Latest / Financial Planner Life Podcast / From Restricted Adviser to Independent Financial Planner

Transcript

From Restricted Adviser to Independent Financial Planner · Financial Planner Life Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Today's guest is Lee Quinn.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: He's an IFA from Alexander Grace.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Previous to being an IFA, he worked for a restricted proposition.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we talk about his personal career journey and the differences between working for a restricted company and an IFA business.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Prior to actually stepping into the role of a financial planner, he was in compliance.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: So we talk about that transition, but the benefits of actually working for a different type of financial company whilst you do your qualifications before you enter the financial planning profession.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: We also talk about the new Financial Planner Life Academy that's going to be coming out in September and how we can support people through their career journey, whether they're administrators, power planners, mortgage advisors, or financial planners.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's a fantastic episode.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Lee shares very deeply about his career in financial planning.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think you're going to learn a lot.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Pleasure to be here.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm very well, thank you.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, Wednesday, middle of the week.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: So uh yeah, we're we're downhill from here.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: But no, thank you.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you look at it, isn't it?
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Downhill from Hill or uphill.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Good point.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean it in a positive way there.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: I know exactly what you mean.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you worry about that.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: I've got tomorrow and Friday off and Monday and Tuesday off.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: My mother is looking after my daughter, so we've got one of those rare occasions where we've got literally like six days in a row without a child to look after.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: But as I look out of my meeting room here at the moment, my daughter sat at my desk in my in my office in the business because uh we didn't have childcare today.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: So summer holidays.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: I I can't say I I feel that bad for you.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: You've got six days straight without uh children.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I can't remember the last time I had one then.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: I can't wait, sweet honestly.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely can't wait.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And listen, it's not this isn't just a childcare uh podcast, is it?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Financial Planner Life podcast where we talk about the careers of those that work within the financial planning profession.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll tell you what, why don't you kick things off a little bit for us, Lee?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And just tell us where you currently are in your career right now.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I'm an independent financial advisor, um, a relatively small company called Alexander Grace, and um, yeah, it's very much holistic financial planning, looking at all areas from yeah, protection and family protection, business protection, and then going all the way through to investment in inheritance tax.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: So it's um it's a really broad scope, but it's it's really enjoyable, very varied, and um yeah, I feel like I'm on the on the road to complete contentment, should we say?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: So um no, it's it's it's a brilliant place to be.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know um after 16 years, it took a while to get there, but yeah, it's um probably yeah, something I really enjoy coming to work every day.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: So the road, I love that what you said that you're on the road to contentment, and then you touched on the fact that it's taken 16 years to possibly get to the place where you are now where you feel really happy in the role that you're in and the path that you're on, would you say?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Would you say the 16 years has been tough?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, yeah, yes and no.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: There's ups and downs, of course.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think like a lot of people, you you you have to graft to get to where you want to be uh ultimately.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Things aren't just handed to you.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: And um in in our profession, I think sometimes it's very um it's very difficult to know exactly what you want because sometimes you go into roles thinking it's going to be one thing, it ends up being something else.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's not to say those roles are bad by any means, but it might just be a little bit different or a little bit less glamorous than you possibly thought it was.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: So um, so that's kind of what what it's been a bit like.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: But I had the stepping stones, as everyone always does, so I knew where I wanted to get to, but once I got there, things didn't really, they weren't as I expected.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it was almost like another stepping stone pathway to where I wanted to be, um, with a few you know twists and turns in the road.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: And um, but I I think everyone's kind of gone through that at some point in their life.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: And your pathway into financial advice didn't really start in a financial advice practice, for instance, did it?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: It was in a different role within financial services.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, what was that role?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I mean, my mom my very first role was a trainee paraplanner within a small financial practice, so that kind of gave me the flavor for it.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: But I was made redundant after five months, I think.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: It was 2008.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: So we all know what happened then.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: But then it was a case of all right, um, I had the idea I wanted to be a financial advisor.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: So after being made redundant, it was all right, where where can I go that will lead me to the pathway to that case?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, various admin jobs, you know, bottom of the bottom, making the teas and doing the McDonald's breakfast runs and all that sort of stuff.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then going into admin and then ultimately compliance.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: But I've always worked with financial advice uh advice to the one degree or another, um, just up to that point never gave it.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: So um, so really it was just getting the knowledge base up and uh and the skill sets to be able to actually make that leap.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Mention there you worked in compliance.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: So you started in a trainee power planner role within a small practice, right?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: That didn't work out because you got made redundant, and then you took a different pathway and you ended up going down a career pathway really through compliance.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: So when you were working in compliance, just tell us a little bit about the types of things that you were actually doing in that role then.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so um compliance is very varied in financial institutions, but for me, it was actually checking financial advice.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: So you'd have a financial advisor would make a recommendation, uh, which ultimately lead to a sale, then it would come through, and but you had to ensure it was the right outcome for the client, effectively.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, it's safe to say we've seen um stuff from incredibly high-quality advice to the complete other end, unfortunately.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, it's uh every advice is different.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: So it'd be you know, investment cases coming through, uh pensions and newities.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, Clinch's freedom was an interesting one because that was a complete game changer and I was in compliance then.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh protection cases, business protection.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it was checking the whole range really of uh financial advice.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: But for me, it was yeah, but it was a huge learning curve.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when I started doing that at the age of 21, I think it was.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but yeah, um, and you know, I changed from one compliance role to another.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I went from rather simple case checking to a more comprehensive.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: So again, there's learning there as well, but it was a really good starting point um to getting into financial advice from my point of view, for knowledge at least.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, how long did you stay within the role of compliance then?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Did you, did you at any time think that maybe this would be the career for you?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Were you thinking about trying to make it that sort of pathway in that career was compliance as opposed to financial advice?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because you obviously started as a trainee, a trainee power planner in the firm beforehand, moving into compliance.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Did you kind of push financial advice from a client-facing perspective to one side to focus on compliance?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Was it a stepping stone in your head the whole time?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, how long did you spend in that role?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And when was a penny-dropping moment that you thought, you know what, actually, I want to get out of it and get back into the actual client-facing financial advice type position?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, short answer, didn't I want to stay in compliance?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: No, it was um, it was always a stepping stone.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it was you don't get many young financial advisors around.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: And also from myself, I wasn't mature enough to be a financial advisor at 21, 22, I knew that.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, quite enjoyed life.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: I like the fact that you know I could leave work at work and not have clients back me up all times and anything happened in the markets, it wasn't my problem to really worry about.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: So um, so with that, I quite enjoyed life.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: I was getting you know all my qualifications paid for at the same time.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: So it allowed that study time, it allowed me to have the word life balance and learn on the job at the same time.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, that was that was always a stepping stone into um into the financial plan of career.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um I suppose when the pin dropped was ultimately when I got bored, to be honest.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: And um yeah, it I think the so I did I did two first compliance role was about two years, and then went on to the next role, which was a step more comprehensive.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: So say another two years, and then I started getting itchy feet and thinking, all right, I need to start looking into how to get into planning.