It’s a breeze living a mere five-minute walk from work. Today, I have two key client meetings. The first is in the City with a longstanding client where we need to understand his pension history in relation to the final part of his divorce settlement.
The second is with a new client who was referred to us by our accountants who has a power of attorney for his elderly mother, who has just moved to a care home. I need to prepare, but also write and submit my monthly column for the local community magazine, which has proven very successful.
Both client meetings go well, with the second ensuring that we manage to get Santander to unpick, without penalty, the ridiculous fixed rate bonds they had set up on a non-advised basis, being clearly unsuitable for someone in their 90s who is unquestionably going to need care and thus need to use their capital to provide income.
Tuesday: Again at 8am, I arrive at another local IFA’s offices, where along with others we are trying to see how we might be able to support each other where we each have a different speciality. Discussions go well and this is certainly one to watch.
Returning to the office, there are a number of tasks to complete and especially for other client meetings later in the week before I travel to Piccadilly for a roadshow run by our network.
There being a number of important updates both procedurally and as business opportunities, I allow myself one pint afterwards to discuss the meaning of life.
Wednesday: Another early start, this time in the West End for 8am for a monthly breakfast networking group I attend. This month, the focus was on PR. As usual it was very interesting, not least to verify that we were doing most things correctly.
It is back to the office to process some new business, progress our annual Bed and Isa clients through the two wraps we use, box off pension tax year-end and carry forward client requirements, and write to some other clients in respect of their annual reviews that are falling due.
Thursday: I have an annual review with one of our recently acquired post-retirement clients. This is typical of the type of individual we see who was not sure three years ago whether she could afford to retire and clearly could, albeit that we had to prove it.
Now she says that she is so busy doing her charitable work and having fun she never understood how she had time to go to work. What a success story.
Friday: I am deservedly only working a half-day as my wife and I are off to Bournemouth, where our son is at university, to celebrate his 21st birthday.
Before I can even contemplate that, I have to prepare for the following week and have another annual review with one of our post-retirement clients.
Her story is that she was a very successful make-up artist working for the BBC, along with a number of other private productions.
She has sold her house and relocated, having downsized massively, where the residual capital would fund any additional income requirements she might need.
Now I am off for a lovely weekend.
Les Conway is a director of Middlesex-based Essentially Financial
