After graduating from university, Beaumont began training as an accountant at Deloitte, and later passed the necessary exams to become a tax adviser at that firm.
Vowing “never to do another exam in my life”, Beaumont worked as a tax adviser for clients of the property division.
That led to a role at Ingenious, a firm specialising in tax-efficient investing.
Ingenious was later to achieve notoriety for its film investing schemes, which were found not to be legitimate by HMRC.
Beaumont says such schemes were not operated by the company when she worked there, her role was more associated with Enterprise Investment Schemes and other HMRC-approved products.
She says: “I actually went for a job interview there for a role on the tax side, but they told me I should instead be working in sales because I can talk to people, so that is what I did at Ingenious.”
It was here she began to develop an understanding of the advice business.
She says: “Because the investments I was selling were quite high risk, the big advice firms who were looking at them for their clients sent quite senior people to see me. So I got to know a lot of those at firms such as Quilter and Fairstone and St James's Place, among others.”
From there emerged her interest in creating a new business.
She says: “The One Four Nine name simply came from the first meeting I had for this, which was on September 14, so the plan became known as project One Four Nine, and that became the name of the firm. Later we were introduced to Copper Street Capital, who are the long-term backers of One Four Nine now.”
Beaumont began to plan the launch of the firm in 2018, but it was the coming on board of the private equity backer in 2021 that was the key moment, she says.
One Four Nine Group also has a range of model portfolios that were created for the use of its own advisers, but more recently have been made available to external clients.
Beaumont says that this is one area where “organic” growth will happen within the company in the coming years, alongside the acquisitions.
Her initial role was as managing director, which involved looking at the firms to acquire, before becoming chief executive in 2023.
Rather than nervous, she describes herself as “excited” when she became a chief executive for the first time, but notes that she has only had three employers in her career.
If One Four Nine’s plan to acquire up to five advice firms happens over the next year or so, it is likely interest in the firm’s operations will grow from here.
