FAQs

We’re a privately-owned company that provides highly personalised financial planning advice to all clients, as everyone’s circumstances and objectives are different.

Our founder, Dr Josh Lewis, spent the first 10 years of his career working as an NHS doctor before transferring his skills and retraining as a financial planner. He now helps clients with their financial health rather than their medical wellbeing.

His core values of empathy, trust, and professionalism were essential qualities developed while working as a physician. We believe they’re just as relevant to a modern, high-quality financial planning service.

Our team always works with integrity and really cares about you and your finances, unlike some larger institutions. We enjoy getting to know you as a client, understanding your goals, and forming long-term relationships. We’ve known a significant number of our clients and their wider families for many years.

By way of proof, you can read our numerous positive client reviews on Google and VouchedFor.

Yes, and independence is very important to your experience as a client. We don’t work for a specific financial organisation or provider, and aren’t restricted to giving advice on particular financial products or services. We’ll always give totally unbiased financial advice based on your individual goals and objectives, with a complete focus on your best interests.

For the majority of clients, we use an evidence-based approach when investing your money. This is based on decades of empirical evidence and academic research by Nobel prize-winning economists. The approach centres around trading less and holding a diverse range of low-cost funds.

It’s worth pointing out that we always discuss in detail and take into account our clients’ investment preferences and attitude to risk. And we always explain in detail the reasoning behind our recommendations.

Yes. This is increasingly important to many of our clients, and we routinely recommend investments that meet general and specific requirements.

Financial advice typically describes a more simplistic approach where clients are sold financial products and/or services to address simple and specific needs.

A financial planner takes a more comprehensive and holistic approach. They really try to understand and help clients in achieving their short, medium and longer-term goals, always with the objective of achieving financial security and wellbeing.

Another financial planner in our company will always be able to help with anything that requires urgent attention. For anything services-related, our support staff will be available to assist.

Clients ask us to provide expert support for many reasons. The maze of financial information and products can be confusing, and an independent financial planner will help guide you through the options.

Professional financial planning requires significant time, technical knowledge, and a recognition of your individual circumstances and requirements. From the outset of our relationship and throughout, we’ll work hard to gain an in-depth understanding of your financial goals and needs.

Our approach is to listen to our clients to gain a good understanding of their individual situation and vision for the future and advise accordingly. We build long-term relationships with our clients, and they can rely on us to keep them well informed and on track to achieve their goals.

Numerous studies have shown that most DIY investors end up with significantly worse outcomes than if they’d paid for professional advice. We’re very happy to evidence this research and discuss this with you.

It’s never too early to take control of your finances and ask for a professional opinion. With that said, many people find major life events to be a good reason to make contact. Examples include:

• Getting married
• Buying a new home
• Starting a family
• Setting up or selling a business
• Getting a work promotion or facing redundancy
• Getting divorced
• Planning for retirement
• Receiving an inheritance.

Having clear financial goals and a plan for how to achieve them increases your chances of success. It also provides you with peace of mind, time, and the freedom to enjoy your life.

Many of our clients have past experience of financial advice, and unfortunately, this isn’t always positive. We aim to challenge previously accepted poor practices and cultures. The profession is rapidly evolving, and modern financial planning focuses on you and your personal concerns, goals, and ambitions.

We’re always happy to discuss your existing plans or portfolio, and to provide a financial health check and second opinion.

Our clients are usually successful individuals and families in a variety of roles and professions.

For our clients, we provide holistic financial planning. This starts with the fundamentals of ensuring you have sufficient savings and insurance to help you maintain your quality of life if there are unexpected challenges.

We have a specialist mortgage adviser who can help you with residential and buy-to-let property purchases and sales.

Once you have these foundations in place, we can help you grow other money in the most tax-efficient manner.

The reason many clients initially contact us is a current or future life event.

We typically work with clients who have £250,000 upwards that’s available to invest or already held in financial plans, but we try to be flexible.

Financial planning covers all life scenarios, and everyone’s situation is different and unique. We’re always happy to have a discussion with you, as often there are ways that we can help that you may not be aware of or that aren’t immediately apparent.

No, all initial meetings are at our own expense. These meetings are often preceded by a short phone or video call, so we have a preliminary understanding of the help you need. It’s a chance for both you and us to see how we can help and start to get to know each other.

