CompaniesOct 14 2022

IFW appoints Ruth Sturkey as chairperson

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IFW appoints Ruth Sturkey as chairperson
Pexels/Matheus Natan

The Institute for Financial Wellbeing has appointed Ruth Sturkey as chair, succeeding Chris Budd.

Sturkey was appointed to the IFW's board in February as vice chair while Clive Waller, managing director at CWC Research,  joined as ambassador.

She co-founded boutique financial planning firm The Red House, which merged with Paradigm Norton in 2017

Sturkey said: “I have long believed that the true purpose of money lies not in its accumulation, but in its ability to enable a life of happiness and contentment. 

“I am super excited to have the opportunity as chair of the IFW to build on the foundation that Chris has created and supported by the IFW Board, team and our early members to make this a reality.  We would love to welcome others in financial services to help us on this mission.”

This follows from August when the IFW was awarded 'institute' status by Kwasi Kwarteng, who was then secretary of state for business. 

The term ‘institute’ is protected and government-regulated, and only given to organisations which carry out research at a specific standard. 

In granting the IFW institute status, recognition was given to three sponsored white papers it has produced, as well as becoming a CPD accreditor and launching the ‘Financial Wellbeing Certificate’ programme. 

The IFW said Budd achieved his mission of establishing an “institute” which focuses financial advice on happiness, not just the accumulation of wealth, and is now choosing to step down as the chairperson.

Budd said: “This doesn’t mean that I don’t want to carry on being involved, quite the opposite. The IFW has taken up a huge amount of my time over the last three years, and in some ways, we have only just reached the beginning. 

“There is still lots of work to do if we are going to get financial wellbeing accepted as version 3.0 of financial advice (where technical advice was version 1.0 and planning was version 2.0).”

The IFW said Budd’s new role will see him finishing his second book about financial wellbeing, due to be published in spring 2023.

There is also a growing number of companies who want help in putting financial wellbeing at the heart of their advice processes and Budd will be available for a limited number of consultancy contracts via the IFW.

He added: “As I step back from a formal governance role and the board, I would like to thank the IFW board members, both now and in the past, who put in so much time and effort, pro bono. 

“I would also like to thank the membership, for helping to start and continue a movement. We have the beginnings of something amazing here, let’s all work hard to keep building it. In doing so, we can continue to fulfil the ultimate IFW objective: to make the world a happier place.” 

The IFW is a non-profit membership-based organisation which launched in September 2019. It provides research, tools and knowledge focused on financial wellbeing.  

sonia.rach@ft.com

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