RobMac has been at the forefront of the financial planning industry for the last 28 years. Based in the centre of Edinburgh, the firm successfully manages more than £150m for clients throughout the world. RobMac formed in 1992 on the premise that, whatever was happening in the world, its clients would be at the heart of everything the firm does. While the world and its financial markets, products and regulations have changed regularly, and sometimes dramatically, over this period, the principles on which the company was founded have not. RobMac values every client, those who have aged with the firm, their children, friends and the many others that have joined along the way. The business listens closely to every requirement, researches the market fully, and then puts in place the best financial plans to match clients’ needs, for now and the future. The business uses the latest technology and best market research to source the best investment opportunities. Most importantly of all, it employs the best staff and ensures they are qualified to the highest levels to analyse clients’ needs and advise clients on the best solutions.
Intelligent Pensions was established in 1998 in central Glasgow and has clients all over the UK. Specialising in pensions and retirement, the company was a pioneer when it came to using technology and computer analysis to help with financial retirement planning. It is able to deliver a tailored computerised ‘model’ for every client for many years, which helps clients engage, visualise and understand their retirement planning strategy. The firm prides itself on taking the time to understand clients’ circumstances and objectives, which ensures that its services are never off the peg, but always perfectly tailored to suit each client. It has received several awards, including the Pension Transfer Gold Standard from The Personal Finance Society and an Investor in Customers Silver Award. As part of its corporate social responsibility, Intelligent Pensions has established a relationship with leading water cooler company AquAid, which partners with charities to help supply clean, fresh drinking water to some of the poorest people on the planet. Last year Intelligent Pensions sponsored the construction of a water pump in Africa.
Johnston Carmichael Wealth's 18-strong team of financial advisers provides a complete service to clients and as part of Johnston Carmichael, Scotland’s largest firm of independent chartered accountants and business advisers. It benefits from the wider financial expertise of colleagues across the company’s network of 13 offices. The firm's independent status means it has its clients’ interests at heart. As quality accredited chartered financial planners, the firm has demonstrated its commitment to financial planning and always applies the highest standards of professionalism and best practice. It regularly run seminars and networking events on topical business considerations for both businesses and private clients. Johnston Carmichael is also committed to corporate social responsibility. Over the last decade it has raised more than £450,000 for charitable causes and is a gold sponsor of the Kiltwalk, a fund-raising platform for Scottish charities and projects, in which people raise money for a charity of their choice by participating in a walking event. Through Kiltwalk, the firm helps support the communities in which they live and work. In 2019 one of the Wealth team completed all four Kiltwalks (over 100 miles).
Northern Ireland’s biggest financial planning firm Johnston Campbell has been advising clients for more than 40 years. It offers independent financial advice to both private individuals and businesses. The firm has a number of Scottish clients, and in normal circumstances flies out regularly to meet them. Its website has a useful ‘savings calculator’, which allows prospective clients to see how much and for how long they would have to save for something, such as a wedding or education fees. It is an effective way of showing the difference having a financial planner can make. Johnston Campbell calls its ethos the 3Cs, meaning ‘clients, colleagues and character’. The firm demonstrates this ethos by working as a team committed to exceeding its clients’ expectations. While the firm prioritises its clients, it also ensures its staff are happy. Johnston Campbell’s voluntary corporate social responsibility committee meets once a month to decide which cause to allocate £1,000 of profit to. Causes might include sponsoring staff to take part in charity events, direct donations to a local homeless charity, or promoting staff health and wellbeing initiatives.
Chartered financial planning firm Argyle Consulting places great emphasis on relationship building, which is an approach that has served it well given that it is now one of Scotland’s biggest planners, with offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Argyle offers a holistic service by building connections with accountants, lawyers, tax advisers and actuaries. It prefers a collaborative approach with partners in order to guide clients through the planning journey. The firm works with both corporate and private clients as well as trustees and charities across the UK. It opened its doors in 1997, when operations were managed by four founding partners and one other member of staff. It broke through the £1b AUM barrier shortly after the start of its 20th year. Client engagement is primarily face to face, though since March it has mainly been via video and voice calls. Clients are kept up to date through regular communication and a quarterly newsletter. Client satisfaction is high, with about two thirds of new clients coming via existing client referrals. The company is committed to looking after its staff and is a recipient of the Investors in People Platinum award. It was the first UK IFA to be given this accolade.
