The work, plainly stated
Riverstone is a sole-adviser practice with a small team of qualified support staff. Imogen Hartley — Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and a Chartered Diploma in Personal Finance — has led every client relationship in the firm since founding. The work is concentrated around three things: producing retirement income that lasts, structuring wealth so it passes well between generations, and reviewing both each year against a changing landscape.
We take on a small number of new clients each year, and only after a no-obligation conversation in which we work out together whether we are the right fit. Most enquiries arrive through referral; we do not advertise for new business beyond this website.
How we work
We will sit with you, in person at our Cirencester office or at your home, and we will work through the planning that matters to you. We do not start with products. We start with what you want your wealth to do — for you in retirement, for the people who depend on you, and for the institutions and causes you may want to support after you are gone.
When we make a recommendation, we will write it down. We will show you the numbers we used, the assumptions behind them, and where the risks lie. If we have considered an alternative and rejected it, we will tell you why. Our annual suitability review is not a marketing document — it is a clear, dated record of where you stand, what has changed, and what we are doing next.
Our fee
We charge a flat annual fee, agreed in advance and unrelated to the value of your portfolio. This means we have no commercial reason to recommend you hold more or fewer assets with us than serves your circumstances. If a year is unusually heavy — a transfer, an inheritance, a major restructure — we will agree the cost of that work in writing before we begin.
We are not the cheapest firm in the county. We aim to be the firm whose advice still reads well twenty years after it was given.
Our values
We believe a good adviser leaves clear paper. We believe complexity in financial advice is usually a sign the adviser has not done their work. We believe that the right scale for this practice is small — small enough that Imogen knows every client, and that no piece of advice goes out the door without being read by another qualified pair of eyes.
A good plan is one you can read aloud to your children and have them understand it. If it does not pass that test, we have more work to do.
