Monday
This week will be a fairly typical summer week – one which I’ve already tried to get ahead of by catching up with weekend emails on Sunday night. First up today is an amendment with new property details, with revised KFI, suitability and compliance system updates, which will take another hour. Then it’s an initial call with a new lead who left a voicemail over the weekend. All sounds good to go forward. They want an evening meeting, so we book that in for next week and email requirements and confirmation. The next few hours are taken up with calling lenders for case updates, with up to 30 cases on the go at this time of year, which leaves little time for much more. After a spot of dinner it’s a 20-minute drive to a first-time buyer meeting at 7pm. I love these and I’m very thorough. By 9.30pm I’m home with my feet up.
Tuesday
I’ve had an email from a client concerned about a couple of odd questions the lenders’ solicitors have asked prior to completion of a remortgage, so it’s a call to them to try and clarify. It seems the questions are innocuous but phrased badly, so I email the client back and put it in plain English to them. After this, it’s suit on and onto the train to London for an 11am meeting with an existing client who wants to talk protection in a quiet corner of Starbucks. After this, I have another meeting with an existing client who wants to introduce me to a colleague in the West End. I then jump back across to the city to touch base with a longstanding introducer who has some new potential leads. Later that afternoon I’m back on the train home. It’s kids cubs and football on a Tuesday night so I don’t get much else done other than returning emails.
Wednesday
This morning I’m straight into the car to go to a business protection course in Colchester. It’s an 80-minute drive and I have a couple of client calls lined up for the journey. The course is great, but my brain is dead by the time I leave. On the way back, I return some phone calls; one chasing an estate agent and the other, a hassled client.
Thursday
I have three new cases that came in on Friday to upload onto the networks compliance system, which takes all morning. After that I email my clients from Monday and Tuesday. Later on I have to deal with an ongoing case where we have the obligatory curveball from a lender and the client wants an urgent evening call to discuss, so I drop my eldest off to karate and call the client while I’m waiting for him. I clear up emails when I get back and I'm done by around 11pm.
Friday
Friday is chase-up day and I am calling lenders and updating clients, which takes me up to lunchtime. I then skip down to the local Marriott to meet my Santander business development manager. We have a good catch-up, then I drop some copied documents through a local client’s letterbox, and back to the office where the client with the protection enquiry has called and wants to go ahead, so I get this keyed on. I come up with a new solution for the guy from last night and then it’s clearing down emails and messages to finish the week about 9pm.
Dean Mason is owner/director of Masons Financial Planning