Financial Planner: Are you ready for the RDR? Andrew Brook Dobson: We have operated on an entirely transparent fee basis since the business started in May 2006, so Customer Agreed Remuneration presents no issues.
Tim, Gary and I all hold CFPCM certification so are qualified to Level 6 rather than the new Level 4 minimum. We will have a little bit of work (but not too much) over the next few months sorting out our gap fill but our client proposition is fairly clear and (we think and hope) well articulated.
FP: What inspired you to establish a Financial Planning business? ABD: I “fell” into Financial Planning as a profession; I’d come to the end of my second year at Cambridge doing a PhD in semi- conductor materials and wasn’t enjoying it sufficiently to be motivated to continue, so took the tough decision to leave. I therefore needed to find a job and while looking for management consultancy positions, came across an outfit called Acuma. This was the Financial Planning subsidiary of American Express and we were charging fees for plans all the way back in 1992 (even if it was only £295!). I’m passionate about Financial Planning and our ability to positively transform client’s lives.
I had my own business in the Cambridge area which was acquired by a largish commercial general broker. Not long after, my wife and I decided to move the family back nearer her roots in Yorkshire – I therefore needed to find a job. I joined a firm in Leeds where I met Tim. Neither of us liked the culture and it became clear that we were both looking to move on and shared a common vision of the sort of business we wanted to be associated with – so we decided to build it ourselves.
FP: When did you start the business and how has it grown? ABD: We started in 2006. Vic was our first hire as practice manager – creating this position was quite a bold step for such a fledgling business. We now also have Gary as financial analyst, who has been with us since 2007 and Kelly as administrator. We outsource as much as we possibly can, including book-keeping and our management accounting and have just started advertising for two new positions: a client relationship manager and an executive assistant and expect to add quite a few more in the next year or so.
We are quite innovative so things are constantly evolving and we are always looking to do things differently and better. A key component of our branding is that we are distinctive and different, so we are cognisant of this in everything we do in order to stand out from the crowd. A good example of this is the bright red brand colouring – our branding consultants did some research on leading IFAs and Financial Planners and came back to us saying “You can have any colour you like except blue!”
We have about 100 clients but we have plans to increase this significantly during 2012. Turnover over the past 12 months will exceed £600,000.
FP: Brook-Dobson Brear recently became an IFP Accredited Financial Planning FirmTM. What inspired you to seek this recognition and what was the process like?
ABD: We consider ourselves part of the leadership of the Financial Planning profession, so once the framework was published applying was a no-brainer. The application process was extremely simple for us - we simply needed to communicate our existing systems and processes.
FP: What was the value in seeking Accredited Firm status and how will you make best use of it? ABD: We believe it’s essential that consumers have a means of identifying firms where they can be assured that they will receive quality Financial Planning. The CFPCM certification is an important starting point for an individual planner’s personal development, but I question what value the CFPCM professionals’ register has: there are many CFPCM professionals not yet practising Financial Planning or it’s something they do occasionally. For example there are many qualified accountants that have careers outside the accountancy profession. A register of all UK qualified accountants is therefore pretty useless if you are looking for a new accountant, what you want is a register of accountancy firms – you will know that every accountant in those firms is suitably qualified.
FP: What advice would you give to other firms considering Accredited Financial Planning Firm status? ABD: Stop considering it and do it. If you need to re-engineer bits of your business then get on with that and apply. The initial cohort of Accredited Firms are some of the highest quality financial services businesses in the UK and I have no doubt that very soon Accredited Firms will be recognised as such, resulting in them being able to attract the best talent and the best quality clients.
FP: What type of Financial Planning do you offer to clients and what are your fees/charges? ABD: We describe what we do as offering a Personal Finance Director service that helps ensure their material success translates into true success. A lot of our clients are, or work with a finance director so it’s not very difficult to begin to understand how the corporate role can translate to their personal affairs. We have several fee structures, however our client qualification isn’t linked to assets, but if they have them then we have one that is linked to asset value. We also have a number of clients paying us fairly substantial flat retainer fees.
FP: What clients do you target and what type of service do they get? How do you differentiate your service? ABD: We have two niches, senior executives of large businesses (predominantly retailers) and owners of successful SME businesses. Our service is both described quite differently (Personal Finance Director) and delivered quite differently.
FP: How do you find new clients and what have been some of your best way to find new clients? ABD: We spend quite a lot of time immersing ourselves in our client’s world. We subscribe to a number of their trade journals and use this to keep abreast with what’s going on in the lives (business and sometimes private) of both our clients and prospects.
FP: What applications and internal processes do you run? ABD: Document Management System – Volume from Watermarktech. Client Database – Adviser Office (1st) from Avelo. Cashflow planning – Truth from Prestwood. Each Monday we also have a weekly management huddle, a weekly team huddle and a weekly team client meeting.
FP: How do you develop and train your staff and ensure they see themselves as stakeholders? ABD: We have utilised a number of different things, four of us have been through a nine- week inspirational leadership programme which has been particularly beneficial. Earlier this year we launched an incentive programme that created a framework for all the team to be able to share in the success of the business which gets better the better we do against our growth targets.
FP: What has been your greatest achievement in your business? ABD: I think I’m most proud of the way we have managed to articulate our offering and redesigning our website - which took two years - was key to instigating that.
FP: What do you see as the main threats to your business in the future? ABD: We are rather ambivalent towards the external factors, there is little we can do about it at an individual firm level. The key thing is to be as efficient as possible and maintain a positive attitude, continually strive to be better, to grow more efficient, be better at differentiating ourselves, offer better quality advice and services, be more creative and continue to add massive value (tangible and intangible) to our clients lives. The rest will look after itself.
FP: If you have three things you could change about the Financial Planning profession what would they be? 1. The general public to understand the power of Financial Planning and all the ways it is superior to conventional financial advice.
2. The “Powers that Be” (FSA and government) to understand the power of Financial Planning and all the ways it is superior to conventional financial advice.
3. Financial advisers to understand the power of Financial Planning and all the ways it is superior to conventional financial advice and consequently join the IFP!