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um but that was always agreement with my managers at the time.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: They knew what my ambitions were and um and that I wasn't going to stick about for too long.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: And thank you, I was pretty good in my compliance role to be fair, but um yeah, it's just it wasn't something I wanted to do long term.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think you know, often you hear hear people that want to become financial planners or they want to get into the financial planning profession.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: So they're looking for that entry-level job into the actual profession itself, whether that's starting out in an administration position or maybe a trainee power planner position.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now we know collectively, and a lot of the listeners will know this, that it can be very difficult to get into the financial planning profession.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: There isn't an entry-level point to get into it.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing I want to sort of it's a good thing to touch on at this point, right?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm 41 years old.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's a number of people that I worked with when I was working for a Viva.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I worked for a Viva in my early 20s.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a number of those people that I worked with did exactly what you did.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: So they took up like an administration role or they took up a customer service role.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: So my job when I was there was a trainer.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: I trained out customer service staff to deal with the inquiries from clients about their pensions, um, about investment bonds.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: They uh Aviva had a joint venture with the Royal Bank of Scotland.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: So they used to sell their products through the bank, NatWest Life, and all that kind of stuff.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: So my job was to sort of train out new people as to what a bond is and what pension A-day rules were, and what's a transfer value and SERPs and all that kind of stuff.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: All things I can't remember right now, if I'm completely honest with you.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I tell you what, but I tell you what, what what these wonderful larger financial organizations actually do is they give you a an entry point into financial services.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are younger and your goal in the long term is to become a financial advisor, for instance, right?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to jump straight into it 20 years old, 21 years old.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: You can go get some financial services experience working in customer services, maybe working in like a sales position, maybe working in some back office functions for some of the larger organizations that are out there, right?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it gives you that grounding and it gives you that entry level, but it looks good on your CV, it looks good on your LinkedIn profile.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: But the beautiful thing is what you just articulated there was that gives you the space then to also do your qualifications.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And a number of the going back, the number of the people that I worked with back then are now financial advisors.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Two I know of are exceptionally good financial advisors, both charters, and then one guy's got half a billion under management.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: So starting out in a financial institution in a role like administration compliance, um, file reviews, customer service, whatever it might well be, is a fantastic grinding and a fantastic opportunity for anybody that then wants to take that step and state into financial advice because you can do your qualifications alongside it.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: And more often than not, they have trainers and they'll pay for those qualifications for you.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: And once you've got your level four qualification, for example, yeah, and you gain some understanding of financial services, you become more marketable as a candidate.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it gives you a bit more of an entry-level point into it.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes people just need to listen to the fact that you don't always have to find that entry-level role in financial planning, find it in some other financial services role and wait to step into financial advice at the right time because it's not going anywhere.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, uh yeah, you're absolutely right.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, I think I alluded to earlier that if someone handed me a financial planning role at 22, the reality of it was, I probably would have taken it.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: But um, I look back now at the age of 34, there's no way I could have done the job at 22.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, one, because my skill the skill sets weren't there, I weren't mature enough to be able to do that role.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: You will get some people of that age who are, and fair play to them if they are, but you have to have some self-awareness.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it goes back to to being impatient as well.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I do remember going for an interview for a financial plan role when the uh area manager said to me, You're not ready yet.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: Now I remember coming out fuming from that interview, but he was absolutely right in reflection looking back at that, and it was probably yeah, one of the best things he could have done because he said, All right, this is what you need to do, and that led me to a more structured way into it.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, these entry-level roles, and as you said, large companies, the benefit of them is even if you go into what we're calling an entry-level role, they also have different access points and stepping stones there, whereas in smaller business, you might not necessarily get those opportunities.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I definitely made full use of those opportunities as a stepping stone.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: I was involved in projects and things that I might not have been in a different company.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I know plenty of other advisors within these companies who've gone on to have very successful careers as advisors, having worked in customer service, compliance, um, you know, uh back office processing and all those different types of things.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, you bit the nail on the head, really, um, in terms of the benefits of being in those environments.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, absolutely.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting then.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: So you went forward to a financial planner role, got rejected.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, which obviously at the time uh was probably quite painful because you wanted you really, really probably wanted the job.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us a little bit about you know, looking back and reflecting on it, you uh accepted that you weren't ready for it, right?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a couple of things to unpack there because one being younger, and this is something a common theme that comes up is that often it's thought a financial planner who is younger, maybe in their early 20s, does not have relevant life experience or life skills to deliver the best service as a financial planner.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to unpack that bit with you first of all.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: And what do you think that was lacking and what now knowing what you know at 31 made that person write?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: 34, but thanks for making me younger.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: So um no, so I I it it's a massive generalization, realistically, that you know, you need life experience um to be a financial planner.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm talking about my own kind of circumstances there.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: At the end of the day, I don't know what has happened in you know, all these 21, 22-year-olds' lives uh where they could have gone through a hell of a lot more than me at the age of 34.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: So it's all very um, it's all very up in the air, and it's it's probably not fair to say that every 22-year-old doesn't have the life experience to be an advisor.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I think if we're talking generally, I think um, you know, there are certain events that happened in my life which have made things buying a house, having children, um, you know, uh grieving for loved ones lost.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, all these different things can make you a lot more relatable to other people.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I found that really helped.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas um when I first took the role on in 26, uh, none of those events really happened to me, to be honest.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: So um it was very much that I'll be having these conversations and trying to be empathetic, but it I found it quite difficult because I couldn't really relate to it.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's the problem any young advisor might have um at some point.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um people will talk about their kids.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Kids are um, for most people, they're the most the biggest thing in the world.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Understandably mine are as well to me.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: But before I had kids, I didn't really understand that feeling.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll be thinking, all right, yeah, he's you know, look at the macaroni picture on the fridge, that's fantastic.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, let's move on.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: But it's but now I understand that thing a lot more.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, I thought it's a bit of a roundabout answer, but I think generally, yeah, probably most people don't have that experience to make you know a really, really true success.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: Not saying it won't be successful, but it would probably be better after you know those events.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think the life experience that you've gained has improved your ability to build rapport with clients then?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel like a closer connection with clients more relatable to them because you've gone through specific life experience?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: I always say to people that having kids was one of the best things in my career, not from asleep, but you know, for everything else, it's fantastic.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: So it's uh yeah, um, you know, I've got clients who are obviously retired and they're having grandchildren.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: You can see their faces like when they start talking about their grandchildren, but they're similar age to my kids, so I can relate to them in that sense.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: But then even if they don't have grandkids, they talk to me about their experiences of bringing up their own children who are now adults, and um, yeah, it it allows me to be able to have those conversations um a little bit more.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: We've got clients who move in houses, so you know, I know exactly the stress that that can cause, uh trying to get mortgages through.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, and uh unfortunately what I had one this morning where a husband and expected to leave custom way, so uh yeah, I've not been through that experience, but I've lost people very close to me, and um you you you can feel it a bit more.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I think um it's just maturity thing as you go through life.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a lot of these events are gonna happen to people at some point, but if they don't happen to you, it's hard to relate to.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: When you went for that financial planner position originally and then was rejected, and somebody gave you some honest feedback.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: How important was that honest feedback that you received in sharpening your pencil to go back and deliver the best interview to secure a role in the future as a financial planner?
