Monday
I am out the door at 7am with my lovely springer spaniel, who is very grateful that I am working from home today. I start the week with a full agenda, but no meetings today.
By 8.15am I am at my desk with a strong coffee ready to check my emails. First, I must respond to our meeting coordinator to confirm meetings needed for the next month.
A mortgage provider notifies me that they have received an application I submitted and have assigned it to a team member – I update the client.
Later, I log-on to our internal system to ensure I have saved articles to read, and analyse a range of economists and investment analysts’ summaries of the previous week.
Tuesday
I meet with a widowed client 60 miles away to discuss the options for the pension they inherited. We discuss taxation and how pensions are not part of your estate for inheritance tax purposes.
I acquired this client from a retiring adviser, and we both sat in this meeting together. I relish the opportunity to view another adviser interacting with clients, as I believe we can always learn from one another.
I spend the evening cycling on my turbo trainer and listening to news on the radio.
Wednesday
I have been looking forward to this meeting all week – I meet with a new client who wants to invest ethically.
We complete a positive and negative screening exercise to ascertain not only what the client would like to avoid, but also what they specifically want included in the portfolio, for example investing in environmental technology.
Upon arrival back at my desk, I have been sent some transfer reports beautifully written by our paraplanning team to check, for a client who is paying a hefty ongoing platform fee on their Isa and self-invested personal pension, and can receive the same functionality for 20 basispoints less.
I have no evening meetings tonight, and so I make it to my local running club on time.
Thursday
My day starts by transferring notes and research onto our system for various clients, along with completing electronic ID checks ready to put a recommendation in place.
The afternoon is fully booked with a monthly team meeting with all the advisers in Chester.
We have a guest speaker discussing recent volatility in the markets and a refresher on bond segmentation.
We end the day with a 30 minute catch-up with other advisers.
Friday
Today, I am in the office – luckily, I only live two miles away. I have two telephone meetings.
One with a client 300 miles north, and one with a client 150 miles south. We have a face-to-face meeting each year, but in these cases, any discussions or interim meetings needed are done on the telephone.
One client has a pension invested in a hand-picked adviser portfolio. The client had not seen an adviser since 2015, and so the portfolio had not been revisited or rebalanced in many years.
Defaqto analysis revealed that the portfolio was taking more risk than we deemed suitable for the client’s appetite, capacity and need, so we discuss this.
I ensure that I have all the disclosure documents, fact finds, research, valuations, reports and application forms I need for client meetings the following week.
I switch off, head to the swimming baths and plan a weekend of triathlon training with my partner.
Hannah Owen is a financial planner and mortgage adviser at Quilter Private Client Advisers
If you would like to write a week in your life as a financial adviser, please contact: melanie.tringham@ft.com
