Informed Decisions

What it Costs

Clear, Transparent and Nothing to Hide

Achieve your investment and retirement goals while reducing investment and service costs by an average of 30% with Informed Decisions.

Our approach ensures that you are always aware of what you are paying for, with no hidden charges or surprises. Our professional service begins with a one-off MasterPlan project, ensuring that you have a solid foundation for your financial journey. Following this, where of benefit, we offer a fully transparent advisory service. This ensures you clearly understand the costs associated with maintaining and optimising your financial strategy.

Chris & Lisa
Retired early from a global corporate role – now pursuing new challenges together!

1. Your Informed Decisions MasterPlan™

€4,950 (once off)

2. Implementation

€1,490 (once off)

3. Ongoing Management

c. 1.25% Per Annum

See a detailed breakdown of each step below.

Who we serve

1. Informed Decisions MasterPlan™

Your MasterPlanTM represents a €4,950 investment. This one off charge is your roadmap to long-term financial success (often paid for by your own company if applicable).

It contains detailed analysis of your current assets, strategies, performance, fees, and sequencing. It will detail specific and actionable strategies regarding these assets, plus your income, retirement draw-down, investments, gifting, estate planning, tax, and all relevant opportunities and threats.

It provides you with a practical roadmap for long-term financial success, even if we do not proceed to steps 2 and 3.

What’s included in your MasterPlan?

  • A tailored financial strategy focused on wealth growth and preservation
  • Retirement and investment planning aligned with your goals
  • Tax-efficient structuring of pensions and investments
  • Cost and fee analysis to enhance investment efficiency
  • Stress testing your financial future under different scenarios
  • Clear, actionable recommendations to implement your plan effectively

2. Implementation

If we do so, we charge a flat Implementation Fee of €1,490 for each new scheme we implement. This is separate to the MasterPlan fee and billed via invested assets.

Our structures avoid commissions and 1% Government levy, potentially saving you tens of thousands of euro.

3. Ongoing Management

With your new schemes implemented under our counsel, we now begin our long-term partnership.

The figures below are illustrative of total on-going costs of an investment account and includes our advisory, platform, global custody and fund portfolio costs. Where investment clients exceed our fee cap, their total ongoing costs are typically less than 1%. Fees for many clients are usually between 20% to 30% less with Informed Decisions than with previous providers.

0.7%
per annum

Informed Decisions Advisory Fee (up to €1.8m only, capped thereafter)

+
0.3%
per annum

Investment Wrapper & Global Custody

+
0.2%
per annum

Typical underlying Passive Index Portfolio

+
0.05%
per annum

Estimated transaction costs within the portfolio

=
1.25%
per annum

Total investment account* costs 

*based on illustrative investment account of between €1m and €1.8m 

Our Fees - 100% Transparent - Nothing Hidden.

See below details on our fee cap that can save you tens of thousands per year.

Who we serve

Our Fee Cap

Small fees make the biggest difference.

It is traditional among brokers, advisors and wealth management firms to charge you an un-ending percentage of your investment portfolio. The larger your investment portfolio, the more you pay in fees. For example, an investor with €3m will pay 3x the fees that an investor with €1m pays.

For your benefit, our minimum annual Advisory Fee is capped at €12,600, when your invested assets with us exceed €1.8m. Thanks to this, you can save literally tens of thousands every year versus traditional wealth managers and broker schemes.

The Fee Cap cannot be applied to certain pension structures.

Example One - €1.2m invested via Informed Decisions

If total pension/investment assets with us is €1.8m, your total yearly fee is not above the fee cap, so c€1.25%. The industry average for pensions/investments is 2.1%, when all hidden fees are included

You save almost
€11,000 per year in hidden fees*
*Industry average fee of €27,300 (@2.1%) versus €16,250 (@1.25% with Informed Decisions), to include all fund/platform/advisory services
*2.1% according to this Dept of Social Protection research
*Assuming no-growth – even higher savings if we included growth!

Example Two - €3m invested via Informed Decisions

If total pension/investment assets with us is €3m, your total yearly fee benefits from our fee cap, so c0.92% total. The industry average for pensions/investments is 2.1%, when all hidden fees are included

You save almost
€36,000 per year in hidden fees*
*Industry average fee of €63,000 (@2.1%) versus €27,600 (@0.92% with Informed Decisions), to include all fund/platform/advisory services
*2.1% according to this Dept of Social Protection research
*Assuming no-growth – even higher savings if we included growth!