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, a bit, I think it was I think it was very important.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, probably when I came out, I sharpened the pencil for a different reason, honestly.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but you know, uh after that, uh um it was a case alright, sit down and and just reflect on yourself.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, as a 25-year-old man, I was probably a little bit more reactive than I am today.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: But um, at least then I can't sit back.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think I spoke to my manager at the time and said, okay, this is the feedback.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I sat down with my manager and we we put a plan in place.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: He helped me with that.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: So that was really good of him.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but yeah, uh, and it was at that point where I was thinking, okay, I really need to go out and just get a little bit more experience.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where shadowing came into it, seeing of revisors in action, um, and trying to seek out a mentor um who could you know guide me a little bit more.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that that really helps, but then just brushing up on certain knowledge areas as well.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: I talk to a lot of people who lean into mentors or they mentor others.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's something that I started doing in my late 30s and it's had a massively positive impact on my life, either mentoring somebody else, being mentored by somebody else.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: I love the way it gives you perspective, you know, because you're not so stuck in your own head, you're looking at things from a different perspective.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: So someone's challenging your thinking and they're asking you for evidence, aren't they, of is your thinking correct?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: And could you look at it from a different perspective?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I think mentoring is incredibly powerful.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the ability to open up and ask for that help from somebody, I think teaches you something yourself that you don't know at all, and that sometimes you need to ask for help to move forward.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us a little bit about mentoring in your career then.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Is there any kind of mentors that have stood out for you that have helped you?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, so I was I was very fortunate actually because I even though I was seeking out mentors, I ended up having an area manager approach me and said, Would you like to work with me because I'm gonna have an opening in my team next year?
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: And that fills you with confidence because they're reaching out to you to say, I'm interested in having you in my team.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: So that really kind of that and it gave me that um platform to then yeah, I wanted to work for him.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: So um, and when you want to work someone, you want to, yeah, you want to make them happy, don't you?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: And have that confidence to say they've made the right decision.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's it's massively important.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: And um, that chap his name's Dennis, but he um he really quite he put the effort in.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: So we met up every month for six months.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: We did various different uh skills, I don't want to call them assessments, but like little workshops.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, he he really tested me and said, All right, I want you to work on this now, to the point where he said, All right, your interviews next month, be ready.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and you know, he he put me in touch with some of the advisors in his team, said these would be good guys to go out and see them, do the role.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: And it just completely changed from what was a little bit of a scattergun interview, I guess, where my preparation was I had to pretend to be a travel agent, I think, you know, a bit old school, but to actually have a fully fledged, all right, I'm gonna do a good fan find on you now and and understand you from a financial point of view.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: So um, so it was absolutely massive.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: But then as as my career's gone on, I've always thought to better myself.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the ways of which I've done that is to again look for mentors.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I've had probably two or three in the past, you know, in the last seven years of been an advisor where consciously or unconsciously, I've looked up to them and thought, all right, what can we learn here?
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: And um it definitely benefits.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: I 100% agree.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think anybody that's coming into the financial profession, especially financial planning profession, I think the earlier that you can adopt uh mentors, the earlier you can lean into others for guidance, the better.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the early on in your career it's gonna really help somebody pick the right route and manage their expectations of what they can achieve by certain points in their in their Career, right, and in their time scales.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: We've got the Financial Planner Life Academy coming out soon.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the Financial Planner Life Academy is going to look at mentors.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: So not only have we got trainers within the Academy, so really, really good quality trainers that provide classroom-based training, all online, some meetups as well.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's loads of soft skills training in the community also.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: But within the community, we're going to have those mentors in place.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: So as new people come in, second careerists, etc., come on in into that community, they'll hear from a power planner, they'll hear from an administrator, a business owner, a self-employed advisor, an employed advisor.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll quiz them and we'll get questions answered of what our community wants to hear.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then we'll put that content into the community.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: So if someone comes through, they can go straight to a video answering a question that might be on the mind of somebody that's brand new to the profession.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: And also what I think is really important is understanding your career path and the time scales it takes to get to certain levels and what you need to get there and what might your path actually be.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: So whether or not you want to go down the route of administration to power planning and make a career out of that, or perhaps you want to move into operations or running the operations of the business, it could be that you want to be a financial planner with aspirations to run your own business, or it might be somebody that wants to be employed.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: It could be understanding the difference between IFA and restricted.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that was one of the things that came up in your career, wasn't it?
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: The IFA versus restricted.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll jump on that in a minute.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: But the the I'm adamant that the earlier somebody can get some advice from those that know what they're talking about and have trodden that path, the the quicker somebody can achieve their goals.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're hoping to achieve with the Financial Panel Life Academy.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm super excited to get that live, hopefully in September, because we've got lots of people knocking on our door who are looking for something just like this.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: And at this point, I just want to I just want to say it's it's a kind of academy that somebody can do alongside their current job.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say somebody's earning some really good money as a marketing manager.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: It might be on 50, 60 grand a year, whatever it might well be, for them to transition from that career without any experience within financial planning or qualifications, et cetera, and hoping to match that level of expectation around salary is really unrealistic.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: So what we'll say is look, let's get your qualifications up to the specific level, first of all.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let's work with you to establish where you best fit within the profession once you've got those level four qualifications.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: But you don't need to leave your profession and the safety net of the salary that you're on and what you know to start your qualifications.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want people doing that.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: We want people taking a more calmer, relaxed approach to getting into the profession by not going two-footed into something that is the unknown and letting it kind of gradually uh take shape because we might have aspirations that are going to sit in a back bedroom, I'm gonna do all my qualifications and get them done in 12 months.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: And some people do that, believe it or not, you know.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, some people might go in there and at least on a monthly basis, on a subscription basis, they can do it at a pace that suits them and they get all the mentoring, training, and guidance and support from the community to get them through that.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I've I've I've worked with people who've uh we call it a crash course through uh through the diploma, but they've not actually put any of those knowledge or skills to to a real life situation.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: You can you can tell a little bit sometimes.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I think no that the academy, in terms of what you're you're saying, is absolutely kind of spot on for what we need.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: Not in it, yeah, we need younger advisors.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the average age of a financial advisor is 57, that's ridiculous.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and how many 57-year-olds aren't thinking about retirement?
