Someone is going to trust you to look after their life's worth

“I got some Tilney guys to come in and pitch to me, and they did a really good job. There were things I thought they could do better,” he said.

Mr Woodhouse, a trained accountant whose background is essentially retail, before becoming chief executive of the RAC – “an insurance product” – had used financial advisers in the past, something he describes as a “mixed” experience.

He said: “It’s not so much I’ve had a bad experience. This combination of investment and financial planning [at Tilney] makes you feel as a client they’ve got your interests at heart, rather than trying to get your assets on the books. My experience elsewhere is a counterpoint to that.”

Mr Woodhouse has in the past held finance director jobs at Superdrug, Debenhams and Halfords, becoming deputy chief executive of Debenhams and Homebase and then taking the top role at the RAC.

So what skills does he bring to Tilney, a job he took on in October last year?

For what is essentially a financial and monetary product, the decision as to which firm of advisers you use is highly emotionally driven.Chris Woodhouse

“What I bring is quite significant experience in terms of thinking about clients in a retail environment, and how you talk to them, and how you deal with products. When you combine that with sector-specific knowledge in this market – which is massive – and bring them together it can be quite a powerful combination,” he explained.

His plan for Tilney is to grow it both organically and by acquisition.

“It’s a competitive market but I don’t feel as though there’s a lack of demand out there. [It’s about] doing the best job you can for existing clients so they want to use us more. You have to get to the point where you’re doing such a good job the clients are talking about us to their friends and family.

"For what is essentially a financial and monetary product, the decision as to which firm of advisers you use is highly emotionally driven. The reason for that is someone is going to trust you to look after their life’s worth. They’re going to need to trust you.”

Tilney gets many of its referrals through professional connections – accountants and solicitors – and has two branches to its business: investment management and financial planning. Mr Woodhouse said they played an equal part – there are 220 financial planners and 120 investment professionals who work “hand in glove”.

He said: “It’s goal-based investment for the client. If you have them working closely together rather than [as] independent units, your ability to cover off and fulfil what the client is looking for is better. We have further to go with this in terms of them working together.”

Focus on acquisitions

But on the other side of this growth plan, Mr Woodhouse is looking to make some acquisitions.

“There are a number of businesses that we’re talking to; there are quite a lot of businesses that are up for sale. It comes down to the cost of doing business, as that’s gone up, and the level of assets you need to hold in order to trade properly and compliantly has gone up,” he said.

“Anybody that’s around that threshold is probably thinking, ‘maybe I would be better finding a home that could do that for me’. I don’t think there’s one element that’s more important than others. But it’s more costly to do business today than perhaps it was five or six years ago.”

Despite this, he is supportive of the regulator. He said: “When you think about what the regulator is trying to do, it tends to be in the interests of the client. You’re better off embracing it and saying, ‘how do we use this to drive a better proposition for the client?’”

The trick is driving clients in. If you can’t make that work, then it’s difficult. History says there won’t be a lot of them there in a few years time.Chris Woodhouse

Another side of the business is the Bestinvest platform, which brings in a supply of new clients at the lower end of the spectrum, with a series of model portfolios that can act as a kind of robo-adviser.

Mr Woodhouse is sceptical about many of these robo models. “The trick is driving clients in. If you can’t make that work, then it’s difficult. History says there won’t be a lot of them there in a few years time,” he added.

This raises the question of shareholder Permira, a private equity firm, and whether it too will be around in a few years’ time since its funds have already been the majority shareholder (now roughly 70 per cent) since 2014, and will presumably want to exit the business.

He said: “At some point they will exit their shareholding, but it doesn’t have an impact on what we’re trying to do, in terms of how we manage the business. I think they’re pretty open ended about it. They can see a lot of opportunities about growing and they’re keen to stay with their investment.”

There are two executives who sit on the board as non-executive directors, and Mr Woodhouse finds them helpful: “Their contribution in terms of the debate is not necessarily different to what I’ve experienced at a plc, but they have a wider understanding.”

On Permira in general, he said: “What they tend to do is offer their opinion in pulling a deal together. They will look for the best people for the transaction.”

Perhaps this is the ultimate appeal: a successfully growing business – earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation doubled last year to £86.6m.

The possibility of doing deals may have been too good an opportunity to miss for an experienced, big-time chief executive.

Melanie Tringham is deputy features editor of Financial Adviser and FTAdviser.com