‘I could see I was joining at the start of something special’

Sifa was and is still made up of two entities: Sifa Support Services and Sifa Professional. 

But in May 2019, Sifa’s parent company, SimplyBiz, decided to integrate the support services side of Sifa into SimplyBiz, with professional connections business Sifa Professional operating as its own entity. 

Mr Seager, who became managing director of Sifa Professional in May this year, says: “Sifa Professional is a membership proposition just designed to help clients build [connections] with solicitors.

“Although solicitors are not doing financial services themselves, there is still a massive overlap between what solicitors do and the financial [advice industry].”

Boosting membership

Sifa was bought by SimplyBiz in 2011. Mr Seager explains that one of the company’s key aims is to “aggressively boost membership of Sifa in the next few months”. 

He says: “We are going to be having a real push on Sifa Professional membership in the financial advisory community, both within the SimplyBiz Group and to external IFAs who want to benefit from our experience and advice.”

Mr Seager adds: “We work very closely with the Solicitors Regulation Authority, we educate our IFAs and financial advisory members to have a better understanding of [legal knowledge], as most IFAs don’t have that.” 

He highlights how the solicitors’ model is “transactional” and that several lawyers struggle to build longer-term relationships with clients.

This is why Sifa Professional is useful to solicitors, as they are able to build relationships through the use of financial advisers’ client bases.

“‘I did a great divorce for you last year, can I do another one?’ It is not that easy for a solicitor to develop that ongoing client relationship,” Mr Seager jokes. 

A financial adviser will always be meeting an ongoing client and that process can involve a solicitor, he explains, adding: “Financial advisers can help solicitors change their customer relationship into a client relationship.” 

Mr Seager says Sifa is in the process of establishing relationships with other organisations. 

“It is my plan to build closer ties with relevant sister organisations that will benefit our firms, and the Society of Later Life Advisers and Resolution are the first two,” he confirms.

“Our partnership with Solla was launched at the end of June 2018. The partnership includes mutual discounts for both parties on membership, joint website links and events.”

The SRA confirmed in March this year that new regulations will come into force on November 25, paving the way for a separate code of conduct for firms and solicitors to operate.

Mr Seager says: “For the first time there will be a structure and process behind who the solicitors decide to refer to financial advisers.”

“The challenge for the good advisory firm is to present their credentials in such a way that the solicitor is going to say, ‘we should be working with this financial adviser firm for the benefit of our clients’,” he explains. 

Industry move

Turning to his own career trajectory, Mr Seager says he fell into the industry by chance.

“I was doing direct selling and I hated it. But then I moved into the intermediary world with Scottish Mutual. I called on IFAs, trying to convince them that Scottish Mutual was the right company,” he adds.

Mr Seager did this for many years and then moved into more strategic roles. 

We have to grow gradually and if things accelerate I will have to employ more people.Dave Seager

“It was at Legal & General when I started working very closely with Sifa, as I was the key account director. They asked me to leave L&G and join Sifa, which I did,” he says. 

He adds: “It did not take a lot of persuasion for me to leave L&G and join Sifa because I could see I was joining at the start of something quite special, with the Legal Services Act and the changing market.”

While Mr Seager says there are not many people who have the knowledge he has gained from Sifa Professional, he believes he has lost some of his financial expertise as a result of gaining greater legal knowledge. 

“I probably lost the broader skillset I had when I was working for a life assurance company.”

He believes regulations such as the Senior Managers & Certification Regime, coupled with Prod and Mifid II, are placing a lot of regulatory burden onto firms. 

But he says the changes in legal regulation mean “now is a fantastic time to be a quality financial adviser”.  

He notes the biggest challenge facing Sifa Professional is that it is growing too quickly.

“We have to grow gradually and if things accelerate I will have to employ more people.

“Right now we are in the early stages of running as a separate unit; I don’t want to run before I can walk,” he adds. 

Saloni Sardana is a features writer at FTAdviser and Financial Adviser