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's the reality of it.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: But um, um, and that leads to the advisor gap as well, and trying to plug that.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: So we need people um in the profession, these are the right moves forward.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and as you say, it it's a safe environment.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: People don't have to jump in two-footed to um to achieve it.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: They can, you know, do do their day job and also learn on the side with it.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: What we want to do as well is we want to create that coalition between the academy, because it's a fully independent academy.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like a St.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: James's Place or something, which is linked to St.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: James's Place, right?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's fully independent.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, you're coming in, you're learning about the profession as a whole, yeah.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: So you're getting a different perspective.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you go down to St.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: James's Place, and that's entirely somebody's choice to go down to St.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: James's Place or MNG, etc., you're only really understanding the world of St.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: James's Place and M and G, right?
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it's restricted.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, it might be that restricted is the route you want to go down, you know, because it's the best route for you.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: You might come into my academy and go, do you know what?
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: St.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: James's Place is probably a really good place for me to go because of the model that they've got, how quickly they can get me through, their academy itself and the training and development.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: I can go self-employed and all the other benefits that go along with it.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: But what we want to do is help people make that educated decision and choice very early on.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: And not just focus on financial advisors, but also administrators, power planners, mortgage and protection advisors.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: So people can have a kind of look at where they think they want to go and then look at the pathway to get there.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that might be starting out as administrator or power planner, having a really good relationship.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: The academy then has a good relationship with the small to medium enterprises that are out there that don't have the training and development um budget in place to take somebody through their qualifications and the soft skills training.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, we're pruning people and getting them ready for that next transition.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully those firms will go, Sam, we'll take a couple of those on.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the idea is to then create a relationship with those types of firms where they also come into the academy and also talk about their businesses and what it's like to work there, et cetera.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm optimistic about it being an absolute game changer.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm optimistic for you because I would have loved something like that when I was trying to find my kind of place, so to speak.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: And um, one of the things that I do like about that is it also provides well, yeah, it gives people perspective on support roles because unfortunately there are there are you know people out there who don't respect the support roles as much as perhaps they should do.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: And and the amount of work that goes involved is very much, you know, can you do this for me?
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: I need to buy tomorrow.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that that sort of demanding culture, which um which kind of just it does show a lack of value and respect for those people in those roles.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I think what you're doing is definitely um looking at how it all comes together realistically.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: So no, I think I think it's a really good idea.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go back to what we talked about then between restricted and IFA, because you now currently work in an IFA practice.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're an IFA, but previous to that you were at Wesleyan, and Wesleyan is a restricted proposition.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: So are you know what's the difference to you?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody who's gone through a restricted financial advice role now works as an IFA.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: Are they two completely different roles?
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh quick answer, yes.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: They have a very, very different role.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: So um, despite the fact that you call the financial planner or financial advisor an either role, the reality is they they aren't the same tool.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: They both come with their challenges, um, benefits, disadvantages, and so forth.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: But um, no, going from a restricted environment, restricted corporate environment into this more um SME IFA approach is, I mean, it's been a godsend for me personally, um, but everyone's different.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, so yeah, with the restricted model, it is very much um, I think people tend to buy a little bit more into the brand, perhaps, that you're working for.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's a bit like if you go into your bank and speak to the bank advisor and set up an account.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: You don't for me, um, yeah, don't get me wrong, this isn't all clients, but you do get clients who've been there long term and probably see five, six, seven advisors.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: So they have that sort of thing where, yeah, like if you go into the bank, you've got your bank advisor, you don't expect to see them again next year if you have to go in for anything.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it did feel a little bit like that, especially with the the territory that I covered, which had five or six advisors in the the last six, seven years was something silly.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: So it was um, I don't know why, but uh, but yeah, um, I do remember going to one client and they were like, all right, how long are you going to be around for?
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um and uh obviously not long enough because I left.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: But it was um it is a little bit different, and I think that makes it a little bit harder to develop those relationships with the clients sometimes.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then on top of that, of course, proposition.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: So restricted proposition definitely has a place.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and again, we yeah, we go back to gaps in the market and they do cover various gaps that IFAs might not.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but the IFA proposition is just so much more holistic, as you'd expect.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I feel like you can really do a very good job for clients.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: Not that I couldn't restrict it, but it just opened up other avenues for me that I wanted to explore personally.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: When you worked um in the restricted role at Wesley, can you just give us a bit of an overview of what you were doing in that job?
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because that was your first financial advisor position, wasn't it?
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Just tell us a little bit about um yeah, your entry point into your first advice role.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um so so obviously, yeah, as I mentioned, we're we were mentored and then um landed the role once the interview came up.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: So, and then it was just a case of you go you go through an advisor academy, which is very much took it's more talking about the proposition, you have to put some of your skills to the test in terms of role plays and things like that.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: So, pretty that's pretty standard, I think, in uh in big corporate environments.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: But um, and then you're sort of left to you know, you did if you did four or five um appointments that were uh observed, and once you pass them, it's you're left to your own devices, really.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you you you're very much in charge of your own development, um, which as a young advisor who's never done the job, it's probably a little bit more difficult than someone who's very experienced because you don't know what you don't know.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: So um even things like just setting up all the systems with different providers and things like that.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: So with with protection, it was a panel, for example.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I couldn't just run off a protection crow and have to register and wait four or five days for the things to come through and all that.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: No one told me that.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so there's a there's a lot of things there, but um in terms of the clientele I had, so Wesleyan's uh specializes in teachers, um, doctors and dentists, and I was part of the teachers section, so ultimately you had to try and go out and find teachers.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: You had your own client bank of teachers within your territory, and um, and then teachers would phone up and they would get booked into your diary.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: But um, as as many of us know, teachers don't work the same hours and have the same flexibilities as the rest of us, or many of the rest of us.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: So that proved a little bit of a change in in nine to five through to working all hours of the day.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: In that role, how much of it was diary appointments being passed to you, and how much of it was self-generation?
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um I mean, to start off with it's it's diary appointments because you you've got to go out there and try and develop the relationships and find people.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then as time went on, it probably changed um to say 50-50, and then gradually you want to get it to a point where most of the appointments in your diary are self-generated.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: But if someone if it's if a teacher or a doctor who hasn't fans up the call center and wants to book an appointment, that's going in your diary, whether you like it or not.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and because we have to have open diaries with the flexibility of doing evenings, they they could be booked in any time.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: So uh diary management in all in all jobs is is a massive thing.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: But diary management there to me felt like another, you know, I could have paid a secretary to do that for me because that was challenging.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so yeah, it didn't make a huge difference.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_01: But you once you got into the swing beer, yeah, more sales-generated stuff that was coming through.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they were a very big business.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: So moving from, say, a corporate environment, which is a very large organization with all their processes and um systems, and you think they would be quite a well-oiled machine to then move across to a smaller IFA business.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: How much of a shock was that to the system, or was it almost better because it gave you more flexibility and freedom?