Founded in 1975, and having racked up numerous awards since then, Alan Steel Asset Management is widely acknowledged to be one of Scotland’s most prominent financial advice businesses. The firm, in the picturesque town of Linlithgow, bases its proposition on a five-pronged philosophy of knowledge, integrity, innovation, fairness and fun. Many who have visited the office will have been told this in person by chairman Alan Steel, whose office is full of books on advice and investing. When Steel founded the business, he had little more than a rented desk and telephone. Those days now seem far away, not only due to the four-and-half decades that have passed, but also because the firm is now a major player in UK advice, which has been achieved without a single merger, acquisition or big name hire. While based in Scotland, Alan Steel Asset Management’s client base stretches across the UK and Channel Islands, and numerous other nations too. Despite the international reach of the business, Steel insists that the culture of the firm reflects the values he learned in his hometown of Bo’ness (Borrowstounness, on the south bank of the Firth of Forth). ‘You don’t let anybody down because they’re friends and clients, and you’ve known them a long time,’ he told us in 2017. The focus remains on investment expertise and wider financial planning advice. Steel notes that in many respects the service offered is akin to what clients might receive at a family office.
McCrea Financial Services is a name that will be familiar to many in Scotland. One of Glasgow’s biggest independent advice firms, it is a regular sponsor of rugby union’s Glasgow Warriors and Partick Thistle football club. The company engages many new clients from referrals and maintains a strong brand presence. Clients come from a variety of professions and backgrounds, and range from young professionals and the self-employed to retirees. As well as offering in-depth financial planning, the company has been giving specialist mortgage advice for more than 20 years. The business has recently launched DFM portfolios, including three ethical portfolio options. In a recent interview with Scotland on Sunday, managing director Douglas McCrea emphasised how client rapport is crucial for proper planning, even when meetings need to be held via video. ‘Relationship building is critical when it comes to giving good financial advice, because to know and understand your client’s circumstances is vital,’ he said. The business has raised more than £500,000 for local and national charities. The firm holds a golf day and a race night, and the team regularly takes on challenges, including the Three Peaks and, in 2019, a combined trek around the Arran Coastal Path and along Cowal Way. Something of an adventurer, McCrea plans to paraglide off the Isle of Arran. Scottish weather being what it is, his attempts to take the leap (about 30 so far) have been thwarted.
SAM is a small but highly experienced operation comprising two businesses: Strategic Asset Managers, founded in 2001, and SAM Wealth LLP, launched in 2012. Both businesses are an integral part of the SAM family, adhering to the same high standards of client service, staff training, professional knowledge and expertise, and with the client firmly at the centre. Glasgow-based SAM was founded with a determination to provide high-quality, partner-led, trusted independent financial advice. Led by an experienced management team, the four partners and 11 technical staff are focused on delivering great value and excellent customer service. The firm continues to champion efforts to introduce greater cost transparency for clients and their investments. Next year the business enters its third decade and will remain committed to establishing and maintaining long-term relationships of trust with its clients and investment partners. SAM takes the time to listen to clients to understand their current position and their past experiences, both good and bad, and discover how those have shaped their attitude to money. The business advises people from all walks of life, including the self-employed, company directors, entrepreneurs, retirees and their families.
Thomson Cooper Wealth’s three advisers are chartered financial planners, and two of them are also fellows of the PFS. They each have considerable knowledge and experience of portfolio and investment management and are supported by a skilled administration team. They offer a range of professional financial planning services to clients, the majority of whom have been with the firm for more than 15 years. Known for its integrity and transparency, Thomson Cooper Wealth has galvanised its reputation for providing high-quality advice and responsive customer service with significant corporate and private client growth through personal recommendations. Regular updates and timely communications have helped develop strong client relationships. The firm has invested in software and training to streamline processes, and runs client events to encourage greater engagement. Head of wealth management Bruce Hendry has led the firm’s recent restructuring and expansion. As well as being a chartered wealth manager, he has also lectured at Edinburgh and Dundee universities. Richard Libberton is the chairman of the PFS’s Central Scotland regional committee, and an advocate for diversity and improving standards in advice. The wealth division is part of Thomson Cooper Accountants. The firm has been helping clients grow their business, solve problems and minimise their tax liabilities since 1949. It has around 100 members of staff, with offices in Dunfermline and central Edinburgh. As well as accounting, business advisory and tax services, it also provides audit, outsourcing, cloud accounting, software training and insolvency services.
