An adviser has teamed up with Attitude magazine to launch an advice service aimed at LGBTQ clients.
Attitude Financial Services aims to advise clients from the LGBTQ community without "making them feel alienated or different due to their sexuality".
The firm was set up by Darren Styles, owner of gay lifestyle magazine Attitude, and Dawn Gale and Ian Meekins - managing director and director at financial advice firm Blueprint South West, an appointed representative of Quilter.
Both Attitude Financial Services and Blueprint South West are appointed representatives of Quilter Financial Planning.
Attitude Financial Services said the firm was created to give the LGBTQ community access to financial advisers "who understand their personal background", offering wealth management, mortgage, retirement planning and protection advice.
Mr Styles said: "It’s this desire for normalcy for our community that led me to become the first gay owner of Attitude magazine back in 2016.
"And it’s the peace of mind I found in organising my own financial wellbeing that has led me – alongside partners Ian Meekins and Dawn Gale, with the support of the renowned Quilter Financial Planning network – to create Attitude Financial Services now."
Dawn Gale, owner and director of Blueprint South West and Attitude Financial Services partner, said: "While the financial services needs of the LGBTQ community are no different to anyone else, due to the industry historically not being as inclusive as possible, there are a huge group of people who could stand to benefit from financial advice but don’t seek it out."
This is not the first time an advice firm has dedicated itself to the serving the LGBTQ community - in 1990 Ivan Massow started a financial services business in North London, sourcing ways for gay people to take-up mortgages and insurance at equal rates.
Seven years later Massow Financial Services had become the tenth largest IFA firm in the UK and was valued at around £22m.
Following a merger it became Rainbow Massow, but went into receivership in 2002.
rachel.addison@ft.com
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