A little bit

about us

Centurion Chartered Financial Planners is a General Practice firm of Chartered Financial Planners. We provide top quality, technically competent financial & investment advice, at a fair and reasonable price.

Centurion Chartered Financial Planners offers a truly independent, transparent & diverse range of financial planning solutions, delivered by passionate, highly qualified specialists, who work as one team across the southwest of England and in Wales. As a general practice, comprised of specialists, we are able to fully support individuals and professionals with independent financial advice that puts our clients’ best interests first, at all times.

As a firm we are proud to hold the prestigious title ‘Chartered Financial Planners’, awarded by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). This is the ‘gold standard’ of excellence and integrity.

Our mission:

We want to change the way financial advice is provided.

We are fiercely independent and offer unrestricted advice. Our first duty is to our client. We don’t manage investments, which means we are in the uncommon position of holding investment managers to account on behalf of our clients. This also enables us to keep our fees low and fair. We are fully transparent on all charges.

We understand that the long-term success of our firm is inextricably linked to our clients’ satisfaction. We also understand that the way we treat our staff and those who work around us is almost equally important. We have a 99% annual client retention rate thanks to the exceptional level of care and attention we offer to our clients.

Our Values

Built on Experience

We are a team of highly qualified and very knowledgeable Practitioners, who have an average of well over 20 years experience each. We are supported by a very experienced, and very able, back office team.

One Team

We operate as one team. Any client is a client of our firm, not of a single individual. We ensure you have several points of contact and in many cases that you know at least two Advisers. We collaborate with each other and share our knowledge and experience mainly because we believe a this provides the best possible Advice.

Trust above all else

We are very conscious that all our clients, but particularly those in these situations, are placing utmost trust in our ability and our ethics. We do not let them down.

Your success, is our success

While we’re a business, we’re people, not profit driven. We are committed to supporting our clients’ best interests and those of the people we employ. We take the time to listen, empathise, support, and value collaboration. We work hard to ensure our business is effective, sustainable and is an attractive place to work. This means our plans for succession and careful growth do not impact our mission to remain independent, to offer outstanding client care and ensure confidence in our services, at all times. That’s why we’re clear and transparent on our fees and are open about our practices and values.

What we do

Services

Business Owners & Professionals
Care Fees Planning
Court of Protection
Divorce & Relationship Breakdown
Equity Release
Expert Witness
General Practitioner
Personal Injury & Clinical Negligence
Retirement Planning & At Retirement
Special Needs
Tax Efficient Investing
Trust Investment

How we do it

At Centurion, we start with you. Our independent status enables us to look at your specific needs, assed by our highly qualified and experienced financial advisors – all of whom are specialists in their field.

Our overall aim is to bring you peace of mind that your finances have been properly organised and will be continually overseen to give you the best possible chance of achieving your goals.

Financial planning is not a ‘one-off’ event, it is a continually evolving process, and most clients require their situation to be regularly reviewed to take account of realignments in their personal circumstances and objectives or regulation changes.

Generally, we adopt the continually revolving six-step process designed by the International Financial Planning Standards Board. It’s straightforward and allows for a plan to be revisited at any time.

  • Initial Meeting

    Establish your goals in life over the short, medium and long term – and assign them an order of priority, recognising the need to strike a balance between sometimes conflicting aspirations.

  • Discovery

    Gather data about your current circumstances and financial position and any foreseeable changes to either.

  • Analysis

    Analyse that data and evaluate your current financial position – and establish how close you are to achieving your goals.

  • Recommendations

    Create a plan – this is a route map of actions that we develop, and which is designed (as far as is feasible) to achieve your different goals. This will generally involve some degree of Cashflow Modelling and access to a specialist Investment Service.

  • Implementation

    We then discuss this plan with you, make sure it meets your requirements, adapt it if required and put the agreed plan into action – working as required.

  • Investment Managment

    On an ongoing basis, meeting with you to discuss matters at least yearly and adjusting the plan as required to make sure it stays on track.

