Our execution, custody and valuation services, extend to cover the custody of general investment accounts, ISAs, pensions and offshore bonds, enabling you to hold and oversee all of your clients' investments in a single location.
Over the past decade, we have invested heavily in technology to provide you with the ability to efficiently place large numbers of orders and instructions across your client base. Given our stockbroking roots, we are specialist dealers in a wide range of investments, allowing you wherever possible to place instructions whenever it is most convenient for you. Our intermediary clients include fellow stockbroker firms, discretionary fund managers, family wealth offices, independent financial advisers and other platform providers.
How working with us could improve the service that you offer your clients:
A growing number of intermediary firms view us as an integral part of their service as we provide custody of their clients’ assets via our Custody Service and in the execution of their investment orders and instructions. A number also make use of our Auxiliary Services.
Our relationship with you and your clients:
We recognise how important our relationship is with you and we commit to providing you with direct access to our senior management team.
We provide you with an assurance on client ownership and commit to ensure that the underlying client remains your client at all times by dealing exclusively with you. All communications concerning your client will be between us.
Our Investor Terms document, explains to your client our responsibilities to them in respect of the safe keeping of their investments and cash , along with their compensation rights.
Which investment accounts are supported:
In addition to providing a general investment account, James Brearley is an approved HM Revenue & Customs ISA Manager (Learn more about the James Brearley ISA). It is also possible for us to extend our custody services to other tax wrappers, where we have a growing number of sub-custodian agreements in place with Offshore Life Companies, SIPP administrators, QROPS and QNUPS providers (Learn more about the Pro Icon SIPP). We are happy to speak to other service providers that you may use, if we don’t have a custody agreement in place with them.
Transfer of your clients’ existing investments into the service:
If your clients have existing investments which you wish to transfer into the service, possibly in a certificated form or those held by another custodian or ISA Manager, we can arrange this for you. Please contact us and we will provide you with the relevant forms to support this.
The time it takes to complete the process, once we are in receipt of the relevant forms and documents, varies by the circumstances in question. However, having established your clients’ holdings, be it by the receipt of supporting certificates and statements or following the formal confirmation of those positions held with another custodian, we would expect the process to typically take around 6 weeks to complete. As a word of warning though, we have experienced longer time lengths than this when dealing with overseas stocks especially when they are certificated.
Whilst investments are in the process of being transferred to us, it is not possible to place trade instructions on them.
Whilst we do not charge for the work associated with transferring your clients’ positions into our service, an existing custodian or ISA Manager, may apply a transfer-out charge. We would expect this to be detailed in their service charge card or your terms of business with them.
Cash Balances:
The rate of interest paid on Cash held for your clients’ is detailed in the Platform Services Charge Card below. An element of the interest that we may receive on your clients’ cash balances, will be retained by us. It is more than likely that the rate of interest allocated to your clients’ prevailing cash balances in their general investment accounts and ISAs, will be less than that paid by banks and building societies on their deposit account arrangements.
Your clients prevailing cash balances, are not included in the total portfolio value, used to determine our fees as also detailed in the Platform Services Charge Card below.
Funds Under Administration:
We currently administer clients’ assets and cash totalling in excess of £3.8bn, across approximately 25,000 accounts (correct as at 31st March, 2024).
Keeping you up to date with the progress of your clients’ investments:
We will provide you with dedicated access rights to our web portal where you may view an up to date valuation of any of your clients’ portfolios under our administration and place orders where appropriate. This facility also allows you to view an historical valuation of a client’s portfolio as at the close of play on any business day and generate a performance report.
At the end of each calendar quarter we will provide you with a valuation of your clients’ portfolio, to also include a statement of the cash account and a schedule of the transactions undertaken on the account in the previous 3 months.
Tax related:
Each June, we will provide your clients with a Consolidated Tax Certificate and supporting income schedules, along with a Capital Gains Report where appropriate. Hopefully this will assist either you or them with the completion of their tax returns.
White labelling:
In addition to providing a growing number of intermediary clients with a white labelled web portal to their specified requirements, others also use a version of our client report pack to meet their own reporting requirements for those client portfolios under their management or advice. These are typically provided based on their firm’s own branding.
We also support branded contract notes for those intermediary firms applying their own transaction charges on client orders, others making use of our digital document suite. The latter has provided huge operational efficiencies of late with large incoming client migrations.
Client Servicing:
Central to the delivery of our high levels of client service is the work of our dedicated Online Services Support Team which is at hand to deal with any issues on a prompt and personal basis. The team are highly experienced and build strong working relationships with our intermediary clients. We provide intermediary clients with a Service Overview and a Custody Review report every six months to enable them to assess our service standards, the latest copies of which can be accessed below.
Service Charges:
Our standard service, which includes the custody of your clients’ assets, dealing, quarterly valuation reports an annual consolidated tax certificate, cost & charges statement and transaction reporting, is covered by a simple basis points charge, as detailed in the Platform Services Charge Card below.
Quick Enquiry
If you wish to speak to a member of our Platform Services team, please contact us on the number below or fill in our quick contact form.
01253 831 211