Continuum: Being chartered would limit us too much

Martin Brown told FTAdviser the group had decided against becoming chartered due to the pressure to maintain the number of employees with a chartered status.

In order to qualify for Chartered Financial Planners status, a business must meet a number of criteria including at least 50 per cent of the firm's advisers being chartered financial planners, 90 per cent of consumer-facing staff holding CII membership, and a minimum of one board member holding accreditation.

“Our view was that we did not want to take chartered status, and then be under pressure to retain it," Brown said.

“I would rather not have it and not have it taken away."

Elements of the industry have given false promisesMartin Brown, Continuum

Brown questioned who the accreditation was more important to, clients or advisers themselves.

“I am all for promoting development, CPD, and education to ensure our people are the most informed individuals in the workplace," he said.

“We surround [our team] with support to make sure they are continuously delivering the best outcomes possible.”

Referring to the ongoing dispute between the CII and PFS, Brown said he was glad to be far removed from the "embarassment".

CV

Continuum was acquired by M&G last summer, and while it will retain its brand, the IFA firm is now part of M&G Wealth.

Brown said the main difference the firm will have is the better client costs for its MPS offering as a result of the acquisition.

"It's the difference between knocking on the door with £1.6bn in assets, and knocking on the door with £400bn in assets," he said.

Brown had previously spent nearly a decade at IFA firm Positive Solutions, working on its recruitment strategy and operations. 

He left in September 2012, keen to start his own business and encouraged by a recruiter, who told him it was getting trickier to poach employees from Positive Solutions.

“The recruiter said: ‘Every time I try and recruit people out of Positive Solutions, they then speak to you, and then they stay’.”

The timing was also significant. Brown remembers being sat in the boardroom of Positive Solutions in 2012, thinking it would be a brilliant time to set up a new business post-RDR.

There should not be a barrier to entryMartin Brown, Continuum

“Legacy-free, a modern financial planning business,” he envisioned, though the decision to start the company came as he was constructing a partition wall during some renovation work.

“I threw down the hammer and said right, I’m doing it.”

Continuum launched in 2014 and became directly authorised in November 2018, which Brown jokes was a brilliant time to start in the sector as Brexit had spooked the markets and nobody was investing.

“[However], in 2019, we outperformed the market, and have flourished ever since,” he said.

He is somewhat scathing of the track record of the advice sector, saying some firms have, in his words, over-promised and under-delivered over the past decade.

“Elements of the industry have given false promises, have not done what they said they would, and have not followed through on servicing, dealing with clients' needs.

“They have taken initial commissions and not really in any way developed an ongoing service and relationship.”

Our commitment is to make wealth management available to everybodyMartin Brown, Continuum

There are also not enough new players entering the market disrupting the larger advice firms, he said, despite a growing need for advice.

“There is a demand for advice at the moment that is like no other time I have seen in the past 30 years.”

One of the main drivers of this is the pandemic, which Brown says has opened up people’s appreciation of the need to plan financially.

A big hurdle faced by consumers is the cost of advice, with some IFA firms only taking on clients with a minimum amount in assets.

“There should not be a barrier to entry,” Brown said. 

“If you think of a client, throughout their life they are going to have a myriad of needs including protection, planning, mortgage planning, retirement planning, investment planning.”

He said to his knowledge, Continuum has never turned away a potential client for having too small a portfolio.

“Our commitment is to make wealth management available to everybody, irrespective of wealth.”

While his company will never refuse a client, his advisers will have a conversation with them to ensure the fees will be justified.

“At the end of the day, you're still paying for professional service, you're still paying for fees. 

“But we haven't got a barrier to entry.”

sally.hickey@ft.com