A Day in the Life – Financial Adviser in London (what really happens) #Finance

hi there my name is George and I’m a chart financial planner living in London so I was really on the fence about doing an episode like this mainly just because I think there are so many like this which are frankly just a bit tedious but anyway one of the big things that’s been

great about this channel is how many of you started in your journey in the profession and you’ve got in touch so I thought if I was going to do an episode like this I’d want to do it in a way that would have been the type of content I would have found really useful had someone shown it

to me when I just started on my journey so I’m going to tell you the typical day career paths and what I think are the real challenges for advisors that not enough people talk about so brief background I started my career in Manchester and I did what was considered the typical route you know

I learned business and admin then I did power planning and more technical roles to advising and now being a child financial planner doing full lifestyle Financial Planning I moved to London the start of 2021 I’ve worked in places like Liverpool Street in the city I live in

South London and I’ve got clients all around that wider area so I just want to firstly talk about the activities that make up an average day as an advisor and the great thing about this role is that it’s genuinely varied but there are some kind of blocks of activity that fill up your

time and tell me about this will help give you a framework to understand what your days are going to be like so here are the main activities that will take you through the day you’ve got one which is kind of like prospecting as it used to be called you know client building and that’s

where you’ve got kind of new client meetings lead inquiry whatever you want to call it the amount of this work you do really does vary where you are on your personal professional Journey this is about building a relationship making sure you can help and potentially starting to advise them

then you’ve got existing planning and client work and this is where you’re kind of keeping your existing clients on track behavioral coaching analysis report writing if you don’t have what’s called paraplanic support report writing support look even if you do it’s the

technical job of advising so it’s just about making sure you’re structuring the advice and making sure that everything the client wanted to achieve when they came on board becomes reality and then you’ve got kind of the technical work so look even if you’ve got power

planning support you kind of still need to formulate and check the advice so this is the technical job of making sure that advising is right building the plan investment setup and the tax strategy and your level of involvement here will depend on the level of corporate structure you’ve got in

place and the support and then finally you’ve got Administration and you’ve got all the extra bits of kind of bringing everything together look do not underestimate this whether it’s your bits of what you’ve got to do for Compliance admin chasing providers

one of the biggest mistakes I see for planners who’ve never really advised before is they totally underestimate this and it drowns them and I’ll come back to this later all right finally you’ve kind of got development so this is where you’ve got your ongoing learning you are

required to do continuous professional development or CPD as it’s called and that’s an ongoing Compliance requirement each year so that might be attending seminars other exams other courses just generally to make you a better advisor all great advisors are lifelong

Learners and this is a really crucial part of what you do look you’ve got a professional duty to do this but look it’s also your duties to clients to make sure you’re really on top of things now let’s talk about a framework for how those activities fill your day so assuming

you’re starting from zero with no clients your first year in the businesses advisor will probably suck because you’re gonna have to spend a lot of time working really hard on an uphill battle and the majority of those activities in the first year is probably going to be new leads and

inquiries so if we go back to that framework your diary at the start will probably be client building some technical work Administration and development and how much of those blocks of times it’ll take you depends really how much support you have for the company you work for if you’re

doing it all yourself now if that’s the case good luck to you now from years two to three assuming you’re doing okay things will start to transition into a bit more time with existing clients and less with new clients you’ll still have all the other bits to do but the activity

split will change then eventually and this can happen quite quickly you’ll be maxed out for clients the amount of clients you can look after really does depend on the complexity of the work you do for clients but as a general rule between 18 120 and you’re maxed out that can be very

difficult to take on more clients without structural changes and your diary will go from this to this and if you think about it this way that’s actually not that many people over a lifetime for an advisor and that’s why in truth there’s actually not enough advisors out there that

fill the need so for me personally look I’m kind of in this phase of the development which is I really do love it which is that look I’ve got enough clients already so I’m comfortable looking after them but I’ve also not stopped taking on new inquiries if they’re the

right fit and they’re someone who I can best serve because you can be a bit more relaxed look if you can help them and you get on great to the same extent you don’t need them to become clients perhaps alike at the start where you basically just take on anyone conversely I think that

kind of makes you a better and more confident advisor in your client interactions and for those who are just starting out and things that took just recognize that look this Dynamic does change over time okay so let’s do the tedious stuff so my typical day generally varies whether I’m

out at the office working from home or whether I’m seeing clients and I’ve been asked about hours previously and yeah look hours can be long but it’s all depending on context isn’t it you know perhaps they’re long compared to some jobs which are just pure nine to fives

but they’re nowhere near as long as perhaps trading jobs in the city or working in an emergency room so you know perspective I think is key so working from home has been a real big change to the advice profession since covert and it’s completely changed how so many advisors work unlike

the days where I used to be in the office all the time and out seeing clients there’s now a lot more control and flexibility and I personally try to be quite mindful of this and be as productive as possible so let’s say I’m mainly working at home for the day I get up about 6 40.

