Diary of an IFA: Yiend
Ross Yiend, a founding partner and IFA of London-based Plutus Wealth Management, gets the week rolling by taking the pulse of what key fund managers are thinking in the shape of the firm’s investment committee, before consuming himself wholeheartedly in client work, sparing some me-time on Thursday evening for touch rugby.
Monday: I get into the office by 8.30am and it’s time to start looking at what needs to be done for the week ahead.
My work tends to be split between company work and then client work with the majority towards the clients. Heading up the Plutus Investment Committee also demands a lot of time especially in these volatile times. Lunch meeting with a fund sales representative to giving me a full update on their funds we work closely with these guys to find out exactly where the fund managers heads are and then follow up with a meeting or call with the fund manager if required. Early afternoon, Plutus partners have a budget meeting planning towards the new tax year and what areas we would like to commit parts of our budget to for 2012/2013. I have an evening meeting with a potential new client to talk through their current financial planning and how we can help them moving forward with their current investments they have in place. It is a long day as I leave the office at 8pm.
Tuesday
The day starts with an early meeting with the other partners on the Plutus Investment Committee. We have these meetings once a month with a view to potentially making quarterly changes to our clients’ portfolios. We always talk through all options and then go away and carry out further research before making any final decisions for our model portfolios. We are asset allocation driven first and foremost and then we look into the tactical approach for each sector. I have a client meeting following lunch to talk through with a client her retirement options looking ahead. The rest of the day is spent prepping for client meetings for the rest of the week ahead and sending out meeting notes from the Investment Committee meeting.
Wednesday
The morning is spent doing research and speaking to various fund groups following on from the PIC meeting yesterday and asking for the fund managers’ view on the funds over the next quarter and also their sector view. Georgina, who is head of marketing, and I have a meeting with a digital marketing consultant with regards to increasing are exposure online. This was a very interesting meeting and gave us potential ideas and plans for our online approach to target new clients. I have an evening meeting with a client tonight therefore prepping for that meeting and getting portfolio reports to give the client a full update of his portfolio and discuss plans over the next six months. Another late finish at 8pm but we combined our meeting with dinner.
Thursday
The morning is spent following up on the meeting last night. We aim to get an email out to clients 24 hours after our meeting to give the client an overview and the tasks that need to be done. This helps the clients get a clear direction of what the next steps are and the time line of when everything is going to happen. For example the client from last night was carrying out an Isa top-up therefore it was simply letting him know the process of what needs to be done and when he should expect the money to appear in his Isa account. The afternoon was spent with a client who works in Liverpool Street therefore a short walk across the City. Thursday nights I always plan to have no meetings so that I can ensure I am away and out to either rugby training or touch rugby in the summer.