Founded in 2002, VWM Wealth is an independent boutique firm driven by high standards. In November 2019 it was awarded Chartered Financial Planning Firm of the Year by the PFS. Headquartered in Glasgow, with meeting rooms in London, the award-winning team comprises a group of talented people. The firm decided that what the big companies were offering wasn’t good enough, so it set out to create something different, with quality at its heart. It takes the very best from what the profession offers, from the best people to the best technology, and invests in both so that the business delivers a deeper, more meaningful, life-long service to clients’ families. The business has integrated discretionary investment management and developed a network of like-minded professionals, including chartered tax advisers and family lawyers, to ensure clients receive a specialist approach to their wealth. This service was created so that the firm could take responsibility for clients’ needs, react more quickly and deliver exactly what clients are looking for. VWM’s approach to wealth planning goes deeper than looking at client finances from an individual ‘product’ point of view. It understands that the clients’ lifestyle is precious, that they have worked hard, made wise decisions and been successful. The firm always wants to help clients achieve their ambitions.
Wellington Wealth is a boutique family business located in the heart of Glasgow. The firm’s main aim is to spread joy and run a business that people want to work with. Every client is unique. The best client outcomes result from working together, so Wellington Wealth has a strong, bonded team who work collaboratively and strive to learn more and get even better every day. The firm maintains that life is for living and that fun is compulsory. Wellington Wealth loves making a difference to clients’ lives. Talking a language clients understand and explaining things clearly makes a difference to client engagement and ensures a steady flow of business through client referrals. Wellington Wealth’s four-year history has seen continuous growth and development, and the coming year is going to be the most exciting yet, with ambitious plans for the team, clients and office space. The firm is unusual within the industry for being led by two women, sisters in fact, but they don’t dwell on that point as they believe a diversified workforce should be the norm. Always ready to see the positives in a situation, Wellington Wealth is excited by the opportunities Covid-19 has brought to drive the industry forward, not least in technology, which was a wave it was already surfing.
McHardy Group employs more than 40 people in its five offices across Scotland. Client relationships are key. They are what the business is built on. The chartered financial planning firm has been providing the highest level of financial expertise and advice on savings, investments, insurance and retirement planning since 1987. The financial planners give financial peace of mind, allowing clients to enjoy the life they want to live now and in the future. Clients would typically visit the office, where the firm would use technology to assist them with the financial planning process,which might include cash flow modelling. Like all businesses, the company has faced challenges during lockdown. Fortunately, McHardy continued to meet the needs of its clients by getting its team working from home quickly by acquiring a substantial number of laptops and new software, including Microsoft Teams. While McHardy prefers to interact with clients in person, it can now at least see them, and share information and reports with them, over a screen.
Acumen Financial Planning, headquartered in Aberdeen, is well-established as one of Scotland’s most successful independent advice businesses. The firm, which has won three of the past four New Model Adviser awards for Scotland and Northern Ireland, is also one of the few within the UK that is both accredited and chartered by the CII and CISI respectively. Acumen has a presence across Scotland, with offices in Edinburgh, Elgin and Peterhead. Its recent acquisition in Glasgow, Forty Two Financial Planning, will become part of Acumen Financial Planning in November 2020. Acumen specialises in pensions and retirement planning, savings and investments, tax planning and estate planning. Its employee benefits service, Acumen Employee Benefits, was established as a limited company in 2019. Based at its Aberdeen office, it serves companies across the UK. Managing director Sandy Robertson no longer advises clients but is a longstanding figurehead of the firm, and a well-recognised figure and leader within Scottish advice. He coordinates the businesses and acquisitions across the financial planning group, which currently includes Enrich Tax Consultancy, Medical & Dental Financial Planners, Acumen Employee Benefits and Beanstalk (online-only financial planning for millennials). Since 2014, directors Keith Mackie and David Gow have taken on more responsibility for the long-term direction and strategy, both taking a stake in the firm. Acumen was established 18 years ago and has positioned itself as a pioneering firm in Scottish financial planning. This is evidenced by its commitment to qualifications but also goes back to a time when planning as a service was less typical. Acumen was one of the first firms to offer financial planning as a standalone service, and also one of the first to develop in-house cashflow modelling.
