Veteran Financial Planner Tony Lewis says he has no plans to retire despite being just a few months away from his 82nd birthday.

His one-man business, Embassy Financial Planning, operates from his home offices in Finchley, North London, and has been authorised by the FCA and its predecessors since 1988. 

His firm offers its more than 50 clients investment, retirement planning, life assurance, mortgage advice and other Financial Planning services.

He says that he has “no plans or time” to retire because he believes there is still “much to achieve and much to learn” and enjoys serving existing clients and sometimes new ones too.

Apart from work he also manages a team of carers 24/7 for his son, living at home, who has special needs.

To keep fit and to “indulge his competitive instincts” he enjoys playing walking football twice a week as goalkeeper.  

Tony told Financial Planning Today that began working at 16 in his father’s retail pram, nursery goods and toy business but at 21 he left the business and went to the US for a year where he travelled the East Coast and Mid West selling magazine subscriptions to students with many interesting experiences, he said. 

He decided to head home after being offered a stint in Vietnam (during the Vietnam war) or the option to go straight back to the UK. 

He started in insurance at 22 with Sun Life of Canada in the days of company reps calling at doors such as those working for Prudential, Pearl and others. He worked at Sun Life of Canada for 12 years during the period when Abbey Life, Allied Dunbar and later Skandia were starting out.

After a thorough grounding in prospecting and direct sales, he then joined Arrowhill Financial Planning in Harrow, as an independent adviser, where he worked for another 12 years and then in 1988 set up Embassy Financial Planning and hasn't looked back since.

Asked about the secret of a long career, Mr Lewis said: “My advice is to be very single minded in what you do, do not do everything, be selective, generally do not rely on others, take full responsibility for your decisions and try not to take short cuts.

“The best results come from taking the extra trouble to get it right first time.”

He was supported until recently by his “phenomenal” wife Alicia for 54 years, but sadly she died earlier this year.

• Tony Lewis is likely to be one of the UK’s oldest IFAs / Financial Planners but do you know anyone older still working in the profession? Let us know by dropping a line to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..