The head of wealth management at Russell Investments, likes to read up on human behaviour in his spare time.
He said: “I’ve read hundreds of books on human behaviour, how we communicate, the language that we use, body language – I’m a history man, trying to understand what we do. There’s so much to learn and it never ends.”
Aside from its intrinsic interest, Mr French says it helps him in his day job, running the adviser division of Russell Investments.
The parent company is based in the US and is known as a substantial institutional investor, but it has been in the UK since 1979.
It is known mainly as a provider of multi-asset funds; indeed, in the retail market, this is the only thing it does, but it also owns a network, now called In Partnership, which it bought in 2013.
He said: “We can help advisers and help clients understand the advice that they bring – it’s been a huge passion if mine. Most advisers I’ve met care about their clients and do a great job and the clients get real results.”
I can’t think of any other industry where people keep clients for 30 yearsHowever, he adds that advisers do a bad job telling their clients this. He said: “Advisers have had a rough deal – both from the mainstream press and the advent of technology.”
As part of the company’s mission to help advisers, it has a series of programmes to assist them in developing their business. It runs, for example, a series of seminars, where there might be 25 to 40 people in the room.
He said: “They are one or two-day events, focused on trying to provide advisers with a boost. They go through every stage of the business, understanding it, their client vision, business purpose and segmentation. You have to leave with particular solutions.
The company also has the “Russell Academy”, where advisers can go through various modules, focusing on different parts of their business they want to change or develop. Mr French said: “The sessions are face-to-face and it’s very much outcome-driven: they have to do the work.
“We try and remind them why they came into the industry and why they do it, we try and get them to articulate that, we want them to write down what their purpose is.
“I can’t think of any other industry where people keep clients for 30 years. When we talk to them, we find that most advisers are trying to provide financial peace of mind. They do a great job for their client and you have to make sure you talk about it.”
A good example of well-run financial adviser businesses are those belonging to In Partnership, formerly called the Online partnership.
Surprisingly, in a time when networks seem to have fallen out of favour, Mr French is upbeat about In Partnership. He said: “The compliance record was a huge reason for choosing that network to purchase.
“This network has a very strong compliance history, there’s never been any public censoring of the network. We believe we have very strong systems and controls and we have every confidence in our team.
“The head of compliance has been there since the beginning; it’s the same chief executive who’s been there since he set it up. We have good governance in place and it’s very important we never let that slip.
“The advice has to be the best thing for the client and we completely understand that. It’s an art rather than a science. We want to make sure we get the right people in there. We just want to help the network to continue to grow and maintain its strong compliance record and profitable business.”
The future of the network, and indeed the whole business, could be out of his hands, however. The parent company was bought as part of the Frank Russell Group last year by the London Stock Exchange and the investment part - Russell Investment Management, has now been put up for sale.
All Mr French will say on the matter is: “It’s business as usual – we’re carrying on with the business plans put in place.”
Ultimately, he said, his business is about helping advisers. This was a lesson he learned early on in his career, when he was called in to see an adviser while working as a broker consultant. The adviser had made a recommendation to a client, an investment of £330,000 in an offshore bond. The markets fell and the investment dropped to £290,000, so the client wanted to encash, but the penalties involved meant the client would have lost £70,000 in total. The client went ahead anyway.
Mr French said: “It was a lifelong lesson. Was the adviser biased? No. Was the client stupid? No, but he didn’t understand the initial fall in value was a paper loss.” In other words, the markets would have bounced back.
This has fed Mr French’s desire to help advisers communicate better with clients for some time to come.
Melanie Tringham is features editor at Financial Adviser
Nick French’s career ladder
2015 - Managing director, head of UK wealth management, Russell Investments
2014 - University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School, Executive Development Program
2012-2015 - Head of advisory distribution, Russell Investments
2009-2012 - Regional director, Russell Investments
2005-2009 - Manager, UK IFA sales, Russell Investments
1999-2005 - Senior broker consultant, Zurich
1997-1999 - Pensions technician, Skandia
