Sometimes it is good – cathartic even – to recognise the great parts of this country’s diverse and crucial financial services industry.
A sector, we should all remind ourselves occasionally while eating our porridge oats, that is both key to the economy and to the financial welfare of the great people that make up this fine nation of ours.
To put it another way, every once in a while, it is vital we take time out from knocking the bad guys – the banks with their mountains of PPI misselling claims, the insurers with their rising premiums, and the payday lenders with their outrageous practices.
Instead, we should turn our attention to the good guys and salute those that through thick and thin, bear and bull markets, and periods of regulatory persecution, have continued to strive for excellence in everything they do.
We should turn our attention to the good guys who have continued to strive for excellence in everything they do.Businesses that have put customers first all the time and in the process helped build – and protect - long-term wealth for their clients.
Yes, I know, it is not something you would expect someone from The Mail on Sunday to write, dipped as I am in a tub of scepticism every day upon entering its offices in London’s Kensington.
Or for that matter, it is not what worthy organisations such as Which? do. Seldom a week goes by without it taking another ‘pop’ at financial advisers – the latest ‘pop’ being on the need for advisers to be more up-front with potential customers about the charges they levy.
But I would be a fool – a narrow-minded one at that – not to acknowledge the fact that good often prevails, even in financial services. It is just that it does not make a ‘good’ story.
So let me cleanse myself of scepticism for the rest of this article and regale you with a good story about the financial services industry that should make all IFAs brim with pride.
It concerns one of your own and proves that if you care enough and are passionate about what you do, you will avoid the bucketfuls of mud that are thrown your way. Good will prevail over bad. Good businesses can survive the regulatory treacle and thrive, provided they are built on sound foundations.
The business in question is Alan Steel Asset Management, an independent financial adviser firm based in Linlithgow, north of Hadrian’s Wall and within spitting distance of the glorious Forth Road Bridge.
The company was set up 40 years ago by Alan Steel with no more than a badge declaring he was an IFA. He worked from a rented office which contained a dilapidated desk (also rented), a landline to the outside world and little else.
Despite the slings and arrows thrown at it along the way, ASAM is today one of Scotland’s biggest financial success stories. It manages assets approaching £900m on behalf of more than 1,500 families.
Mr Steel, approaching his 69th birthday, no longer advises – he leaves that to his ‘lean and mean team’ of eight IFAs – but he is still very much the heartbeat of the company.
Although he has made enough money for this life and another, he cannot let go. He will not – and cannot – leave the industry he loves.
Forget Viagra. He gets his thrills from new clients turning round to him and saying that as a result of coming in to see ASAM, they understand investments for the very first time in their lives. Care and trust course through the business’s veins. The client comes first.
I recently jumped on a plane to Edinburgh to celebrate the 40th anniversary of ASAM at the Old Course Hotel at St Andrews, a place of pilgrimage for golfers given its close proximity to The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews.
The last time I was in St Andrews was when Scott Bell, former chief executive of Standard Life (sadly no longer with us), marched me around the golf course as Tiger Woods came up trumps in the Open Championship.
It was a privilege to be at the Old Course Hotel as ASAM’s staff and their partners wined and dined, munching their way through Cullen skink, Scottish beef carpaccio, roasted Scotch sirloin of beef and a fine selection of Scottish cheeses. Nicola Sturgeon would have been mighty proud of what we ate.
During the meal, I stood up and said a few laudatory words (yes, it is called singing for my supper). After all, I have known Mr Steel for 24 years and although we have fallen out occasionally, we have done some incredible work together – him as the financial expert, me as the purveyor of his knowledge and wisdom.
So it was only right to acknowledge his part in educating the public about some of the intricacies – and traps – of the personal finance world.
Together, we brought to the nation’s attention the poor value of Section 226 policies in the event of early death. We also encouraged people to put life policies in trust.
But best of all, we took on Equitable Life in the early 1990s when nobody else was prepared to criticise them. Indeed, the insurer threatened to put Mr Steel out of businesses for the criticism he heaped on them in articles I wrote for a national newspapers. Of course, subsequent events proved him very right indeed.
I left the Old Course Hotel last Sunday not having played a hole of golf and with the mildest of hangovers. But I would not have missed the anniversary celebration for the world.
Of course, ASAM is not the only star out there in the financial adviser universe. There are plenty more shining examples of adviser excellence that I could talk about. But last weekend was all about ASAM. A firm that continues to deliver quality independent financial advice.
I raise my glass to another 40 years.
Jeff Prestridge is personal finance editor of the Mail on Sunday