A typical initial meeting will last approximately one hour. But there’s no real time limit, as we want you to be free to talk as you wish while we actively listen.

There are no particular expectations from us. Nevertheless, some clients find it helpful to bring notes. These may include reasons for contacting us, a list of questions you’d like us to answer, or a summary of your existing plans and finances.

If you’d like us to advise you and your partner as a couple, it’s preferable for you to both attend the meeting so we can fully understand your joint financial position.

The initial meeting is fundamentally an opportunity for you to get to know us and for us to understand how we can help you.

We’ll discuss your current situation, goals, and objectives over the short, medium, and long term.

We’ll also establish what your current circumstances are so that we have a detailed picture of your situation and how to progress. We’ll explain how our fees work and the different service levels we offer to match your needs. A key focus will be clarifying what you want to achieve with us. It’s not all about discussing money, but instead finding out what really matters to you.

No, there’s no obligation to work with us or proceed with any of our recommendations after the initial meeting. It’s an opportunity for you to ask as many questions as you like. You can then decide if you’d like us to help you in your own time.

This will depend on the level of service selected. But all clients, regardless of their service level, will be invited to attend an annual meeting to review progress. This also includes an action plan for the months and years ahead.

We also encourage clients to contact us when there’s been a change in their life circumstances or goals.

We often form strong relationships not only with our clients but with their wider families too. Some clients just like an informal conversation from time to time, to discuss something they’ve heard or read.

We’re proactive and continually monitor changes in economies and markets, including politics, tax, and regulation. We’ll contact you directly if any significant changes need to be made.

We’ve taken the decision not to advise on final salary or defined benefit pension transfers. Instead, we can refer any work of this type to a trusted specialist.

Meetings are held in person, virtually, or on the phone.

Our main office is at 2 Union Road East, Abergavenny, NP7 5UW.

We also see clients in serviced offices throughout the UK.

Alternatively, clients can be seen at home, work, or a location of their choice.

Most meetings are held during office hours, but we recognise that clients can be busy, and this isn’t always possible. So, we have a flexible approach, and will always try and work around your schedule.

The main office in Abergavenny has free parking at the rear of the building. Please contact us if you’d like to reserve a space.

There’s free on-street parking next to the office, and free council-run car parking within five minutes’ walking distance of the office.

Our standard office hours are 9 am – 5 pm. We recognise that clients may prefer to be seen at other times, though, so we routinely offer early morning and evening appointments.

To book an initial meeting, please simply get in touch on 01873 854488 or hello@wealthdoctor.co.uk.

We’ve chosen the ValidPath network to support us. That’s because they’re committed to independent financial planning, and give our specialists the autonomy to provide a truly personalised service for our clients.

ValidPath assists us with a number of administrative functions, including FCA reporting, professional indemnity insurance, research and technical support, compliance oversight, and IT applications.

This allows us to concentrate on advising our clients, while many of the non-client related aspects of the business are outsourced to ValidPath to help us maximise efficiency.

In addition to ensuring our work meets the high standards set by the ValidPath network, there are a number of other important regulations and laws designed to protect you, maintain your confidentiality, and keep you secure.

Our regulator is the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). You can find our FCA registration here. We’ll always inform you if any product or service recommended is not FCA-regulated.

When receiving regulated financial advice, you’re protected by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). This is an independent and impartial organisation designed to help resolve complaints that individuals and financial services businesses aren’t able to resolve themselves. To contact the FOS, please visit www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk.

Any plans or products we recommend are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). This is an independent and free service set up by the government to pay compensation if a firm is unable, or likely to be unable, to pay claims against it. They can be contacted at www.fscs.org.uk.

Your data is incredibly important, and we have robust systems in place to keep your personal information safe. The Data Protection Act (DPA) protects your confidentiality by helping you keep control of your data.

Our charges will depend on the work involved. These will be explained in full and in writing. We’ll always aim to ensure our fees are fair and competitive. One of our underlying principles is that the long-term benefits to you of our advice should be greater than our charges.

Fees can be paid for from your financial plans (e.g., pensions or investments) or directly from your bank account. We’ll inform you if a certain approach is more tax-efficient.

There’s no commission payable on any investment products. We’re paid commission from providers for insurance products, but we’ll never charge a fee for setting these up.

VAT isn’t applicable to most financial planning services. We’ll let you know in advance if VAT is applicable to any fees you need to pay us.