Getting your philosophy set and working with clients you get along with are key to successfully running your own advice business.
This is according to Steven Farrall, one of the names behind Williams Farrall Woodward, who started his career in financial services in the mid-1980s and set up his independent firm in the early nineties on a fee-charging basis.
The independent business, which based in Ipswich, currently has eight members of staff, including three advisers, and 450 active clients.
The firm was set up with Tyrone Woodward and David Williams, the latter of whom still works alongside Farrall.
Farrall chatted to FT Adviser as part of our Coffee Corner series.
What made the firm different from others?
“Well, we've been fee charging since 1995. So where we're different is that we're not financial planners working off a service fee, that’s the commission style.
“And we're not an IFA, we are a genuine service business, servicing clients through time.
“Also our portfolio approach is pretty unique. We don't go, ‘right we are going to make you money’ because we can't.
“If we could do that, we'd be sitting on a beach after doing that for ourselves. So we're trying to stop them losing money, basically.”
Farrall said being a fee-charging business meant being transparent with customers from the start.
He added: “We’ve been completely transparent from day one.
“So clients can then assess whether they think you're delivering what they want for the money they're paying you. And that's the only test of value you can have.”
Farrall added there was a “collegiate approach” to working at the firm, with clients seen as clients of the business rather than of individuals, and where cases are discussed between advisers in the open plan office.
How have you seen the industry change in the past 30 years?
Farrall said when the firm was set up in the early nineties there were few others taking a financial planning approach like theirs.
And these days, the quickly changing political economy played a part in the advice given to clients.
He said: “It is about making sure our clients understand what the problems are out there.
“So increasingly we're having to converge upon the political economy because...the whole thing is in a mess.
“You combine that with the financial planning bit, seeing if you can make this return to get to achieve what you want to achieve.”
How important is choosing your clients?
Farrall said working with clients he gets along with was one of the most important things.
He said the firm turned down clients who they did not think would be a good fit.
“You can’t work with clients you don’t like,” said Farrall.
“We've sacked more clients than we’ve lost, we've done it nicely and we'll find another place to go.
What is the most rewarding aspect of working in financial advice?
Farrall said being able to make people less worried about their finances was all part of the job.
