Alexandre Bernier

LLM (UK) · CFP® · CIM® · PFP®

Financial Planner and Founder, FinanceToolz.co.uk. 18 years in banking and wealth management.

Content on this site last reviewed: August 2026

Why a UK site

I spent 18 years in banking and wealth management, working with people on the unglamorous parts of money: what a pension actually pays, whether to overpay a mortgage, how much of a bonus survives contact with the tax system. Along the way I took the CFP®, CIM® and PFP® designations, and later a master of laws in the United Kingdom.

That last qualification is the reason this site is British. UK tax rules are unusually self-contradictory in places, the 60% band between £100,000 and £125,140 that nobody legislated deliberately, four student loan plans with different thresholds and interest rules, a stamp duty regime that changed three times in as many years. Legal training makes it possible to go to the primary source, read what the statute and HMRC guidance actually say, and build the calculator from that rather than from another website's summary.

The combination is deliberate. The CFP®, CIM® and PFP® designations are Canadian, and they give the structure for thinking about someone's whole financial position, because the framework travels even though the tax code does not. The UK master of laws supplies what the framework cannot: the specific British rules that decide the numbers. The calculators here are the ones I wanted when I was doing this work by hand.

I also run financialtools.ca and financetoolz.com, the Canadian and US versions of the same idea.

Credentials

LLM (UK), Master of Laws, United Kingdom

A UK postgraduate law degree. It is the reason this site exists in its British form: reading the Finance Act, the Income Tax Act and HMRC manuals directly, rather than relying on secondary summaries, is what keeps the calculators accurate when a Budget changes the rules.

CFP®, Certified Financial Planner (FP Canada)

The international benchmark for financial planning, awarded here by FP Canada. Requires examination across tax, retirement, investment and estate planning, relevant professional experience, a code of ethics, and ongoing continuing education. CFP® certification exists in the UK too, administered by the CISI. The standard is comparable, but this one is Canadian.

CIM®, Chartered Investment Manager (Canadian Securities Institute)

A Canadian discretionary portfolio management designation covering portfolio construction, securities analysis and the fiduciary duties that attach to managing other people’s money.

PFP®, Personal Financial Planner (Canadian Securities Institute)

A Canadian personal financial planning designation covering the full client picture: cash flow, debt, insurance, tax and retirement.

Verify these credentials

Anyone can claim letters after their name. These registries let you check mine independently, please do.

FP Canada Planner Directory, profile 367477
CFP® certificant ID 367477
A direct link to the public certificant record. FP Canada administers CFP® certification in Canada, and the directory is the authoritative check on whether that certification is current.
Canadian Securities Institute CIM® designation lookup
CIM® and PFP®
CSI does not publish per-person permalinks, so search the directory for "Alexandre Bernier". The PFP® designation is corroborated on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn
Full professional history, and corroborates the PFP® designation.

These are Canadian designations. They are not UK regulatory authorisations and do not permit regulated advice in the UK. See the note below.

What this site is, and what it is not

FinanceToolz is an educational resource. The calculators are built from official HMRC and GOV.UK figures and are reviewed against those sources, but they are general information, not a personal recommendation.

Neither I nor FinanceToolz is authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Nothing here is regulated financial advice, and no output from these tools should be treated as a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any product. For advice on your own circumstances, speak to an FCA-authorised adviser, and check them on the FCA Financial Services Register first.

How the content is researched, sourced and corrected is set out in the editorial policy. If you spot an error, please tell me. Corrections are triaged the same week.