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'd say it was probably liberating, is um a good way of putting it.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_01: So with the bigger you know, corporate entities or Wesley and Aviva, whoever it may be, it is very regimented in terms of how they want you to do the role.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_01: Now they say, Yeah, bring your own kind of um skill set and you know character to it, but ultimately um you have training saying this is how we want you to do it, and then you've almost got to fix yourself into it somehow, which I don't think is always the right way um of doing things because there's many successful people out there, and we all do it differently.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_01: If we all did it the same, there'd be, you know, what there'll be no point in having competition to so to speak, because everyone won't be the same.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: So um, so coming to an IFA, I was very much uh led to right, you do what you feel will be best to get to get uh you know what you need out of the role.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the first things I asked for was um a second screen for my laptop.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: And why do you need that?
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_01: I said, because I don't want people breathing over me while I'm showing stuff on the laptop.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not I don't like writing on paper, I like showing things um and and being visual.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_01: So it was um so yeah, and found that was worked.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: And all the other advisors here now use second screens because they like the idea of it.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just little things like that.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, I'm quite visual.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I remember one of the advisor roles I did.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: We we had to stay within the same system and we couldn't come out of it.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: It was every you're not allowed to use paper, everything's documented in one system, and it was just boring and regimented.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's why I didn't really excel in that role, to be honest, and for the short time I was there.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: But it was um, but here it's very much, you know, I do mind mapping as a fact find because clients love it.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's they look visual, they can see it, and it gives them a really good snapshot representation of what their position looks like.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: But again, if I didn't like doing that, I wouldn't be you know having a good hand to then saying we've got to do it anyway.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's definitely um liberating is definitely the right word for it in my view, anyway.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: How long have you been at this IFA business for?
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh just over a year.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: Just over a year.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us a little bit about that first year then.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: What to expect from your first year as a as an IFA?
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so um, so I mean, if you're going from uh especially the restricted environment, so I was in restricted for six years, um just shy of six years, but uh that is all as I say it's very process driven.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: The propositions are very restricted as you'd expect.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden it's it was almost like my diploma came back to say, all right, what do you really know?
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um so there was a lot of uh knowledge fade that I didn't even realise I had, because when you work in a restricted proposition, you don't look at product areas or or you know um things like VCTs, for example, uh which you're not going to do at Wesleyan, um, but you will do in the IFA, so you need to learn about them again.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_01: You think how they work because I've not had to do it.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_01: And you then um also things like business development managers, um never had to deal with them because the business development managers were internal guys, well, ultimately a restricted environment.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now all of a sudden I've got these guys from various providers all wanting to meet me and show me their latest things.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_01: So again, that was a complete new experience.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess it well, it's just that free girl there.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I feel not that my previous employees didn't treat me like a grown-up, but it's definitely you know, you it's not that big brother environment where you feel like somebody's gonna tap you on the shoulder, you know, at the end of the week and say, right, what you've been up to.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I've not had that since been here is just very much go and do when you need to.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_01: And if you need support, give us a shout.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: And it's um very, very mature and grown-up environment to work in, but it allows me to show my creative side and for me be able to excel and do the job in the way I want to do it.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: Very nice.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, teachers obviously trying to get them to sit down and and do you know a review with you is probably outside of those teaching hours.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it's lots of evenings and things.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: Do you find that when you're in an IFA position, do you have your week are your your weekends or your evenings, do you do you go out and see clients still?
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: Is it you try and fit them in during the day?
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: How flexible are you with your time and and uh meetings around clients?
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: So when I work with teachers, I average four evening appointments a week.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it'll be three if there was a late cancellation, usually there's four because it was the only way I could fit them in.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um but since coming to um Alexander Grace for the last year, I think I've worked about two evenings.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I would have been finished by half six, seven.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like so they weren't really going into the dawn of the night.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um but um yeah, it was it's definitely been um a lot different from that perspective.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: And the way we position it is that like solicitors and accountants, you would they wouldn't be expecting you, um, you know, and you will be expecting them to work in the evenings or the weekends for you.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_01: If it's that important to you, you'll find time in the day.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um I appreciate for teachers that is a struggle because of the nature of their role.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that's that wasn't an issue.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: I knew I was getting into there.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_01: But from our point of view, if someone says, can can you do the weekend?
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, no, that's my time.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it's yeah, we we've got we work plenty of hours in the week, we shouldn't have to be digging into our free time, and that's very much the culture here.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: So very nice.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: When someone moves from one financial advice to a business to another, yeah, the question often comes up from the employer is that what can that individual bring to the table in respect to new clients?
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: Do they have any transferable business, for example?
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: Can they transfer some business?
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: Do they have advocate relationships?
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: What introduce the relationships do they hold?
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: Moving from a restrictive proposition with a large corporate into an IFA, were you put under pressure at all?
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: Was there an expectation for you to bring something with you?
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: And how did that make you feel if there was?
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, not not here necessarily, because one that one of the beauties of our role is uh we have retired advisors, so they need their client bank to be looked after.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_01: So um, so ultimately it's uh you know inheriting uh a client bank.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_01: But that that there was the case of look, if you can bring new business to the table, new clients, fantastic, yeah, please do.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but no, that not nothing by any means whereby you know where you're expected to bring a client bank.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_01: But that's that's not not yeah, not everywhere is the same.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_01: I went for various interviews um at different companies where straight away the first question was how much assets under management do you look after?
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, how much of that can you bring over?
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, you've got all the um kind of uh legal stipulations of it that you can't speak to a client for six months unless they contact you and all that sort of stuff.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_01: So um for me coming here, I was glad that I didn't really have that pressure on me to bring anything over.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and yeah, because again, it's you don't want solicitors contacting you from the previous employer saying you shouldn't have been doing this and you agreeing to these terms, and yeah, so I didn't really have to go around that um ring wrong.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: Finding an opportunity within an IFA on an employee basis where you're there isn't a huge emphasis on you having to self-generate business because there are retiring advisors.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think this will happen more and more over the next five to 10 years as more advisors retire out of the profession.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, consolidators come in, people are buying client banks, and therefore there's so many clients that they can't service them.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: So they're going to need new, new, new advisors to service them.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I think what we'll see is a lot of the trainee advisors, new entry-to-level advisors, walking into like managing, like, I don't know, maybe like 50% client book, 50% self-generation, going out and networking and building new business.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: But what you kind of came across is a rarity as it stands at the moment.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's a kind of a luxury sometimes for someone to come into a role of a financial planner and look after an existing book of business that's being passed down.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: How many, you know, how many frogs did you have to kiss to get that job?
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned you went to different interviews and had you know lots of different experiences in different interviews.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: How many did you go to to end up finding the role where you've landed on your feet and in you're you're working in an IFA, but you're also inheriting a client book as well?