sorry not to be part of the 5am club but anyway if I’m in the office it’s about 6 15 so I can travel in look despite the title of this CashNews.co which might be a bit misleading our main offices aren’t actually in central London some people go to drive or train in now if

I’m traveling I’m traveling but if I’m at home look I faff around for a bit and normally I go to the gym you know I’m lucky because it’s about five minutes runaway and for me this is huge if I don’t exercise I’m just completely throwing off balance and

getting out there allows me the freedom to work later in the night without potentially feeling a bit cooped in anyway so a quick 45 minute session then I get back to it start work by 8 30. and then the actual structure of the day really does depend on what blocks I’ve booked in as you can

imagine taxi runs often really busy we’ve also got certain times where just clients have a lot of Life events which keeps you a really busy Point as well so on the way to where am I going Camden town and then after Camden town I am off to stoke Newington which is north London bye the rest of

it is kind of I don’t know maybe traveling to meetings with clients in my hairdresser’s car which I didn’t really want to get in white but I thought I had to because of the chip swords doing digital meetings updating planning checking reports and just moving the advice along

there’s a regulated process all advice follows so whether you’re doing full fat Financial Planning or just transactional advice everyone has to follow the same broad process even though the service they offer might be very different and look I absolutely refuse to be

like here’s what I need for lunch because look nobody cares about that all right so I’m quite lucky because I’ve got the support of a great team of admin report writing investment committee and Compliance and that allows me to focus on the day-to-day sort of doing

the good work and looking after clients so a big tip for those starting out you really need to know how the business of Financial Planning operates because if you’re operating as a sole advisor you’re having to find support in these areas or maybe you might be part of a

bigger team but you might then have to be very focused on making sure who you work with really aligns with your values whatever your choice is it’s a heavily regulated area so while you might spend an hour with the climb chances are there are many hours of planning prep whatever it is after

and before the meeting that needs doing and remember I said about chasing providers yeah well every so often your life is going to be enhanced by things like this hi we’ve been experiencing higher than average course for the last three years which means we don’t understand averages you

are 63 in the queue if you are a financial advisor please select option two to be told to go away oh yeah can I speak someone about my client uh plan number d60250 that’s a pension that was set up before 1998. all right okay but that’s the number that’s based on the paper um

anyway look depending on the rest of my day it’s getting to the evening time I’ll finish at some point there’s flexibility as long as the job’s done and that is the great thing about being an advisor but you do still have to deliver the business so you can have control of

your calendar to an extent but it’s up to you to deliver the work now for me personally there’s this lovely educational Channel which I try and do as much as I can in evenings and weekends so I do try my very best to get content out to good people okay so just one thing I’ve got a

big favor to ask firstly if this content is useful and not just a bit self-indulgent then I need you to let me know by please liking the CashNews.co and why not add a comment in with some of your thoughts there’s so much that I couldn’t cover in this CashNews.co so I really would

appreciate if there are any areas of interest that I hear what it is secondly to help those on the journey I’ve made a page on my website called resources for financial planners where you can find all the resourcing books which help me get to where I am today this is a bit more in the

description if you want to find out more okay so finally on London and as this CashNews.co was called a financial advisor in London I wanted to finish on some comments specifically about working in London so as I said I spent the start of my career working in Manchester and the one thing I can say

about London is that look it’s a different experience there’s no escaping it and the transport’s great in London you know I know I know sudden there’s a moment about it but it is great anyway the quote goes when a man is tired of London he’s tired of life and since

I’ve moved down I’ve found London’s incredible City whether it’s the amount going on the places to go out the opportunities look it’s not all great it’s very busy sometimes too intense but I find myself personally every day being so glad that I moved here and at

the moment I’ve got no intention of moving away so to wrap it up for anyone watching this CashNews.co who is wanting to become a financial advisor you know my advice is just don’t forget what a privileged place you get to hold in your clients lives you have such an influence on their

quality of life if you are great they can really Thrive so don’t don’t look for shortcuts you know treat that with the respect it deserves and it will probably take a while to get good if however you can go through that it’s an incredible job where you can earn good money and have

a real positive impact so if you are willing to go through all the crap the constant exams the endless regulation and the risks and on the other side of that you know you get a really great place in your clients lives where you get to share in their successes hear about their struggles and just see

them through the other side of these big Financial Transitions and it’s why I love what I do and it’s I think something special thanks for watching foreign