Full time pro bono: 'I get up in the morning realising I don't have a conflict'

He had accumulated enough wealth to allow him to stop working and settle down riding his motorbike. But duty soon came calling in different ways than he would have anticipated.

Richards, who has been part of the financial services industry for longer than financial services regulation has, has served on several industry boards and says he has always had a hankering for getting involved and giving back to the profession he worked for.

Working pro bono gives him the freedom he craves, and as it stands he would never go back to paid employment, he says emphatically.

By the time he left the PFS he had represented the sector on trade associations; the Association of British Insurers; the Association of Independent Financial Advisers; the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries; and the European Financial Planning Association, among others.

He also chaired the Vulnerability Taskforce – a two-days-a-month job he thought would be pleasant enough to continue after full-time employment.

This 4,000-member strong organisation eventually evolved into the Consumer Duty Alliance, and the rest of Richards' retirement plans were history.

Advisers give millions of hours of free guidance every year, sometimes they just don't realise it.

"The big challenge for me was when we first looked at converting or evolving into the CDA...what we hadn't expected was the reaction from the market and the level of engagement and demand," he says.

"So to some extent...I wasn't entirely sure how many days a week this was going to be. Based on past experience it might have just been a couple of days a month.

"Since March it has just been non-stop. There are some weeks where I am almost five days where I'm speaking at engagements, writing articles, reviewing good practice guides."

And he does it all for free.

No more conflict

After leaving the PFS, Richards' decided whatever opportunity presented itself, he didn't want another paid full-time role.

"When you are being paid by a company, whether or not the conflict is real or seen, you're working for the company.

"The great thing when you're pro bono, and particularly when you can afford to do it on a full time basis, is there is no conflict of interest," says Richards.

"For the first time ever I can positively promote what everyone else is doing, there is no bias."

He says he's been approached by companies offering him paid positions and non-executive director roles but decided to decline.

"I had to think long and hard but I realised the moment I take it that I can't do the pro bono work; I can't put the same energy, the same commitment in because, whether the conflict is real, the risk is it will be perceived [as such].

"So for me, I get up in the morning realising that I don't have a conflict, I haven't got anyone else telling me what to do, so my obligation and commitment is towards that alliance and it's a great place to be."

He adds: "I'm not entirely convinced I thought I would ever do this but of course when you get to a point where you can you just make that decision."

In this Richards is not alone, as the whole board of the alliance works pro bono.

Though Richards says he has accepted some paid consultancy work, the proceeds of which he has put back into the alliance.

The CDA, which launched in March, already has 10,000 members.

To date it has been funded by donations from industry corporates but it operates as not-for-profit and has no commercial interests, Richards is keen to point out.

The next stage of its development involves building the infrastructure around it so that it can "do more", he adds.

Eventually this will involve looking for Richards' successor, who may or may not be invited to work pro bono.

"I'm not looking at this as a long-term career because there will be a point at which I'll want to hopefully leave a legacy for someone else to take it further and I can drift off and ride my motorbikes at leisure," he says.

"Not taking a salary is really important to me...where that goes in the future, who knows, perhaps my successor might need to be remunerated, otherwise we might struggle to get someone that's in a similar position where they can afford to do it pro bono."

A key aspect of professional services

When Richards, a former group distribution and development director at Tenet, took the helm at the PFS in 2013 he saw an "opportunity to really galvanise the sector".

He says his whole board was made up of member nominated directors who were giving up their time for free, which made him feel "very privileged to be part of that extended team".

He adds he was "genuinely overwhelmed by the passion of some people who actually were prepared to do something in their own time for free for the greater good of the sector".

Richards says he could never have done the job without this network and it struck him "that there was a real positive change post-RDR where I passionately believed that we'd moved from a perceived industry into a profession and that pro bono is a key aspect of all professional services".

Richards was instrumental in establishing formal pro bono programs at the PFS.

He launched MoneyPlan, which partners financial adviser members of the PFS with local Citizens Advice to give guidance to people who would not otherwise seek advice.

The launch followed a pilot scheme between 2007 and 2009 and by 2019 it had 95 active MoneyPlanners. This was then extended to the Forces Moneyplan aimed at veterans and families of the armed forces.

In 2019 he launched a third pro bono programme providing financial education in schools.

"All of those are positive legacies that I leave behind in the PFS and I really hope that they continue to evolve them positively," he says.

Richards did an assessment of how much free time advisers tend to provide and concluded most were not even aware of the help they were giving to people pro bono.

"It wasn't uncommon for me to speak to advisers who've just spent half an hour on the phone with a consumer who rang up and really did not need full blown advice and the adviser gave them some direction on what they should do and where they should go," he says.

"I think there's a lot of that out there but not always necessarily documented. Advisers give millions of hours of free guidance every year, sometimes they just don't realise it."

carmen.reichman@ft.com