Sometimes adversity creates opportunity.
In 1994 Andy and I had been independent financial advisers for 5 years as part of another IFA firm when unexpectedly one of our business partners died.
David was only 50 years old and very much a larger than life character.
He had been my mentor as an IFA for the past 5 years and I had learned from him some of the important attributes of dealing with people in business (treat them the way you would want to be treated).
It seemed appropriate for us to consider our future and from that tragic event Informed Choice Ltd was born.
Working from our home office but associated with a larger West End based IFA practice it gave us a good balance between being a small practice but tapping into the resources of a much larger firm.
The fact that the firm was run by a friend who I had known since 1980 enabled us to have that relaxed relationship of mutual support between the two firms.
Financial advice is a very personal thing so it was pleasing to have clients move with us to the new firm.
Our goal was to be different in our approach to the delivery of financial advice to our clients and all of the good things that we do today have their roots in the way we set the firm up in 1994.
Focus on understandable advice communicated both orally and in writing and total transparency.
We may do things much differently today lots more technology than was the case in 1994 but the core of what we do remains the same.
If it was 1994 again I am not sure that I would do too much differently.
The fun in the last 20 years has been to see the advice we gave over the years turn into results.
Being there with our clients meeting them regularly and monitoring progress to plan has important imposed disciplines on us.
There is an attraction to the “blank piece of paper” that exists at the start of a business life.
You can pretty much determine everything about the way the business will look.
20 years on though and you begin to realise how important it is to continually adapt and change.
Had we been change resistant over those years I am not convinced we would be celebrating a 20th birthday this month.