Our Experts

We aim to give you the very highest standard of financial planning advice, delivered by friendly, professional and highly qualified, empathetic advisers.

VIEW OUR TEAM

We firmly believe in investing in our people and support them to achieve qualifications, and to maintain their high standards. Our growing team of 10 highly qualified advisers mostly hold top level Chartered or Certified Financial Planning qualifications and several also hold a wide range of additional specialist accreditations. By attracting highly qualified specialist financial advisers, Centurion can offer a true general practice to meet all our clients’ needs, without compromising on quality.

Centurion supports and enables our advisers to forge a specialist path to support vulnerable clients, with the vast majority holding qualifications and industry certifications held by only a handful of advisers in the UK, such as the Resolution Specialist Accreditation for financial expertise in Divorce work. We also offer the largest number of SOLLA (Society of Later Life Advisers) accredited financial advisers in the UK. Many of these are also qualified Dementia Friends or Dementia Champions.

Each member of staff (not just our advisers) undertake formal Vulnerable Client Training and Centurion subscribes to the Vulnerability Taskforce Code of Conduct. Our memberships and specialist accreditations are vast – and each detailed in our specialist area pages, accessible here for individuals and here for professionals.

We are also highly regarded expert witnesses on matters where financial advisors have been negligent in their advice to individuals and professionals. Our independent advisors are incredibly passionate about supporting vulnerable members of society and have pursued further qualifications and experience in specialist areas, which can be found below, to ensure all of our clients are given the financial advice they need, deserve and can trust.

Our passion for our clients means we’re also able to invest in support that doesn’t benefit us, but because we believe it is the right thing to do. For example, we offer Benefits Advice through a partnership with Exeter Citizens Advice. Any profit from this service is donated to the Citizens Advice Bureau to support its important work.

What our clients say

We have been clients since November 2019. Our personal advisor is Mr Ian Avery, who we have dealt with in this capacity for a number of years, and is someone we hold in the highest regard. He always takes time to listen properly to us, and has an excellent understanding of our situation and requirements. We have always been given an in depth insight into our situation and options and the investment solutions he has recommended have always been explained and presented in a way we find easy to understand and follow. We have no hesitation in recommending both Ian Avery and the firm as providers of excellent service in all respects.

A Client

As a client of Centurion Chartered Financial Planners for over 9 years, I have always found them to be helpful, innovative and security conscious. James, my investments administrator, clearly has a good understanding of my plans and the schedule of associated actions, alerting me whenever I have a task to complete.

Nic

Client

As a client Of Centurion for a number of years we are more than satisfied that our financial future is in a safe pair of hands with the advice we have been given. In particular Dave Robinson is a very experienced financial advisor and his great knowledge makes him one of the leaders in all aspects of financial planning.

Mr & Mrs PG

Clients

Independent Ratings

In 2022, Centurion was approached as one of the first organisations to open our doors to RQ Ratings, an annual due diligence report for professionals to help them review and refer with confidence to independent financial planners. It contains information on our market-leading client track record, our qualifications, our governance, KPIs, value for money and more.

The latest report can be accessed here.

We are proud to have been given an overall independent RQ Rating of 4.9 out of 5 – the highest rating given to any independent financial planning firm to date. RQ Ratings states that this score ensures professionals ‘can very confidently refer’ clients to Centurion.

Some of those law firms have built such a strong relationship with us that we have been able to run joint ventures with law firms in England and Wales thanks to our collaborative approach, independent position and our expertise and sustainable business practices.

Centurion is responsible for the investment of over £400m of client capital. This is managed, under our oversight, on an arms-length basis and on special terms by some of the largest and best-known investment managers in the UK.

It is our key aim to remain independent, which helps our clients achieve the best possible outcomes for their financial needs. We are proud of our clear succession plans within the business and the collaborative, supportive and diverse culture we have created that enables us to attract, retain and grow the largest number of highly qualified and accredited advisers in the UK.

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