Advisory Fee will only increase for inflation, to a max of 6% total every 3 years. Over your retirement, this fee-cap could help ensure you outlive your money, and leave a significant legacy.

We have identified and utilise more secure and effective pension and investment structures for clients, where total fees range from 0.9% to 1.5% per year. This includes all services; Investment Management, Global secure Custody, Trades, Scheme Administration, Trustee services, and our dedicated planning and advisory services.

Next Steps

Are we a good fit?

If this is the transparency you seek, please check out Who We Serve to see if we are a good fit to work together.

Who we serve
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Plan

As part of the MasterPlanTM project we analyse, critique and develop a clear financial strategy for your future. We will help you answer important and expensive questions:

Will we have enough money to live a comfortable lifestyle?
What is the optimum income strategy to maximise pension & investment draw-down?
What does my financial future look like, and what do I need to do to maximise it?
How can I securely access secure best-in-class global index funds?
How can we avoid losing to inflation over the long term, safely?
Am I over-paying or missing out on some valuable tax opportunities?
How best to balance our own needs, and passing wealth to the next generation?
How can I avoid costly strategy errors in my financial structures and planning?
Who is best placed to help me implement and manage my finances into the future?
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Investment Philosophy

Only when we have an agreed plan will we  implement the new structures that optimise returns, tax, income and cost efficiency. Our portfolio selection and investment process is guided by a hundred years of empirical data, decades of academic research by renowned economists and the practices of leading institutional investors.

Our core investment philosophy is based on these 7 values:

1

Risk and return are related

There is good risk and bad risk. Higher exposure to the right risk factors or premia leads to higher expected returns but is no guarantee of them. Risk is the premium investors pay for the expectation of a greater return.

2

The capital markets work

The prices of securities reflect the expectations of all market participants. The capital markets are far from perfect, but they do a good job of fairly pricing all available information and investor expectations about publicly traded securities.

3

Asset allocation and portfolio structure drive portfolio return

The most important factor determining the level of risk and variability of return in a portfolio is asset allocation.

4

Consistent outperformance is rare

Economic uncertainties, random market movements, and the rise and fall of individual companies mean it is extremely difficult for anyone – including professional fund managers – to beat the market in the long term. There is a significant body of research to suggest that outperformance, achieved only by a minority of fund managers, is down to luck rather than skill.

5

Costs matter

Costs reduce an investor’s net return and represent a hurdle for a fund. Before a fund can outperform, it must first add enough value to cover its costs. Sadly, the vast majority of professional fund managers and advisors fail to add value and high cost is a strong predictor of poor fund performance.

6

Investor behaviour is a key determinant of long-term outcome

All too often, investors let their emotions get the better of them with dire consequences for investment returns. We know that we add significant value by helping clients maintain a disciplined approach, especially in extreme market conditions.

7

Diversification is essential

Diversification is the principle of spreading your investment risk around. Our investment portfolios hold the shares and bonds of thousands of successful companies and governments in many countries around the world.

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Partnership

The foundation of our relationships is mutual trust and respect. Below, some of the customers, who trust us to help them, share their stories. Your success is our success.

We work with you on an on-going basis to implement our determined investment, income, spending and gifting strategy. If you haven’t already, our work will help you Achieve the confidence to cross the retirement finish line, safe in the knowledge that you will be able to live the life you want and achieve the things you’ve always wanted to.

If this sounds like the kind of relationship you want with your advisor, read Who We Serve to see if you are potentially a good fit for our firm.

Benefits of Working With Informed Decisions

Informed Decisions Master Plan

Real Investment Returns

Trust

Tax Efficient

Save Money

Value For Money

Informed Decisions Master Plan

Clarity & Confidence

Trust

Dedicated Personal Service

Save Money

Stewardship & Council

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Our Fee Guarantee

Guarantee

Our priority is to bring value to your life.

We only work with clients we know we can add substantial value to their lives.

If, within 6 months of working with us, you don’t feel you’ve received the on-going advisory service you’ve signed-up for, we offer a full fee refund, and will help you move to another firm.

No questions asked

X

We do our best work with, and deliver most value to diligent savers who have accumulated retirement & investment nest eggs of €1m or more.

The details collected in this form will be used so that we can contact you in relation to your query either by telephone or email. You can read our privacy policy here.

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You could get back less than you invest. Your capital is at risk in such investments. The value of your investments will rise and fall. Informed Decisions Limited T/A Informed Decisions Financial Planning is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland
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