Chartered financial planning firm Fitzallan was founded in 2004 by directors Gregor Johnston and Neil Brennan, when former employer, Ernst & Young (E&Y), exited the regulated financial advice market. They were soon joined by a number of their former E&Y colleagues, since when the team has continued to grow. Both Johnston and Brennan remain key client advisers, with the advisory team boosted in recent years by Gill Hunter from Grant Thornton and the promotion of ‘homegrown’ Pamela Walters, both chartered financial planners. Fitzallan’s advisers are well-supported by an experienced and qualified team of paraplanners and administrators. The business continues on a ‘steady growth’ trajectory to ensure it continues to satisfy the requirements of existing and new clients. The firm’s client base comprises high net worth individuals, businesses and trusts, and includes professional service partners, business executives and lottery winners. Fitzallan’s clients around the UK meet their advice team at least once a year. Advisers work closely with client and other professional advisers, and regularly have combined meetings. Fitzallan also uses advanced cashflow modelling to help clients visualise their plans for the future, and relationships exist with generations of clients’ families to ensure continuity of advice and service.
Founded in 2005 by Julian Parrott and Martin Wight, Ethical Futures was way ahead of the ESG and ethical investing curve. This means that it is well versed in spotting ‘greenwashing’ in investment houses. If the Ethical Futures team finds ethical funds with holdings that it does not understand, it prides itself on lobbying the investment houses for reasons as to why they are included, and will work to have holdings excluded if the houses cannot provide the required justification. The Edinburgh-based firm advises people from all walks of life and all levels of income. Its policy is that as long as a client can afford the fees and it makes sense to engage with the firm, then it will be happy to advise them. Ethical Futures practise what it preaches. Its website features the firm’s ethical policy, which outlines the steps it is taking to be an ethical firm. These range from how it engages with clients and suppliers, to how many hours staff are expected to work per week. It also states how it is actively trying to minimise its environmental impact by doing things such as only using public transport when attending meetings and using recycled and sustainable office materials. Founder Parrott personally gets involved in promoting ethical and responsible investments to the adviser community. He is on the Ethical Investment Oversight committee for Parmenion IM, on the Edentree Amity Panel, the FCA Smaller Business Practitioner Panel, and he is a director of the Ethical Finance Hub.
Stewardship Wealth is based in the small town of Westhill in Aberdeenshire, about seven miles west of Aberdeen. The firm was set up with three values at its core: faith, family and philanthropy. In line with this, they provide funding to key areas of need. Each year they commit 10% of total income to charities and local causes; this year the firm is on target to give £40,000. Stewardship Wealth provides personal hands-on support to local initiatives. One of the main ones is called Storehouse. This is a food bank feeding families and individuals in the north east of Scotland. They currently feed about 900 people. Through discretionary gifts, Stewardship Wealth also supports many other causes. The list of which is extensive and diverse. Further afield, they help fund education in Uganda, and housing for orphans in Malawi. More locally, the firm supports ex-offender rehabilitation, debt counselling, and local health charities – both physical and mental. Furthermore, they offer an Employee Volunteering Programme, which provides five days fully paid volunteer leave for all staff. The firm has chartered status from the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), positioning them among some of the best financial planning firms in terms of status, qualifications, technical competence, ethics, client service and ongoing client support.