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, this is this is why it's always important to uh leave a good first impression because I actually interviewed here before um four years ago and pretty much got off of the job then.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: But at the time, um my personal circumstances were a little bit different in terms of my my partner's Irish and wanted to move to Ireland and I couldn't take off the table.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I thought I can't inherit a client bank to maybe leave them in a couple of years.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_01: That wouldn't be fair.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_01: So that's why I went back into not you know staying in the corporate environment.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: But um, when I that's not happening now.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_01: So when I did go back into the uh looking, um, basically the the gentleman Neil who interviewed me here got a tapped shoulder by recruitment as well and said, he's not going to hide them now.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want to have a chat with him?
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_01: So um, so yeah, but that was probably that came after about four interviews elsewhere.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_01: So it was just pure luck from my point of view.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I like Company back then, I'd yeah, I love the company now.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't been here a year.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it it it was just yeah, it was a very good fit.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: However, um, had this opportunity not arise, I think I probably would have taken something that wouldn't have been anywhere near as kind of um a golden opportunity, should we say?
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting that you said, you know, you were lucky, but you did put the feelers out four years before and also built a relationship by the sounds of it with a recruitment consultant who continued to keep in contact with you to check on your current circumstances and also had the foresight to remember the relationship or the interview that you had with the client and so many years later married the two of you together again.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I think often those external relationships that we have with the eyes and ears, i.e., recruitment firms, having somebody in your back pocket is hugely beneficial.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what's your experience of you know?
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: I I own I obviously own recruit UK.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: I I own a recruitment business and have done and been in the recruitment world for like 15 years.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like honestly, what's your experience of having a recruitment consultant help you find a job opportunity?
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think it's a positive experience?
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_00: What's your feedback on it at all?
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um from my point of view, the last four roles I've had have been uh the last four companies I've joined um have been through recruitment consultants.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I've I've clearly got a very good opinion of what they do, but they do all the hard work for me as far as I'm concerned, and that's what I get paid for.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_01: But it's uh but um I mean it it's like anything, you get good recruitment consultants, you get bad ones, and um I I I know how you guys operate, so yeah, I'll make sure I write down the companies who I've been kind of told about so that I don't cross over and uh all that sort of stuff because uh I guess it's quite embarrassing if you put forward a CV and someone says, Oh, give up someone else has sent this.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_01: But um no, it's it's a positive experience, and I think as long as you know they're working in your favour, you do get the occasional trying to shoot you, you shoe horn you down to an interview that you don't want to do.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I I had that a couple of times where I was like, I really I'm really not interested in work for this company, and they're still trying to push on you, and you just think you're annoying me now.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_01: But that's pretty anomaly.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's um I think generally a lot of them are actually just you know trying to make a bit of an honest living, and um yeah, you're gonna get bad eggs everywhere.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: Do you ever did you ever sort of look through job boards and things like that?
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, getting in the mindset of somebody who's job seeking right now, for instance, like did you ever go on job boards?
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: Did you ever reach out directly to companies yourself?
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, or were you always leaning into recruitment consultants?
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um I suppose always led into recruitment consultants based on positive experiences of the past.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I never really had an issue with it.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but for for anyone who is deciding, all right, I want to leave where I am, I'm gonna look into it and say, you know, pick two or three recruitment consultants who who you feel like you can trust.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I always made I always said, look, I'm talking to this person as well.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, be be honest because I'd imagine in your profession, there's a lot of people who uh ghost you um when a job offer comes in, all of a sudden you don't hear anything from them and you think what's going on here.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I've I've always taken the mantra, just be honest to people now that appreciate it.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um and again, is the the chap who put me in touch here.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I didn't actually, yeah, he did a lot of work for me uh back in 2019 when he first put me in touch ultimately.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_01: I took a job that wasn't through him.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I was just honest with him the whole way through.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't think if that was the case, he would have put me forward again.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: So um, so yeah, it's um don't get wrong, you can you can go direct, and there's a lot of but sometimes you don't know what the opportunities are to be able to go direct.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that's why I think a recruitment consultant's a good idea.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I know you guys are quite costly to the employers sometimes, but yeah, to get the right person, sometimes you pay a premium.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: So no more costly than what a bad hire is sometimes, you know.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: A bad hire can be incredibly costly, and having somebody within your business whose full-time job is to hire people, it becomes an expense.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um funny enough, you know, we I run a recruitment, like 20 guys who work for me in my recruitment business, but I'll use a recruitment consultant to find me recruitment consultant.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_00: Rec to rec.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, we you know, people use them and um we use them, and you know, it's about you know I like what you said there.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if anyone's listening to this and they want to lean into my business, for example, recruit UK, like we we recruit for financial planning firms and has done have done for 15 years, but you know, 20 strong team doing it across the UK.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the advice you've given there is about being honest, you know, both both ways.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: The recruitment company needs to be honest with the candidate, and the candidate needs to be honest with the recruitment consultant.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of the day, we're trying to find something that's going to match your intrinsic values and the client's values.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: So you both are very, very happy.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: And honesty is the core of a successful relationship, isn't it?
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and that's what we're all about.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_01: It is, yeah.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_01: And recruitment consultants, you know, the sales aspect comes through where sometimes you know the job sounds absolutely amazing, and then you go to the interview and think, all right, this isn't quite what I expected as well.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_01: So it's and I think people who are looking for financial advisor roles are gonna have to accept that's the case.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I I got offered roles for companies which I just didn't like, to be honest.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_01: But I didn't well in the interview, I just didn't like them for various reasons, and um, and it's important not just to jump at the first offer that comes in because ultimately you're interviewing the company as much as they're interviewing you, and that's how I've always seen it.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: If someone's going in for a financial planning interview, maybe they're going in for a power planner role or their first opportunity within financial advice in general, you know, what do you think are some of the key questions that someone should ask a potential new employer at the interview stage?
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when someone says, Have you got any questions for us?
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think somebody should ask at that stage of the interview?
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um how how can you support me and my career ambitions?
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_01: Is is a tough one for me.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I've I've always been this is where I want to go, whether that's yeah, when I first went to uh compliance role, I want to be a financial advisor, how do we get there?
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, it was a case of right, we know you're going to only stick around for two or three years, but that's fine by us.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um when I landed the role here, it's like, okay, I definitely want to be charted, and yeah, I'm well on course for that now.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but will you help me with that?
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely, not a problem.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I think um and and also those other things.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_01: Is there anyone here who can you know help me out um a little bit who can see them do a job showing it different things?
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_01: So support is massive, I think, and just being open saying, How can you support me, especially for an inexperienced financial planner, because they need more support than anyone?
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then I've always been quite open about what's the culture of the business like.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, will you get an authentic answer or will you get something quite wishy-washy?
