This year Julie has reached the 30 year mark in her career. Below, she writes about her experiences to date, reflecting on her three decades in Financial Planning and the importance of loving your job and work-life balance.
It was 1986 and I saw an advert in a Bristol newspaper looking for “financial consultants.” I don’t know what a financial consultant was, but I had a maths degree and a lot of confidence and thought that I could probably blag my way in!
Back then it was all about sales targets and how many policies one could sell to a customer before moving on to the next. There was little or no regulation in financial services, no real consumer protection, sales commission was huge and independent advice was a big joke as companies received large sales incentives from insurance and investment companies. In short it was like the Wild West!
I soon came to realise that a business model which relied on getting new clients all the time, was doomed to fail and that it would be much better to look after existing clients properly so that they wanted to stay with me and receive consistent ongoing advice.
In 1991 I set up my own business Cavendish Financial Management in Cardiff after an interesting “apprenticeship” during which I learned a lot about what NOT to do in business.
At Cavendish I was keen to pursue a professional services model of business, which to me, meant becoming very well qualified to give proper long term advice and giving clients a completely transparent charging structure so they didn’t worry about our impartiality.
Cavendish was one of the first companies in The UK to charge fees rather than take commission and I was the first Certified Financial Planner in Wales.
Julie 30 years ago
I wanted Cavendish to move as far away from financial sales as possible and began to explain to clients that the financial products they had accumulated over the years, were simply the building blocks of their financial strategy rather than a proper plan for achieving their desired lifestyle.
I wanted to find a way of showing them what their future would look like if they did nothing and how it would look after our advice. I wanted them to be clear about what they wanted their future lives to look like and whether their existing plans and policies were going to deliver this. Up until this point they (and I) were really just guessing and crossing our fingers in the hope that the arrangements they already had were sufficient.
So around 1993 we discovered some financial planning software that revolutionised our business. It enabled us to model various different scenarios for our clients to show them how things would look in certain circumstances for example if they retired early, or sold their business or needed nursing care. We were able to tell them how much they needed to sell their business for and whether they could afford to give away money to their children and still be able to enjoy their life. We were also able to show them what might happen if someone died or had a serious illness and to help them to decide how to address this. We could model any scenario a client could imagine.
Our clients loved this new approach and said it made them feel more secure and confident, allowing them to make the most of their money and their life. No one else was providing a comprehensive financial planning service locally and we were inundated with new clients who understood the importance of planning their futures rather than just buying more financial products and investments.
Over the next 17 years Cavendish went from strength to strength gaining a good local reputation for financial planning and I was called upon more and more to talk at various conferences around the world about charging fees, proper financial planning and delivering great client service. I have been a regular commentator in the public and financial press and to date I have spoken in America, Japan, Sweden, South Africa, Holland, Australia, Germany, France and latterly Israel and Italy. During this time I joined the Board of the Institute of Financial Planning and served as President for 3 years from 1999. It was wonderful to meet others who pursued similar business models and put client interests first.
I sold Cavendish to AXA in 2007 but stayed on to ensure a smooth handover for both staff and clients. At this point my plan was to retire but I soon found that I missed the client meetings and following the progress of people who we had been looking after, in many cases for over 20 years.
All through my career I have been telling clients that they have to make the most of their lives as “this is not a dress rehearsal!” I have talked to them about getting the right work/life balance, being better organised and helping to coordinate their general wellbeing.
Many of my clients over the years have been delighted when I have told them that they can afford to retire early and have stopped working immediately to pursue their dream life. For others, they enjoy their work so much that they don’t want to stop – it is more like a hobby for them. I have been pleasantly surprised to find that I fall into the latter category and that whilst I have previously announced my intention to retire, when I actually had the opportunity to do so, it didn’t seem like an attractive proposition.
So now after a short spell working for a large investment based company which did not suit me at all, I am back at the helm of a smaller but beautifully formed financial planning company where I can continue to look after most of my original Cavendish clients (who wonderfully have found me again) and now their children and sometimes grandchildren too.
This new company is called Magenta Financial Planning and although at the time of writing, it is only 9 weeks old, it employs all the old values of Cavendish to ensure that clients receive a really valuable service which helps them to feel secure and happy and helps them to make the most of their lives.
So 30 years on I am not working full time and so I can spend time writing; mentoring new advisers; looking after clients (albeit fewer now that I have a wonderful new business partner) and trying to perfect my study of the tenor saxophone.
The financial world looks very different now – proper consumer protection and regulation, compulsory examinations for advisers and competitive financial arrangements.
We still have a lot to do to give the general public confidence in financial services, but for now I am happy that Magenta clients are getting the best possible advice and guidance and as for me, I can’t ask for a better work/life balance and am still loving my work even after 30 years.