A well known adviser has been described as being a Financial Planning pioneer, 20 years ahead of the principles RDR aimed to introduce, after news of his death emerged.

Tributes have flowed in this morning for Gareth Marr, pictured below, who helped co-found Accredited Financial Planning Firm The Red House Consulting in 2007. He passed away on Friday, his former business has confirmed. Read more here.

Industry colleagues have told Financial Planning Today he was a ‘perfect gentleman’ and the pensions sector owes him a great debt.

If you would like to pay tribute to Mr Marr, please send your comments to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Retired adviser Harry Katz, pictured below, first came across Mr Marr in the late 1980s and early 1990s at industry events.

He told FPT: “I thought he was a great bloke, he was one of the good guys. What always struck me is that he was one of the very early people to put clients at the centre of the proposition.

Image: Harry Katz

“He was very much in advance of a lot of the stuff that the RDR wanted to push, about 20 years in advance.

“He was one who dragged the industry away from the ‘get your foot in the door and flog it’ approach. He had a very good reputation and it was deserved.

“I took a lot of what he was saying on board myself and it certainly didn’t do me any harm. I was a fan and thought he always spoke a lot of sense, as shown by the quality of his clients that stayed with him.”

Image: John Moret

John Moret, principal of MoretoSIPPs, pictured above, said: “I first met Gareth nearly 30 years ago – at the time he was in the vanguard of the development of SSASs and didn’t shirk confronting the regulators (HMRC) if he believed a cause was worth pursuing.

“He helped pave the way for the development of Sipps. Our paths crossed many times since then – he always had something interesting to say often humorous and quite often controversial. In all his various roles he was both entrepreneurial and flamboyant.

“My last contact with him was some 18 months ago when I had hoped I could get him to speak at an after dinner event. Sadly he had to decline as his voice –which he described as a bit like “a whispering Barry White” – wasn’t up to it.

“He leaves a big gap –and many in the industry owe him a big debt as he helped shape the world of self invested pensions.”

Geoff Mills, director at RSMR, said: “It was a pleasure to know him. We saw each other at industry events as you do and even though we had no business connections Gareth was always ‘the perfect gentleman’ and would make every effort to have a chat.”

He said: “I remember Gareth, who was a new business inspector – an old term for broker consultant - in the life & pensions side of Phoenix assurance, from when I worked there in Leeds in the early 1980’s.

“I was a new guy to the sales side of the business and Gareth displayed all the qualities that I admired. He was easy going yet professional and dedicated and was thought of highly by his colleagues. As a result he was promoted and I think that is when he probably headed for London.

“I met him when he established his own successful business and later when he was at Origen.”

If you would like to pay tribute to Mr Marr, please send your comments to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..