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_01: Because you know, there's there's going to be people who are interballing lock themselves away in their house for you know most of the year.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_01: So they wouldn't have a clue what the culture's like, and their answers show straight through you can tell.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_01: So um, but yeah, when it when it came here, I could tell instantly what the culture was like and um how everyone worked.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_01: And uh again, there was another business who were really good and it was a toss-up, but yeah, they brought in other people from the business to say, oh, this is so and so.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and just to see if you can get on with them.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought that was a really good thing to happen um within those interviews because it shows that they want to see if you're gonna fit in as well.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, just thing things like that is uh things that basically are a bit more personal to you rather than just thinking about what they want to hear.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_00: Nice great answer.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's fantastic.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_00: So the idea of the Financial Planet Life podcast as well is that I'm doing this podcast part uh sort of recruitment partnership.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_00: So going out to firms and bringing to life what it's like to work for their business.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_00: So looking at the culture, looking at the values and the most amazing talent attraction tool that a lot of companies have and they don't utilize is the staff that work within their businesses.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because if somebody's working in that business and they're really happy and they enjoy the job, they like the culture, they like the values, maybe they've progressed their career through there.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_00: By bringing them onto something like a podcast like mine, and they're expressing their journey and they're expressing what they've got from the company and the value that they've that they've received, that in my own that in its own right is a testimonial and it's an employee testimonial.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_00: And someone listening to that episode or watching the episode on YouTube, or maybe watching a clip that's on LinkedIn, instantly they'll be connected to that individual, perhaps based upon the personal story that that person is sharing.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they overcame some hardship or something, or the company supported them through their exams, or maybe somebody was stuck in a power planner role where they weren't being considered for financial advice, and the firm that they joined got them through cas status.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_00: That holy grail, you know, caste status for people really does change the opportunities that are then presented to them when they go out to market to look for a job opportunity.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't hold caste status, you haven't been signed off.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's a worry for a lot of firms, therefore they won't take a chance on you, and it's a shame.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_00: But it's like, oh, it's I had a guy quite recently, power planner, trainee financial planner, um, sitting down with clients, delivering full financial planning, but they won't sign him off as CAS.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just like it's like, I don't know when they are going to, and they haven't given me any clear guidelines or timescales of it.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_00: And now he's like looking around the whole of the UK for an opportunity.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_00: He'll leave where he lives to go and work for a firm that will put in front of him a plan to get him to competent advisor status because he wants to be client-facing financial advice.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_00: And um it's another thing that we're bringing into our academy actually is to prepare people for CAS.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, what's expected at CAS status and how to prepare yourself for it and how to again position uh yourself with an employer or your current employer to express that you're ready and that you want to.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's interesting really because um cast status, uh so my my very first role um cast, I think I achieved it within about three months um of starting from from scratch, basically, which yeah, was was very good.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_01: But um, for me it was always you know, I I used to always race against time sort of thing.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_01: I want to be the quickest to do this, I want to be the quickest to do that.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_01: I can safely say I'm not quite like that anymore.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but it there was also this thing like we don't want to sign you off too soon because even even though you've demonstrated these these values or yeah, that to go out and show you're competent, you might not actually be ready because you know you you might not have come across the most difficult clients or the most difficult cases.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I think you know, um for for some people where you know it's great to achieve caste in a quick time, don't get me wrong, but at the same time, there's no there's no rush for it as well.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_01: You want to make sure that you are 100% ready before you get to that point.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_01: And even when I was cast, I was still saying to my managers, can you come and observe me on a meeting?
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_01: Or can you send things off to compliance to get checked, even though I didn't have to, just because I wanted to be sure of it.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a um something like as soon as a manager says to some people, I need to observe one of your appointments, people get a bit flustered sometimes, don't they?
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it's uh or I need to send this case to compliance because automatically negatives come out and you think I'm gonna, yeah, but I don't think it should be seen in that way, it should be seen positively.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_01: So um, so yeah, it's not it's not a race, but like the example you gave there, it sounds like he's not really been given an opportunity either.
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um so that's a little bit different, but uh it's tricky, it's like people are a product of their own success, especially in power planning roles, where let's say you're power planning for a smaller company, this guy isn't actually.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_00: But imagine if you're powerplanning for a smaller company and they're thinking, God, we don't want to lose our great power planner because then we're gonna have to go and find another.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_00: But there comes a point, you know, there's like 9,000 odd power planners in the UK, and actually predominantly female.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we talk about a lack of female financial advisors, there's a huge amount of them that are sitting in power planner roles.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_00: And power planning, obviously, within its own right, is a career.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, and if you want to stay in power planning, then stay in power planning.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_00: But there are a high number of people in power planning roles that either aren't being uh encouraged to progress, or there isn't a career progression framework in place for them to to almost kind of uh attain or to work towards.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like a solution, a massive solution to the advice gap is let's upskill and move the power planners that want to be stepping across into financial advice.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let's invest in those individuals and let's train up power planners and bring in new power planners through.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um because a power planner is a trainee financial planner.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_00: You could you could you could you could say it's a trainee financial planner, regardless of whether or not they go on to be client facing.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what I mean?
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's like yeah, so it's it's definitely a Stephanie Stone.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that we have here, we've we've recruited two power planners from our team into financial advisor roles internally, and yeah, you know, it is encouraged that people do their diplomas, and we ideally um you know, we want to see these people flourish and make long careers with us.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_01: But as um as you've rightly said, power planner, yeah, it's it's a tough job at the end of the day.
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, so some of these technical power planners are absolutely brilliant, and yeah, they make my life a hell of a lot easier.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_01: So um, yeah, I think as you say, it goes back to what I said earlier about showing that little bit of disrespect perhaps to the people in those roles, but they provide such a fundamental function to what we do overall.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_01: And if people are happily staying there and become more technical-minded, it they are very valuable assets to any business out there.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but then as you say, I mean, I probably they are training paraplanners in terms of their knowledge, and so it's the only thing about paraplanners is those client-facing skills, which you don't really get.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that was the problem I had in compliance, um, whereby I wasn't client-facing.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't develop those relationship kind of skills um that you would do in a customer service role when you're on the phone to people or uh or a BDM role um and things like that.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I suppose that is the only holdback of a paraplanner role, which is preventing people.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but again, I've I've demonstrated already those are skills that you can pick up and you've got the right attitude and personality.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_00: What was one of the biggest learning curves that you've experienced in your financial planning career?
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this could be within the last year, for instance.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm quite interested in actually, because this you're at the place at the moment, are you, where you feel your happiest, right?
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_00: You're in an IFA position and you're in your happiest.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_00: But what's been your biggest learning curve in over the last year in this role of an IFA?
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think for me, it's dealing with that different client.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because when you deal with the same occupation day in, day out, you know their pension schemes inside out.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_01: Roughly, you know what their earnings are going to be.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so there's a lot of similarities.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's not to say that all clients are the same because they're not, you know, they're all completely different people, different interests, but the financial side of things tends to get quite repetitive.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and now you you come over here and it's it's a case of you're dealing with people from all walks of life, different financial positions.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I I could be talking to someone who is a complete self-made millionaire who has you know 10 million pounds overall in assets, and then speak to someone who's still got a mortgage in place and only how you know is is looking at a bit of protection instead.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_01: So it's um so it is very, very varied, but that's what I like about it because I'm talking to different people.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_01: I I knew all the questions to ask teachers because you know, what year group are you teaching?