AAB Wealth has offices in Aberdeen and London, and they recently expanded into Edinburgh. The firm has cemented itself as one of the leading advice firms in Scotland. It is part of the Anderson, Anderson and Brown (AAB) group, meaning they have access to specialist tax advisers, so clients can have both their financial planning and tax affairs managed under one roof. AAB has been awarded chartered status by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). This title is only awarded to firms that meet rigorous criteria relating to professionalism and capability. Moreover, the firm has been included in the Sunday Times best companies to work for on a couple of occasions now. The new AAB office in Edinburgh was supplemented by hiring a specialist business development director in the city to bring in new clients. In doing so, their assets under advice have grown to over £350m. Outside of this regional expansion, AAB Wealth has focused on growing its adviser team by promoting talent within. This has involved creating a three-year plan that gives recruits a clear path from offering service support all the way to becoming a chartered financial planner.
Just north of Sutton Coldfield sits the small village of Wall, where Intelligent Wealth Management Partnership (IWMP) is based. IWMP’s methods are based on scientific approaches to investment management. They use investment strategies that have been proven to work over time. The firm has a specific order for planning. The first step is to find out exactly what the clients currently have and see if it is fit for purpose or if it could be improved. They then look at any areas clients may have missed. This involves planning for potential setbacks, for example, how the client’s family would cope in different circumstances if the client were suddenly unable to work. The next phase is goal setting, which usually means getting clients to a level of personal wealth where they feel comfortable enough to make life-changing decisions, such as retiring or changing their career. Finally, they put together a plan for how this can be achieved with evidence-based strategies, while minimising tax and maximising the potential returns.
Based in Glasgow City Centre, McKnight Financial Group is an innovative financial services business comprising two brands: McKnight Financial and Tru Wealth. Established over 10 years ago, the more traditional brand, McKnight Financial, has always had clients at the core of everything the firm does, and focuses on building excellent relationships with clients, as well as offering expert independent advice. From the very early days, the business has evolved primarily through client recommendations and McKnight believes that building a relationship with clients is the best way to ensure they meet their financial objectives. In 2017, sister brand Tru Wealth was developed with the aim of making financial services accessible to everyone and developing a more diverse client bank. Tru Wealth has gone from strength to strength over the last three years by offering a client-focused, tailor-made service for each individual the firm engages with. This year the firm decided to explore new communication options with both brands and developed a client portal that allows the group to offer a fully interactive and secure digital communications system. This allows clients to check their portfolios on both a web portal and app, communicate securely with their adviser, as well as other features such as storing any important documents or syncing their bank accounts. This is in the process of being rolled out to all clients and The McKnight Financial Group believes it will enhance its offering and give clients the very best experience.
Phil Anderson Financial Services was started in November 2010. The firm aims to make financial planning as straightforward and easy for its clients as it can. They have offices in Aberdeen, Ellon and Caithness and they cover a large geographical area of Scotland. They are currently looking to recruit more staff for a larger office in Wick as they accelerate their growth plans. The business has won several prestigious business awards. In 2018 they were awarded Employer of the Year at the Pride of Aberdeen Awards. They have also been recognised at the Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce Northern Star Awards and managing director, Phil Anderson, puts the company’s success down to its hardworking team. The team at Phil Anderson Financial Services take a modern approach to financial planning. They have been offering Zoom, Teams and FaceTime meetings for over a year now and Phil has recently started a personal finance podcast in his quest to help people with their money matters. As well as the wealth management side, they also have a very busy mortgage division and last year they won Best Firm, Scotland at the NatWest local hero mortgage awards. They are great believers in ‘giving back’ and at the start of the pandemic they gave away £2,000 worth of gin to key workers. They also gave away £500 of coffee to key workers and the business sponsors many local sports teams and clubs. They are a financial planning firm at the heart of their community.
Welcome to New Model Adviser’s regional Top 20s, in partnership with PIMCO. As part of our commitment to the regions across the UK, we have launched our regional Top 20 publications, showcasing some of the best firms within financial planning and wealth management. We are selecting 20 firms in the Midlands, Scotland, Southeast, Southwest and the North of England. Each list will focus on the firms we think are doing great work building bonds with clients and driving the profession forward, both in terms of growth and best practice. This special publication corresponds with our virtual regional roundtables, also in partnership with PIMCO, which focuses on building bonds with clients, particularly during a pandemic and challenging lockdowns. For this issue, we’re looking north of the border to focus on Scotland. Our list looks at the firms who are championing great advice, especially during a year where all firms have had to adapt and overcome difficulties to ensure they are still providing clients with great service. There are plenty of great financial advisers working across the UK, and those listed in these pages are providing dedicated services throughout Scotland. One of the biggest things that shines through, regardless of which firm you speak to, is that it’s all about the clients.
