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We are going through the painful correction, before it gets back to a better world
7IM chief executive Tom Sheridan speaks to Girlie Garduce about the positives of platforms and why the ambition for a product advice culture undertaken by the retail distribution review is a sewn into the industry.
“The financial planners do not come from investment backgrounds. Most of the management are refugees from large companies. We wanted to create a business that did a couple of things a little differently.”
"As the equities market goes down, like it has now, people become frightened and want to sell their investments and wait a couple of years for it to go back up, in order for it to feel comfortable enough to buy it.
“It is that behaviour that costs them and impacts on their performance. The reason to give them a portfolio that is more diversified, is to keep them in line to stay with the programme and help them do better.
“We do not want a salesman making the investment decisions, and we do not want a call centre environment. We wanted somebody who knows what they are doing, know the voice of the person that is calling them, they become much more involved in the financial planner's business than a normal fund manager might do.
“We also provide them with technology in the form of platforms as part of the service delivery, so the financial planner and client can see everything if they want to.”
But despite Mr Sheridan reinforcing exactly what 7IM represents, he remains realistic to what investors are seeking, especially in the downturn.
He said: “The world is capital constrained at the moment, for developing solutions for the circumstances that we have. This forces people to really think about how to invest.”
But he stressed: “The world is going to force us back into a less leveraged, more common sense environment, when we get to the other side.
“However, it is not all doom and gloom. We are going through the painful correction, before it gets back to a better world.”
Girlie Garduce is senior features writer of Financial Adviser
CV Tom Sheridan
1975: Regional Operations Manager, Prudential-Bache-Securities, New York
1981: Manager Commissions Department, Prudential-Bache-Securities, NY
1982: Vice rresident, International Division, Prudential-Bache-Securities, NY
1987: Chief executive officer, Prudential-Bache-Securities, Melbourne Australia
1992: Chief operating officer, international division, Prudential-Bache-Securities, London
1996: Managing director, Barclays Stockbrokers, London/Glasgow
2000: Co-founded Seven Investment Management, London