My house is two minutes from the office so the run ends with the office where I can check overnight emails and think about the tasks awaiting when the business day starts. At 7.30am it is back to the house to wake my beautiful slumbering princess, otherwise known as my wife Sue, with a cup of tea.
The RDR has now been two working weeks in operation but the tsunami feared by the majority of advisers will leave us untouched. We took the high moral ground against commission driven advice back in 2005 and as we all know high ground is the answer to avoiding being swamped by the unstoppable wave.
The week starts with a detailed analysis from our database system which allows us to obtain lists of clients invested by sector. Our research today then is to look at the prospects for each sector and decide whether to stay, exit, reduce, increase or enter. Our thoughts will then be emailed to reach a client asking them for their own views and if relevant their agreement or rejection of a suggested action. They pay us a retainer to monitor their financial planning and ensure that their money is doing all that they require of it. Having done the appraisal our son Aled and I go through with him taking over the communication to these clients, mostly electronically.
We are fortunate to have Aled. With the new paradigm it is essential to have someone who is supreme in technology, has the right background (Aled has a mathematics degree), is confident with clients and they are confident in him. The huge bonus is that being family, Sue and I can trust him absolutely. At industry gatherings recently it struck me that the adviser population is ageing and that exams, decimated cash flow and rising regulatory costs will see off many of the old timers. Our future is bright - our future is Aled.
Tuesday
Same start as Monday but today I am actually seeing a client. The pattern of face-to-face meetings has changed since we embarked on the fee charging voyage. In early fee-based days our agreement was to provide a once a year meeting to review everything. We found out subsequently that clients preferred meetings that were event driven rather than just getting together for the sake of it. The meeting today was at the behest of one of my richer clients who had decided to buy their daughter an apartment for £210,000 and wanted to know where to fund the money. There is no product, just unbiased advice from which we will not earn a penny other than the retainer they already pay us. In fact it is likely that we will lose from the advice since it is probable that investment bonds will go and lose us trail commission. Advisers be warned - your trail based pension is a block of ice.
Implementation was carried on early afternoon since if your database is good enough it is all done with a few clicks. Simples.
Wednesday
No run today just emails and some research before breakfast time.
Today the only appointment is to meet Justin Lowes who manages a fund called the LWM East West fund which I have supported for a few years. He still awaits a substantial investment inflow but I am convinced that eventually he will be the new Warren Buffett. It remains a huge peeve of mine that advisers can never seem to talk directly to fund managers unless it is at a roadshow and then it is more of a sales talk. Last time I asked for a full list of underlying investments in a Standard Life fund - my client’s money. I was told it was not their policy to do so.
Mid-afternoon I spoke to the son of a client who works in Gibraltar. He is a Japanese equity trader and though bright and astute in his own field he did not have a clue as to what his mother should be doing. Our Lifetime Cashflow programme showed modest shortfall in her income, so where to take it from? Her pension fund had already been crystallised for tax-free cash so this was the obvious source using drawdown. She does not need the full GAD amount but I explained that by doing this that portion of the fund will suffer tax at 20 per cent rather than the 55 per cent on her death.
Thursday
Down the office for a full day of research - boring but necessary. The old days of big commissions are already disappearing in the mists of time. On the way down I encountered an old IFA for many years. Never positive - he ranted that RDR was a nonsense, Hector Sants and cronies should be shot and the business is no fun anymore. In the era of expensive contracts, huge commissions and suspect advice it was never fun for the clients.
Friday
I do not work Fridays
Gary Pashley is an director of Cardiff-based GLD Associates
