You may recall that I wrote to you in August last year to let you know that Chesterton House Ltd had acquired the whole of the issued share capital of Woodgate Financial Planning Ltd (WFP). I explained that
the two businesses of Chesterton House Financial Planning Ltd (CHFP) and WFP have run in parallel, based on identical systems and procedures and sharing common administration staff and central functions, and that there would be no disruption to the service provided to clients of either business, or to the personnel that you deal with on a daily basis. We have continued to work with Moss Solicitors in relation to the provision of financial services to clients of Moss, and there haven’t been any changes that affect our service to you.
I also said that we would be working to harmonise our systems to reduce duplication of work and improve our efficiencies, and I am writing to let you know about changes that we are planning to implement as from 1st September 2024.
At present CHFP and WFP operate as two separate companies. CHFP Ltd is directly authorised to conduct investment business by the Financial Conduct Authority, and WFP is regulated as an Appointed Representative of CHFP. This arrangement is quite cumbersome and it makes sense to review it.
We would also like to avoid the duplication of work involved in accounting for two separate businesses, including requiring two sets of accounts and reporting, two separate payroll systems, and two sets of agreements with the product providers and suppliers with whom we deal.
We therefore propose to merge the two companies together, and this process will start on 1st September. We will continue to retain the Woodgate brand, staff and systems that you are used to, and for all practical purposes you won’t see any difference in the service that you receive from us. However as from that date you will see that the regulatory statement that appears on our stationery will change to confirm that Woodgate Financial Planning is a trading name of Chesterton House Financial Planning Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. At the same time, existing WFP employment contracts will be transferred to CHFP Ltd, and our bank accounts will be merged. It will take some time for this process to be
completed in full, and there may be some other minor points that also change as the merger takes effect.
This change will require us to issue you with new Terms of Business and update your Service Agreement with us to reflect the revised position. A copy of the revised version, which will take effect from 1st September 2024, is available here for you to read. We will be asking you to sign a copy of the new Terms at your next Progress Meeting, but in the meantime we will assume that you have accepted the Terms unless you tell us otherwise. If you do have any objections, then please let us know by Friday 23rd August 2024.
To further explain the changes we have created a page on our website with more details, and if you have any questions this will help to answer them. You can find it at www.woodgatefp.co.uk/merger.
If you have any other questions about these changes, or about the new Terms, please speak to your usual contact, or you can email me at andy.jervis@chestertonhouse.co.uk and I will respond to you personally. As always, our first consideration is the quality and continuity of the service you receive from us, and we have planned carefully to avoid any unnecessary disruption.
I look forward to continuing to work with you for many years to come.
Yours sincerely
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