After having a conversation with his son about what he did for a living, Carl Mba, director at Carl Mba Financial Planning, had a moment of reflection and left his job of 17 years to pursue a career in advice.
Speaking to FT Adviser as part of our Coffee Corner series, Mba said he felt as though he was not inspiring his son enough with his role at the time.
Tell me about your entrance into advice
“I used to work for BT, I was there for 17 years after joining the graduate scheme,” Mba said.
“But one day I was speaking to my son and talking about what I do for a living and I could see he wasn't very interested.
“He asked me what we do all day and I told him, but as I was telling him, I saw his eyes glazing over.”
Mba said he realised his role was just obviously not very engaging for his son, especially when he questioned why he did it.
“I said, we've got to pay bills and explained how money works.
“And he still said, 'why don't you just do something that you like more?'
“I thought about it and I felt like I wasn't inspiring him enough because I've told him that he should do what he wants to do and follow his dreams.”
Mba said it was a moment where you reflect on your life choices and what options you've got available.
“I decided to leave BT but didn't quite know what I was gonna do next,” he said.
“I didn't plan on going into financial advice at that point but I thought about maybe setting up a business or doing something that I was more passionate about.
"[The move to advice] came about after speaking to my wife, because I've always been good with money - I have always invested and I've always been passionate about investing."
Mba said he originally did not think it was a career he could do as he thought it was too late to change.
“I was mid-career, but I knew some other people in the industry,” he said.
“They said 'It's not too late. You'd actually still be one of the youngest advisers if you were to join'. So that was the path followed.”
After completing his studies, he began looking for a role.
What would you say are the biggest challenges facing new business owners today?
Mba said starting off having money is a challenge and said he was lucky in this regard.
“As I said before, I've always had investments so I have got a bit of capital behind me to weather the storms of just having no income. Even though I'm seeing clients and I'm writing business, it takes a while for that to build up.
“Without the financial buffer that builds up personally, I'd be relying on something else,” he said.
Mba argued that it can be quite demoralising, especially when you want to focus on the good aspects of the career.
“It’s easy to think, I'm doing all the right things but personally I'm not getting anything out of it,” he said.
“10 years down the line hopefully things are better, but I think that first year is difficult.”
What would you say is the biggest change in financial advice since you entered and now?
Mba said the consumer duty is the biggest change since he started but admitted the whole industry is new to him.
He explained that based on what he has seen, and what life was like just a few months prior, consumer duty is having a massive impact, depending on the scale of a firm’s operation or what their previous fee structure was.
“I think it's needed though,” he said.
“The perception across the industry is not great with clients, especially retail clients and that needs to change otherwise people will not seek advice when they should.
“They’ll sell out when they maybe should be seeking professional assistance and for a number of reasons, that can be dangerous for the finances, but people don't trust the financial industry.”
Mba explained that with his own business, the duty has had no real impact as it has been built to reflect the consumer duty.
“I've no other experience,” he said.
“But in terms of making sure that things are logged correctly, and the admins done, that side is super important.”
When you first started out, is there anything you would have liked more help on?
Mba said during the time when he was deciding what to do, it was difficult to work out how to get into the industry.
“There's not a lot of help, he said. “And the help that you do find is quite narrowly focused.
He said it would have been useful to have tips on running your own financial advice business given its a skill that you need to learn and cultivate.
Do you have any thoughts on diversity and inclusion in the industry?
“I'm seeing positive changes in that respect,” Mba said.
“I work on my own so it's a bit different but in the broader space across M&G, it's very diverse.”
However, the perception still is that it's quite dominated by a particular demographic.
“This will have to change over time as people retire but what I'm seeing coming through is positive.”
Given you recently started out, do you have a particular book that you'd recommend to anyone considering a career as a financial adviser?
“It would probably depend on the individual and what else they were interested in,” he said.
“There's very specific books that you could read that talk about financial markets and financial advice. As you speak to clients, you realise that people think in very different ways and they view money differently, with different risk profiles and so on.
“If I was to pick one, I'd pick the Psychology of Money.”
So far, what is the one thing you can't live with as an adviser?
“My tablet is quite useful,” he said.
“Just in terms of taking digital notes on the fly and then having them all categorised.”
Mba said this helps with the consumer duty as they can be put on the system and it's contained, as opposed to lots of bits of paper.
Lastly, if the industry could improve on one thing, what do you think it should or could be?
Mba said the reason why he got into this space is to help people improve their financial literacy and just financial comprehension so that they can make better decisions.
“Whether it's the industry's problem, or it's an education problem, or whether it's the government, I think it's everyone's duty to chip in,” he said.
“The industry could help do some of the stuff I do, which is to give some time to help improve people's knowledge.
“It's one of the things I'm passionate about, but it's maybe not something that we do enough of.”
If you own your own advice firm and would like to get involved with the Coffee Corner interview series, contact deputy news editor Sonia Rach via email at sonia.rach@ft.com
