole-of-market, so we’re not quietly recommending in-house funds. We charge a flat monthly fee rather than a percentage of your assets, so the bill doesn’t balloon as your wealth grows. And we’re a partner-led firm of a deliberate size — you speak to the same people year after year, rather than meeting whoever’s been assigned to your account this quarter.
None of which makes us the right answer for everyone. It does make us a clearly different answer.