Was this such a good idea, setting out at a time when the country is in a state of social and economic uncertainty, without the ability to meet people face to face?
As is our nature as financial planners, we weighed the merits and the drawbacks of starting our business in lockdown very carefully before launching.
My fellow directors, Ed Painter and Jane Patrick, and I all met while working for Manchester city centre IFA, The Roberts Partnership.
Amid the pandemic chaos we were also concerned about how long it might take to get our regulatory approvalWe are all chartered financial planners; Ed and I hold Fellowship status, and together we have more than 40 years’ experience in financial services. All three of us are in our mid to late thirties and we are friends as well as business associates.
The challenges of launching in lockdown have been significant. Successful financial planning is based upon a solid foundation of trust, which takes time to build and we believe is best done face to face.
During lockdown, all we have at our disposal are phones or computer screens. Thankfully we can at least see and talk to clients and prospective clients via Microsoft Teams or Zoom, but it just is not the same as seeing them in person.
People need to get to know us, our personalities, and the services we offer, and that can be harder remotely.
Amid the pandemic chaos we were also concerned about how long it might take to get our regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority, having read stories of it taking up to 13 weeks. Fortunately, the regulatory gods were smiling upon us and we were approved within just four weeks.
In the face of all of this uncertainty, it is only the steadfast belief in the value of our proposition, our experience, qualifications and the value we feel that we can deliver to our clients that gave us the confidence we needed to launch our business.
Restricted or independent?
Having worked in both restricted and independent settings, we feel that clients are best served by truly independent advice with unbiased investment selection.
We do not have to charge clients the earth for what we do, as we operate a lean business model that is also scalable. We are not hiding our fee structure and are proud to be transparent by publishing it on our website, because we know it is very competitive.
Our size enables us to focus on delivering our clients a first rate personal and responsive service – something we feel sets us apart in a world of robo-advisers and the large corporate consolidators, interested only in profit.
We do not want to take over the world, we just want to deliver excellent and personal advice to a limited number of people.
Our age will stand us in good stead. We are going to focus mainly on helping people prepare and plan for retirement, and we feel our target market would want to appoint an adviser young enough to put their plan into action and then work with them for many years to come.
The need for advice has never been greater. According to FCA retirement income data, in the five months to March 2020, 317,000 people accessed a pension plan for the first time.
While the FCA has done a good job at improving retirement outcomes the options can still be daunting, and we aim to help these people.
Regulatory pressures
Added to that, regulatory pressures and costs are driving many advisers out of the industry, and the high average age of financial advisers means many are planning to retire over the next few years, as highlighted in Libertatum’s Health Report 3.
I suspect the lockdown has led to people feeling more reflective and conscious of their own mortality than usual.
Arguably, it is an ideal time for them to plan for their financial future and for brighter days ahead so that they may flourish when the time comes. On a practical level, it is also easier to reach people while they are at home.
Our new-found flexible and remote working has its merits. Jane has twins and Ed has a one-year-old. Working this way means that they can look after their children when they need to, or pick them up from nursery around the demands of the business.
Personally, while I miss the buzz of life, I can not say I miss the unproductive hours sat behind the steering wheel or in a train carriage.
We have been lucky in many respects. We have had fantastic support from clients where we have not been restricted in dealing with them.
We each have a wide circle of family, friends and professional contacts; not only can they recommend us to people but they have also brought a number of skills to our party in areas such as marketing and public relations.
Practical concerns
There were other big drawbacks to consider though, not linked directly to lockdown but which nevertheless might hinder our plans.
To start with, none of us had any previous experience in setting up effective regulatory procedures or back office systems. Thankfully, we have the support of the Sense Network, which helps us maintain our independence and provides us with regulatory support. The firepower that the economies of scale of being part of a larger group brings us is invaluable.
We are off to a great start. News travels quickly and we are already starting to win new clients and are well placed to take on more, with our solid back office and regulatory systems in place.
In our spare time we will concentrate on focusing on our niche markets, which are business owners and legal professionals using marketing tools such as direct mailing and webinars, all initiatives we can undertake remotely.
What are the prospects for the future? Although vaccines will doubtless prove a game changer, at the time of writing we are still uncertain about when lockdown will end, and all the signs are that society will not be back to normal until at least the summer.
By then we hope that all of us will be able to get out there and meet people, and even if we cannot, we still feel as though we will be able to reach those who need advice.
Whatever happens, the outlook from where we are sitting, albeit in lockdown, is a bright one.
Adrian Edwards is a director at Sylvan Financial Management