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_01: You hear all the horror stories and everything as well.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_01: But um I genuinely um yeah, going in and seeing these people from all different backgrounds and trying to find those things in common with them because you you you almost go in blind a little bit.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_01: You can read the file notes and everything, but at the end of the day, until you met them, you don't really know.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_01: So um, I suppose that that was a challenge in itself, and then the knowledge gap as well.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it was yeah, uh looking at going, we never really did much inheritance tax planning, in in all honesty, um, in a previous role.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and when we and when we did, it was quite a basic proposition, but going out and looking at these much wider ranges of of products um out there and what you can do.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_01: And it's brilliant, I love it.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_01: And because because I like going and reading about these things, it's sort of it's almost like I know I'm inside out now, and that's a great place to be.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_01: But again, I didn't I didn't know how business relief product worked a year ago, and now I'm I'm there um kind of advising on it because I know I'm inside out, so it's it's definitely um it's been from a knowledge point of view and just an experience point of view, it has been very challenging.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_01: I know it's quite a broad answer.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_00: But um no, I think it's spot on.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think and what I'm learning is look, you know, you spent a few years in a restricted role training in during your training financial uh advice uh career at Wesleyan, you're in that restricted position.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_00: You worked hard, you know, you you got out there, you saw clients, you you did it in the evenings, right?
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_00: So you built that resilience, you understood what it's like to get out there and and also being quite left on your own in those positions.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the Wesleyan roles and I recruited for them, and a lot of the time you were quite isolated.
• 1:01:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so from going from that, and you know, that's a fair few years you were doing that.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_00: How many years was that again?
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um overall, about four years.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_00: Four years, and then moving into IFA, so you've been doing that for the last year.
• 1:02:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's refreshing to hear that you you you know, you don't just get it, it it's a continuation of learning, right?
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's always something new that's coming up.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's always something different to learn, there's always a change to the registration, you know, legislation or tax or pensions or different clients with different services, different needs, right?
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_00: Different, you know, and and it's refreshing to hear that uh you don't know it all, that it can take time and it's a continual learning process.
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_00: And very much what finances what I'm learning is financial planning is not you don't just get it.
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's a system and there's a process to say self-generating clients, yeah, or there's a uh a system and a model you can follow to create inbound leads through marketing.
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to the actual intricacies of the individual clients and the specific financial rules, for instance, they change.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it and it's always a it's always going to be a learning curve.
• 1:03:03
  SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna get it first time.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_00: So let go of this idea that you have to be perfect, perhaps, and just go along with the notion that you're gonna be taught a lesson every single day, perhaps?
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's um and the financial world ever is ever changing.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I mean, I was I was uh listening to a podcast the other day, and someone said, I'll I'm I'm an accountant, but I'm not a tax accountant because it changes every bloody year.
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_01: And it's financial advice is the exact same.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_01: As soon as the budget comes out, we get caused gore from clients.
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_01: So what does this mean to me?
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so you so you could imagine the uh abolition of um the LTA lifetime allowance was a massive one, especially with with wealthier clients who have protections in place and things like that.
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_01: So um, but some of those conversations you're not really going to be having with teachers, in all honesty, um, because they just don't tend to have the wealth, it's a vocational role, like when you're going to for money.
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_01: So um, yeah, it's it's completely different there.
• 1:03:57
  SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, it goes back to the culture of the business.
• 1:04:00
  SPEAKER_01: Some employees may expect you to go in and just get it straight away and be able to do all this stuff, or it's almost a case of well, do it and then find out the answer afterwards.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_01: I was afforded a little bit of time to say, all right, you you make your own development plan, you find out what you need to know.
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_01: And that was with the help of the compliance team here as well.
• 1:04:16
  SPEAKER_01: And they tested me on my knowledge, and that gave me a bit of a kick up the ass to say, all right, you need to go and find out about this.
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_01: But they said my my knowledge now is better than it's ever been.
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's yeah, I'm very confident I can talk to anyone about anything now.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but when I came here, I did um, you know, you you do have that anxiety because you really want to prove yourself.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's a learning experience all the way through, and it'll continue to be that way.
• 1:04:41
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_00: One final question, and I'm going to ask you a question about niching to client niching.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_00: You worked in a role where your niche client was teachers.
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_00: You now work in an IFA firm.
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_00: What's your thoughts and feelings around niching down on client targets?
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_00: Only working with a specific type of client.
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think I think it makes life a lot easier in terms of trying to figure out what you need to do.
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_01: So when I was working with teachers, you know who your target mark is, and because of the backing of someone like Wesley, where they've got all the marketing material that you can use and seminars and things like that, uh presentations, it does make it quite easy to be able to approach people, say, we've got all this stuff that we can do for you.
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, coming into the RFA world where it's a lot more of a wider reapmit, and you can talk to anyone.
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think it's still important to try and figure out in yourself who your target market is, and everyone is completely different in terms of who they want theirs to be.
• 1:05:42
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, for example, I really want to speak to business owners because I think that there's a lot of business owners out there who do need help but might know they're heading the sand a little bit perhaps with with some parts or um or just need that guidance, and that's something that's starting to come off a little bit.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not you know, I'm not restricting myself to just business owners, but I think it's quite important to get an idea of the kind of clients that you do want to speak to.
• 1:06:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, retired clients, like financial advisors.
• 1:06:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we all like retired clients because they've got pension pots, they don't know, you know, they don't know what to do with them, and you know, we're able to help them.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, um, it's just that a lot of them have different careers compared to teachers.
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, it's it it's important to niche or target market, still, I believe, but um at least you can broaden your horizons a little bit more.
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
• 1:06:31
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today and sharing your career journey, your insight, and you know, where you've gone on your journey.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's much appreciated.
• 1:06:39
  SPEAKER_00: What does the future hold for you?
• 1:06:40
  SPEAKER_00: What are you looking forward to in the next sort of year and two years of your career?
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh getting some sleep when that eight-month-old gets older, but um uh no generally, um just yeah, I'm hoping I'm hoping I'll be charted very soon.
• 1:06:53
  SPEAKER_01: So and then really just getting my teeth sunk in, uh, you know, and and working with what I've got and then trying to find new challenges um to you know to to go out there and just just embrace all the changes that you know are getting thrown at us.
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_01: But as I said, it's um I'm probably the happiest I've been in my career so far, and it's uh and hopefully that shines through for the foreseeable future.
• 1:07:17
  SPEAKER_00: So IFA1 restricted zero, then yeah?
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_00: Is that what you would say when it comes to a career in financial advice for yourself?
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_01: For me personally, yeah, not for everyone.
• 1:07:25
  SPEAKER_01: So for me personally, yeah.
• 1:07:27
  SPEAKER_00: Fabulous.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for your time today.
• 1:07:29
  SPEAKER_01: No, no problem, thank you.