David Lawrence, chief executive for wealth management at Financial Planner Kingswood, has spoken exclusively to Financial Planning Today for our latest Newsmakers interview on how the Coronavirus pandemic has changed working practices at the firm and its acquisitions pipeline for 2021.

Kingswood recruited Schroders Personal Wealth’s chief commercial officer David Lawrence to be its new UK chief executive for wealth management in December last year, to lead Kingswood’s UK growth plans. Expanding Kingswood has acquired a number of adviser businesses in the UK and US over the past few years with backing from private equity firm Pollen Street Capital. In December the firm said that it would raise a further £20m to fund its acquisition war-chest. 

At the start of the year, the firm launched the Kingswood Academy to help train its next generation of Financial Planners. 

Financial Planning Today: Last year Kingswood’s business levels took a hit from the Coronavirus pandemic due to remote working slowing down new business. Now lockdown has been upon us for a while again what are you doing differently?

David Lawrence: I have been hugely impressed with how all of the Kingswood colleagues have responded to the Coronavirus pandemic, the lockdowns and importantly how they have adapted to support our clients during this really difficult time. We quickly got into a rhythm back in March last year and have actually proven to ourselves how different working arrangements can work for us and our clients. As a result, one of the things we’ll be doing is introducing a more flexible working policy post Covid-19 than was in place before. For me personally, joining Kingswood during lockdown has been challenging as it is so much harder to build relationships from scratch over Zoom than it is to maintain them, but we’ve got on with it and I’m increasingly confident that face to face time, for me, my team and with our clients is now just around the corner. We can’t wait!

In December you announced you were raising a further £20m to fund acquisitions. Have you found somewhere to spend this yet?

DL: We have lots of growth ambition and are wanting to build the business both organically and through acquisition. This money is earmarked for the latter. We want to acquire businesses that have a strong fit with our client centric philosophy and where the principals wish to see greater support as they continue to grow. We also have a strong investment management capability which is also appealing to some firms too. There are some parts of the country that we would like to boost our presence in over the coming months and as opportunities arise. We also have a flexible acquisition model than can be tailored to provide the best fit for each transaction.

We have a healthy pipeline of prospects and I am personally speaking to a number of prospects each week to ensure that before we start a process the ingredients and connectivity feel right. We hope to be progressively announcing acquisitions through 2021.

You work closely with a private equity firm in Pollen Street Capital. What has it been like working with private equity?

DL: My early experience has been terrific. Pollen aren’t just an investor, they are an active partner in our business and by having a specialty in financial services they are able to support Kingswood on various levels through their deep internal capabilities, so I’d best describe them as a collaborative partner, which is great to have. The arrangement that we have with Pollen is working really well for us, though like most things it is the relationship and alignment of strategic thinking, not the source of funding that is important and therefore different types of funding will appeal to different firms at different times.

A lot of wealth managers have been adding to their ESG propositions recently, including Kingswood. Is this due to an increase in demand from clients?

DL: Clients are now commonly not only asking about ESG products, but also about our ESG credentials as a firm, so I actually think this runs far deeper than having a product in place and over time we will develop this. We’ve had a retail product in our range for some time but there is lots of scope to build on this, but so-called “greenwashing” doesn’t cut it for me so all that we do needs to be in tandem with how we approach ESG as a firm. This is something that our partner Pollen Street capital will support us with as ESG is very high up on their agenda too and they have some great credentials.

All clients are curious, so it is a common conversation, even more so as performance of ESG products has improved and whilst different clients have different motivations, all are driven in part out of an increased conscience.

In January you launched a Financial Planning academy. How are your first trainees getting on? 

DL: They are fantastic and I’m delighted with the start they have all made. Every day they are acquiring new technical and people skills, and developing their Financial Planning knowledge which is great to see. There is a known shortage of advisers and I therefore think it is critically important that firms build an adviser pipeline. I’m taking a medium to long term of view of this, and I believe that introducing a next generation of Financial Planners is critical to our future success and to organically growing our business.

My broader ambition is to build a group of advisers at Kingswood that are reflective of our clients of the future and thereby reflective of society at large. So diversity of recruitment is really important to me and it will be increasingly reflected in our future recruits. I hope to introduce a further academy intake later this year.

You recently joined Kingswood from Schroders Personal Wealth. So far, what have you found to be the biggest differences between the two businesses?

DL: Whilst there is a difference in size, I actually think there are more similarities than differences. Both businesses are trying to help clients achieve their goals and deliver a great client experience, whether it be in providing financial advice and / or managing client investments. So in that sense my transition has been much easier than I might have thought. They both have similar values too - which was one of the reasons I found Kingswood so appealing as they aligned with my own.

What lessons have you learned in your career that have shaped you into the Financial Planner that you are today?

DL: As a person - be authentic, be true to yourself and never compromise your core values. As a leader, put clients and colleagues at the heart of your thinking, keep everything relevant and keeping true to my Yorkshire roots, be straightforward!

What is one thing people may not know about you?

DL: When not working (or road cycling in the Peak District, which is my exercise passion), I am a keen pianist.