The huge disruption the pandemic has caused is having ripple effects within the way financial advisers and providers communicate with each other and their clients. Still, issues such as the advice gap and preparing for the big wealth transfer to the next generation continue to pose challenges to consumers and the way they perceive financial advice as a profession. In the first of a series of regional events across the UK organised by PIMCO and Citywire, advisers from the Midlands and city fund managers met on Zoom to share their views on how to build and maintain long-lasting client relationships. Communication is key Communication with clients has inevitably been more frequent since the Covid-19 outbreak, advisers say, but working towards maintaining a high level of trust with clients hasn’t changed because of the pandemic. ‘Being yourself and telling the truth’ has been the constant mantra for Philip McGovern, managing director for Henley-in-Arden-based MPA Financial Management. ‘Clients trust truth, and obviously, continue to produce solutions for what they want to do during their lifetimes and try to satisfy their goals’. But sometimes, building durable relationships doesn’t have to be centered around financial statements and investment talk – a simple, kind gesture can do the trick. For example, Gary Metcalf, director at Gemini Wealth Management, shared the inspirational and heartfelt book, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, with a client, who spent lockdown on his own. ‘The feedback I had was amazing,’ says Metcalf. ‘Nothing to do with financial services, just showing that you think about them and you care about them. I do a lot of that sort of stuff with my clients, and it works, and they tell other people and it’s a good referral tool, as well.’ The event’s participants have also discussed building relationships with fund providers, where other dynamics are in place. Joseph McCurdy, vice president and account manager at PIMCO, says timely and appropriate communication and the ability to avoid information overload is what emerged the most during the pandemic in his business relationship with advisers. ‘You do have to be able to know when to step in, but sometimes you have to know when to step out,’ says McCurdy. ‘Going through that period, it’s providing people with the appropriate information. To explain what’s going on in the market, can I produce something that will allow you to communicate better with your clients?’ In the height of the pandemic, where markets saw the biggest selloff in decades, one challenge was how to communicate bad news. As Gareth Cope, chartered financial planner at Intelligent Wealth Partnerships, puts it, ‘you can’t sugar coat these things,’ so advisers need to explain clearly what is happening in markets and what they are planning to do to protect their portfolios. Changing the perspective For many years, or at least since the introduction of RDR in 2010, adviser businesses had to cope with a change in their models, meaning that a large chunk of the market couldn’t afford financial advice at a reasonable price. This has caused an advice gap that still resonates today within the industry. Changing people’s mind on financial services remains tricky, advisers say. The trust element always comes into play, says Ian Smith, director of Central Wealth Planning. ‘I don’t think there’s a particularly easy way to suddenly get people [financial advice] that are not interested or don’t trust us to suddenly trust us, apart from if they get somebody else to tell them who they know and trust,’ Smith says. Another issue around the advice gap is capacity and the ability to travel around the country to meet clients. Cope thinks it is in the hand of the next generation of professionals to find more efficient ways to reach out to existing and new clients. ‘It’s going to be the next generation that does it through social media. I’ve been doing it for over 20 years. It’s not going to be me that does this, but other people coming into the industry,’ Cope says. Attracting younger clients can help build a larger audience, albeit this might not immediately be profitable for advisers. One way to attract a younger clientele is to engage with the daughters and sons of existing clients sooner rather than later. ‘Advice only becomes valuable when people actually go searching for it, and advisers will know this really well,’ says McCurdy. ‘When you’re young and you’re going through that stage of getting married, having kids and so forth, you generally don’t have the money to either pay for financial advice or to invest. And it’s not until you come to the later stages of [life] where you actually inherit money or that you’re earning enough that you do put that money to work for you, that you actually see the value of advice.’ For others, the rapid increase in DB transfers has pushed more people to seek advice. This has not only raised more queries by people that had never asked for advice before, but also served as a way to distinguish good from bad advice. McGovern says: ‘With this big explosion of DB transfers the last few years, you’ve spoken to people who’d never sought financial advice before. Some people think it’s really expensive, but they don’t fully understand what they’re getting for it.’ For McCurdy, to bridge the advice gap is to demonstrate the value of advice and finding better ways to connect the older and younger generations, especially when it comes to intergenerational wealth planning. ‘You spend two or three hours with a client and the client at some stage, does have to appreciate that they’re not necessarily just paying for those two or three hours – they’re paying for the 20 years of experience and the exams and the training and everything that you’ve done through that period of time in order to condense their needs into those two or three meetings in order to deliver them a solution,’ McCurdy says. For Gemini’s Metcalf, building bloodline protection Wills has worked well as a way to engage with his clients’ children, the trustees and beneficiaries of the will. ‘Certainly, when you’ve got your top clients passing large amounts of money down to their children, they need to understand the value of that and the role of the trustee and the executor,’ he says. ‘Doing any inheritance tax planning, you would like their children there because they’re the ones that will benefit from any amount of inheritance tax planning you do.’
