Financial advisers: Stop working harder and harder for less

You’ve put the hours in, you’ve built a strong relationship with your clients who now totally trust and rely on you to give them good financial advice; yet you just don’t seem to be getting the emotional or financial reward you want…and deserve.

Financial advisers: Stop working harder for less

Does it even exist without having to start all over again with a new client base? We asked Nigel Farrar what he thought.

1. What made you want to move from your previous financial advisory company?

I was working for a big organisation and was feeling more and more demotivated as time went on. I was working harder and harder but not getting rewarded for it. Really, at the heart of it, I wanted greater control over my own destiny.

I also wanted to provide a better, more comprehensive service to my clients but I couldn’t; I was a tied adviser for only certain products. My area was often changed too which meant I had to continually re-establish relationships with clients.

Our profession is based on trust which takes time to build; losing this every time a company decides to change its working pattern was incredibly frustrating.

2. What attracted you to Legal & Medical Investments?

It was the fact that the advisers have largely come from a company that specialises in the medical profession. Their understanding of the niche market complimented my own background.

In my view, having a team where you can share ideas and knowledge is priceless. Legal & Medical is a good sized company, it’s established and they’re a friendly bunch…I just had a good feeling about the company when I met everyone.

3. How did you feel about being a self-employed financial adviser?

Nervous! But, my wife did it and I followed suit. The company offered me a transition package that took some of my concerns away which helped.

4. What do you find most rewarding working under the Legal & Medical Investments umbrella?

It boils down to two things really, both equally important to me: being left to build my own client base with support there when I need it, and being able to give holistic financial planning advice from the whole of the market, not just from certain providers.

The ethos of the company is one I believe in too which makes a big difference. Legal & Medical believes in empowering the adviser within a broad compliant framework. It’s that ‘greater control over my own destiny’ thing again.

5. What were your biggest challenges in your first 12 months at Legal & Medical?

I really struggled with not being able to contact my old clients for 3 months. I’d worked so hard at building a strong, trusted relationship with them that to suddenly ignore them didn’t sit easily with me. But, it was only for 3 months and it was a useful time to have.

In that time, I built up my knowledge in areas that I had less experience of. I also registered for all the various providers – a tedious task to say the least, but essential, and then you have to learn all the policy differences!

The challenges never go away either. In the quieter periods, for example, it’s much harder to build your business; Christmas and the summer holidays are particularly testing times of the year. It’s these challenges though, that keep the job alive and interesting…for me at least.

6. How do you see the future?

Good earnings; offering a great service to my clients regardless of where I or they move to; working in a semi-autonomous environment, with a good fun group of like-minded financial advisers and support staff. I’d say the future is bright, the future’s…definitely positive!

If you’re interested in joining Legal & Medical Investments as an IFA providing wealth management and financial planning solutions to medical and dental professionals, get in touch with Max Spurgeon or Richard Major to find out more.

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