Financial Planner: We've just finished this year's IFP Annual Conference at the Celtic Manor Resort in Wales. Did you manage to attend and what did you think?
Matthew Walne: It was my first IFP Annual conference so was really looking forward to meeting a lot of people that I know and know of via Twitter. I'm a keen user of Twitter and there are lots of people I know through Twitter but perhaps have never met so it was great to catch up with them. There were also some great sessions to attend and some very good speakers. The highlight was the curry night of course on the first night! It's when lots of planners and delegates get together for an impromptu curry at a nearby restaurant.
FP: What do you think are the benefits of being an IFP member and why did you decide to join?
MW: I've been a member for two years now, which is a relatively short time I know compared to a lot of other members but I feel part of an organisation which is helping to develop the very best in the profession. The IFP is also helping to make the public aware of the benefits of Financial Planning with campaigns such as Financial Planning Week (taking place this year from 24 November to 1 December, see p29). I also think the Certified Financial PlannerCM qualification is of greater benefit to planners than being Chartered as it's more about the practical side rather than just repeating knowledge, although you need to be able evidence that as well. I'm starting that this month and I'm attending the Integrated Financial Planning Course and Case Study Preparation Day and very much looking forward to those. I know they will be hard work but I hope rewarding in the long run.
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FP: How did you get into Financial Planning and what attracted you to the profession?
MW: I've been a financial adviser for about 14 years and working in financial services for 16 years. I graduated from university in 1996 and didn't know what I wanted to do and it took me a year to find what I was looking for. I liked the idea of helping people to improve their long term financial
situation and earning a good living for myself at the same time. This was more on a transactional basis and I realised after some time that it wasn't what I wanted to do and I was not really engaging my clients in the way that I would like. After some reflection, I made a conscious decision to change this and move in a different direction and I decided after some research that I wanted to be a professional Financial Planner and to be able to deliver a valuable and meaningful service that measurably improved my clients' lives. I also wanted to differentiate myself from most of my colleagues within the company I worked for at the time who were continuing to follow the financial advisory model.
FP: How has your team and company changed since the launch of the business and what has the journey been like? How many clients do you have and what's the annual turnover?
MW: As I only launched in February 2011 it's not changed that much as we haven't been going very long in business terms, although I've just got my first employee who started the day after I got back from the IFP Conference, quite a milestone for the business. I've had coaching from Paul Armson which has given me great clarity. I have a relatively small number of clients, 35 so far and I want no more than 100, ideally less. My annual turnover this year will only be about £80,000 which is a lot less than I'm used to but I'm on the right tracks. The journey has been tough so far but will be well worth it in the long term, I hope, and I feel I am on my way.
FP: What type of Financial Planning do you offer to clients and what are your fees and charges? Do you have any specialisms?
MW: I provide Lifestyle Financial Planning to small business owners. I have a choice of three levels of advice with fees ranging from £1,479 to £4,579. I charge up to 1 per cent for implementation and up to 1 per cent for ongoing service. My specialism is retirement/exit planning for successful small business owners.
FP: How do you find new clients and what have been some of your best practices
in terms of sourcing new clients? Please give examples of what works most effectively?
MW: I have built up a good network of accountants that provide me with the majority of my best new clients. This is arguably the best way to get the ideal clients I want along with referrals I get from existing clients. I do a lot of marketing which has varying degrees of success. I'm probably best known for my social media activities for which I've gained a good reputation within the Financial Planning community. It's enjoyable to do and you learn lots of useful tips as you go along although it can be hard work to do at times, especially when you are very busy and other things to do.
FP: In terms of running your business, what software applications do you use (particularly in reference to Financial Planning and back office software) and what sort of internal processes do you run in brief to ensure everything runs smoothly? Do you have a weekly practice meeting, for example?
MW: For Financial Planning I use Truth, quite simply it's the best there is in my opinion. I couldn't do my job without it now. I've recently taken on Intelligent Office as my back office system and I'm trying to get my head round how it works.
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FP: You've worked with both George Kinder on Life Planning and Paul Armson on Truth, what did these involve and what did you learn from them?
MW: Meeting George helped me realise that working for another company was not what I wanted and helped give me the vision and inspiration to set my own business up and do it my way, the right way. Paul took things to another level for me. He helped me to identify who I need to work with, how many clients at most to deal with and how to deliver proper Financial Planning that clients are willing to pay large fees for. Paul has become a close confidant and someone I can call a friend. Both are very different characters but both have been inspirational.
FP: Santorini has developed an auto- enrolment proposition, why did you decide to do this and what will it offer?
MW: I was given a bit of a wakeup call by Steve Bee's excellent talk at the New Model Adviser Conference earlier this year. To be honest it's too good an opportunity to overlook. If I don't look after my best business owner clients someone else will and potentially there are ready made clients that I will be looking after.
I'm educating employers and accountants alike that auto enrolment is not so much about pensions as it is about having robust systems and processes.
I will help assess a firm's need for auto enrolment compliance by assessing their workforce, seeing what pension arrangements they have in place, if any and helping the employer to communicate to their staff the changes coming in. I will be looking in detail to see which contribution levels they should opt for and if Certification is best for them or not and also whether they should opt for Postponement or not.
What has been your greatest source of achievement in running your business and what are you proudest of?
MW: I would have to say becoming only the 10th Financial Planning firm in the UK to be awarded BS8577 and only the 100th Financial Planner in the UK to be awarded ISO22222. Both were a real challenge and I'm very proud of these achievements.
I think I have all the component parts in place to make it a very successful business.
FP: Many planners are concerned about the rising cost of regulation and other threats to their businesses. What do you see as the main threats to your business?
MW: FSCS levies are certainly a concern. I don't see why my business should pay for misdemeanours such as Key Data and Arch Cru which occurred before my business was even in existence.
The biggest threat to my business is simpler than that though, it's ensuring I have the right number of the right clients and the right support staff behind me. I've recently hired Abraham Okusanya as my outsourced Paraplanner so that will help with new business administration. Success or failure will be down to me and me only.
FP: If you could change anything about the Financial Planning profession what would you choose?
MW: It would be for financial advisers to stop calling themselves Financial Planners when they are not. The banks were the biggest culprits of this. I can demonstrate I follow the six steps of Financial Planning as I have ISO22222 and my website makes several references to what I do and how I do it. For some it's a lot less obvious.
FP: What do you like doing in your spare time outside of work?
MW: Spare time? What's that? I have two young children under the age of four so they take up all mytimewhenIgethome.Weliketodoalotasa family, so we go to zoos, farms and parks. We like to go on holiday twice a year. We went to France in June and I've just come back from a week in Zante.
I'm a PADI qualifies Open Water Diver but find very little to time to dive at the moment which is a shame as it's something I love doing, preferably in warmer waters than the ones that surround the UK! I am sure I'll get back to it eventually once things settle down and I have more time on my minds which might be a few years yet.
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