On top of technology Many lessons have been learnt since March, and the world has come to terms with the start of a new normal. Technology has been a protagonist of the pandemic for those lucky enough to be able to work from home. For Tim Kirby, co-founder of WKM Wealth, technology has been ‘massively important’ especially since his firm launched during the pandemic. ‘We’ve known nothing else other than being tech savvy to operate the business,’ says Kirby. ‘We’ve invested quite a lot in our online portal, which the clients are really enjoying and really like the two-way shared communication through that. ‘I came from a more traditional firm before I left and set up WKM, and I can only imagine the difficulties perhaps they’re having, not being tech savvy as a business, but all firms have learnt over the last six months that clients are pretty adaptable,’ he says. While most clients have surprised advisers in how quickly they have adapted to technology and online meetings, things have proved more challenging when building new relationships from scratch. ‘I’ve spoken to people that have taken on new clients very well and we’ll wait and see whether we can do annual reviews again by Zoom,’ Cope says. ‘I suspect we’ll be going back to face-to-face for a fair few because I’m finding that not so many things are cropping up in Zoom. It’d be great if we could have a lot of our meetings on Zoom because we’ve got more time to do our prep or follow up work. We’ll have to wait and see in the next year whether that continues.’ Overall, the enhanced use of technology has allowed advisers and investment professionals to see clients wherever they are located. Since Covid-19 broke out, McCurdy has taken more clients onboard, and working for a US firm such as PIMCO, he was able to easily help clients across Europe, where the firm has a vast bulk of assets. ‘I did a meeting with a firm in Edinburgh and the product specialist was in Newport Beach in California. The firm in Edinburgh had four people from their investment committee dialling in from four different parts of Scotland, and for them to be able to do that and be able to question on a consistent basis was brilliant, because to get those guys into an office in Edinburgh for a meeting and get somebody across from the US takes a huge amount of resources and we don’t necessarily need to do that going forward,’ says McCurdy. Getting technical So what are the tech must-haves and must-dos in the new normal to engage with clients? Advisers agree that a coherent and clear website and the ability to respond quickly to client requests are paramount. Cope believes that the relationship with providers has not changed because of Covid but has made communication quicker, although he still likes to deal with representatives of the firm in person, instead of compiling questionnaires on their website. ‘I do like to speak to someone there rather than rely upon emails and internet forms,’ he says. The way technology has helped businesses during most of 2020 is unquestionable. As ever, it is up to the single individual and their habits to see how technology can help the relationship further. Kirby says people will still want to meet their advisers face-to-face, for example. ‘We were talking to a fund manager that manages a £1.8bn investment trust. We’d never have been able to see them face-to-face before, but now, through this type of medium, we’ve got that access. On the client side and on the provider side, there’s some great advantages to this, but it will still take some getting used to for lots of people.’
Much has changed in society since March and the beginning of lockdown. This is also true for financial advisers and their clients, who have found new ways of communicating with each other. But what has been easier for them to do to keep their conversations alive and what have been the challenges?
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