Read this if you want a long-term plan for your money and goals.
You’ve built wealth, through a career, a business, property or an inheritance. Now it’s spread across pensions, investments, cash and perhaps a company, and it needs looking after as a whole. As your wealth manager, we’ll provide investment advice, plan what the money is for and help you decide what you’d like to pass on.
Wealth management is for people who already have wealth and want it looked after properly. Your investments sit at the heart of it. Around them sit the tax you pay, how you’ll draw on your money in retirement and what you’d like your family to receive.
At Alan Steel, that all goes into one plan. We look at your pensions, investments, tax and estate planning side by side, so a decision in one place doesn’t cause a problem in another. You’ll have one adviser looking after all of it, with a small, specialised team behind them.
Last reviewed: November 2026
You’ve sold a business, or you’re planning to, and you want a clear plan for the proceeds.
You’ve built up pensions, ISAs and investments over many years, and nobody has ever looked at them together.
You’ve always picked your own funds, but the sums are bigger now and you’d like an expert alongside you.
You’ve inherited a substantial sum or a portfolio, and you’re already thinking about what you’ll pass on in turn.
You’re within ten years of retiring with a sizeable pension and investments, and you want to know how to draw on them in the right order.
You’ve had a letter saying your adviser has left, and you’d like a firm that isn’t about to change hands.
You tell us what you’ve built, what it’s for and what’s on your mind, and we’ll tell you about us. Nobody will ask you to sign anything.
We gather the details on your pensions, investments, business interests, tax and family, then play back your objectives to make sure we’ve understood what you want.
We’ll set out what we’d do and why in a written report, with an investment portfolio that suits your aims and the level of risk that’s right for you. Nothing happens until you’re happy.
We sit down together for a formal review every year, and we’re on the end of the phone in between. When life gets busy, like selling a business, retiring or losing a parent, you’ll see more of us, and those extra meetings don’t cost anything more.
Most people with substantial wealth don’t arrive with a list of financial goals. Many have more than they ever expected to have, and still wonder whether it’ll last. That’s normal, however much you’ve got. So our first job is to work out what you want your money to do.
For a business owner, that might mean taking money out of the company in the right way, then turning it into an income for retirement. For a couple, it might be travelling for the first ten years of retirement, then helping the grandchildren onto the property ladder. For someone with a large estate, it might be keeping their affairs tidy and reducing the inheritance tax their children could face.
Once we know what matters to you, we can pull everything together. Tax matters, but it’s never the only reason to do something. ISAs and pensions are the tools that help you get there. Your portfolio is the engine that powers the plan, and the plan gives your investments somewhere to go.
Many wealth management and advice firms now hand their investment research to someone else. We do ours in the building. Our investment team narrows down the more than 6,000 funds available in the UK, meets fund managers and economists throughout the year, and builds a list of funds we’d be happy to invest our own money in. The fund managers are the players on the field. We’re the manager picking the team.
We build your portfolio from that list, across pensions, ISAs and other tax wrappers. So if you ask why you hold a fund, or how it fits your asset allocation, your adviser can tell you. They were in the room.
We don’t have funds of our own to sell, and nobody pays us to choose theirs. Changes to your portfolio don’t cost you anything, so when we suggest one, it’s because it’s in your best interest. And nothing changes until we’ve talked it through with you.
How much risk you’re willing to take and how much you can afford to take aren’t always the same. Someone with a great deal of secure income and cash may be able to take more risk than they’d like to. Later in life, the question often turns around: with a couple of million pounds in your eighties, you can keep taking risks, but do you need to? We’ll talk that through with you, and revisit it as your life changes.
If you’ll need some of your money within the next three to five years, we’ll usually suggest keeping that part in cash. Your investments need time to do their job.
When markets fall, our advice is usually to sit tight. If the right thing is to do nothing, that’s what we’ll do, and we’ll still be checking every fund in your portfolio while you wait.
We don’t buy individual shares, as we’re not stockbrokers. We build portfolios of funds run by fund managers we’ve researched ourselves. And if what you need is a one-off piece of advice, such as life cover or an annuity, our financial adviser page covers that side of what we do.
You pay an initial fee when we set up your plan, then an ongoing fee. That ongoing fee covers both your financial planning and the management of your investments, where some firms ask you to pay for those separately. Extra meetings in a busy year don’t cost anything more.
If you’ve managed your own money until now and never paid for advice, the numbers can look a bit scary at first. That’s normal, and we’ll talk it through with you before you decide anything.
People know the price, but the value is harder to see. For some, it’s having someone on their side who knows their whole picture. For others, it’s help with the family and estate planning, or understanding why they hold each fund. When markets fall and the headlines get loud, you can pick up the phone to us. Keeping you in your seat when things get choppy is a big part of what we’re here for.
You’ll have one adviser with a small team of two or three behind them, so there’s no switchboard and no being passed around. When you phone, you speak to someone who knows you, your family and your affairs. Some of our advisers have looked after the same clients for 30 years, and we often go on to help their children and grandchildren too.
We’ve been looking after clients for 50 years, and we’re employee-owned. You won’t read in the paper that we’ve been sold or taken over, which is why we expect to be here for a long time yet.
Looking after clients for 50 years
Employee-owned and independent
Help from one Advisor and team who know you
Our wealth management team works with business owners, senior professionals and families who’ve built or inherited substantial wealth. They’ll look at your investments, pensions, retirement, tax and family plans together, and they’ll always explain why each fund in your portfolio is there.
A wealth manager works with people who already have wealth to look after. The work is led by investments, with tax, retirement and family planning built around them. A financial adviser covers a wider range for people at every stage, including one-off pieces such as life cover, protection or an annuity. The terms overlap a lot, and even advisers draw the line in different places. Our financial adviser page explains the wider side of what we do.
You pay an initial fee when we set up your plan, then an ongoing fee that covers your financial planning and the management of your investments together. Changes to your investments don’t cost anything extra, and neither do extra meetings when you need more of our help. We’ll talk you through the costs in plain English before you agree to anything.
It depends on what you need, and it’s a fair question to ask. For business owners and people with substantial pensions and investments, the value often comes from getting the tax right (including capital gains tax), taking the right amount of risk and having a plan for the family. It also comes from having someone in your corner when markets fall, to help you stay calm and stick to the plan. Investments can fall as well as rise.
Ask the questions our own clients asked us before trusting anyone with their wealth. Is the firm independent? Will you deal with the same person each time? Who owns the business, and could it be sold? Does your adviser understand the investments, or does someone else handle that? And what will it cost at the start and every year after? A good firm will be happy to answer all of these plainly.
No. Nothing changes without your approval first. If our research shows a fund isn’t pulling its weight, your adviser will explain why and what we’d suggest instead, and the decision is always yours. Some wealth managers make changes without checking with you first. We’d rather you were part of every decision, because it’s your money.
Our first conversation is free, and we’ll tell you before any work starts exactly what it will cost. Fees depend on how complex your situation is and the level of ongoing service you choose. We’ll set everything out in writing, including any charges from the providers we recommend, so you can see the full cost before you decide whether to go ahead.
We provide independent advice that is tailored to your specific situation and financial goals.
Read this if you want a long-term plan for your money and goals.
Read this if you want your savings managed around your goals and risk.
Read this if you have several old pensions or want to plan your income.
Tell us what you’ve built and what you’d like it to do for you. We’ll listen, tell you a bit about us and be honest about whether we’re the right people to help. There’s no pressure, and nothing to sign.
