My clients, a couple, arrive, we revisit attitude to risk and their risk rating comes out as ‘high risk’.
We then spend the next hour clarifying, as I know they are not high risk. Clients want high returns, but little risk – don’t we all? It is strange that, however you word the questions, the clients always see the gains and ignore the losses. I explained it is my job to protect them
from themselves and we eventually agree he is a balanced investor and she is a cautious investor and agree on the portfolio. I wish I knew the risk-profiling tool was up to the regulator’s standard, whatever that is. We read so much about this.
I have a quick bite to eat while I look at today’s mail, then check emails, read a few articles and add my thoughts to the blogs.
At 1.30pm I start completing submission, the suitability report and I update records for this morning’s meeting. In the afternoon I have a first appointment from a referral. The meeting goes well and two hours later I leave with instructions for an investment. Now, a pint before home?
Tuesday
At 9am I am in the office, and I have a meeting with colleagues and staff for the next hour and half. Some of the issues raised are RDR, regulation, providers’ poor response times and marketing strategies. Having checked my emails, there are some guidance notes from the regulator and our PI, so I spend the next hour and half reading. After lunch I call a few clients, make some appointments and at 1.30pm start research for last night’s appointment. At 3.30pm I go for a walk to clear my head before returning to the office where I make a few phone calls then have a review meeting with a client.
By 7.30pm I am home, and spend some down time with my son Marcus and my wife Andrea.
Wednesday
I am at a meeting from 9.30am until 4.30pm – I have to get that CPD in and actually some good information was given, I just need to find time to implement it. I love Wednesdays as I take my son Marcus to rugby training, so no work tonight.
Thursday
In the morning I write up the report for Tuesday’s review meeting. The clients phone and want to add additional funds to their investment. I call the life company, wait on hold for 20 minutes to be told they cannot top up post-RDR, but they can have a new investment with increased charges. I question this, laugh at the reply and then have to rethink. I phone the clients back, explain and let them mull it over. After lunch I complete research for Monday’s agreed investment then spend two hours on compliance duties and file checking. After a brief break chatting to colleagues, I am then back to compliance duties until 8.30pm then home to the family.
Friday
I am in the office at 8.30am to finish the research for my failed top-up clients.
I am frustrated at the way that RDR has been used as an excuse for inefficient systems and cost increases, but the clients are happy to proceed so I make an appointment for next week. I have a meeting to arrange an Isa investment with an existing client, and since it was an investment to our preferred platform I complete the submission within in hour. After lunch I contact a life office for illustration and phone another chasing an authority sent two weeks ago for information. They had received it, but another department must have had it and not actioned it. They do not understand why, as usual, and cannot give me any information – can we send it again? I seem to waste hours of my time dealing with these issues.
Ten years ago I would complete eight or nine appointments a week, now I am struggling to complete three or four. I also worry that there seems to be no end to the red tape and increased costs imposed on us by the government and regulators. I wonder, will the regulator ever become liable for its actions and will we ever see a legal long stop?
The rest of the afternoon is spent preparing for next week’s meetings, updating staff, office updates and phoning clients. 6.30pm comes round and it is pub time, my time, to unwind and de-stress before a weekend with my fantastic family.
Martin Evans is director of Newport-based Prism Independent Financial Advisers
