LIVES
London
FAMILY
Married no children
EDUCATION
Rugby School, Newcastle University
STARTED AT JM FINN & CO
2004
CURRENT POSITION
Investment Director
INTERESTS
Travel, Politics, Sport
FAVOURITE RESTAURANT
Angoletto, my local Italian in Battersea
In your experience what are your peers' main financial concerns?
Outside of property affordability, the need to prioritise day to day saving, pension saving and budgeting for school fees when they would prefer to be doing all three simultaneously.
Most of my friends understand the importance of pension saving but lack the information to decide the best way to do this. Many are involved in occupational schemes that are opaque and inflexible. The other concern that we perhaps all have is helping our parents in their later years in terms of meeting any care costs and more general Estate planning which is a sensitive subject for any family. I regularly find myself discussing online platforms but it’s interesting that most of my peers have decided against them because they recognise that the investment of capital is only part of the service they are looking for. They want ongoing advice and the reassurance of a personal relationship with someone they trust which means whenever they make one of life’s major decisions they know who to talk to first.
Can you relate these concerns to those of your clients?
I do not think they differ and because we aim to be a trusted adviser to a client’s whole family I have been involved on both sides of this long term planning with different generations of a family who are all clients.
We are fortunate that JM Finn can offer Wealth Planning advice to clients and the reassurance this can bring all members of a family. Of equal importance is the emphasis we place on continuity in the team here: our clients know that whatever the circumstances they will always be able to get hold of someone who knows them and their circumstances well enough to help.
Do you think your contemporaries are financially savvy?
I find that often people outside of this industry just need terms and rules explained to demystify the subject of investment management to help them make sensible decisions. The most frequent questions tend to relate to pensions, particularly in the light of recent rule changes and the opportunity to take more control of pension savings, especially via a SIPP.
Do you think the industry is doing enough to educate younger audiences about the importance of planning for their futures?
I think the industry goes to great lengths to educate people but government interference and rule changes undermine the credibility of the industry’s advice. I would hope that all of our clients know that JM Finn can provide broad Wealth Planning advice and simplify complicated issues into coherent and well-reasoned advice for their long term benefit. As a business we are constantly trying to improve the quality of the information we provide to clients and broaden the channels in which it is provided. I would hope the updates to the Website and App are symptomatic of our desire to keep clients better informed.
