17 years ago today on 11th July 1994 saw the registration of Informed Choice Ltd at Companies House.
Nick and Andrea Bamford had decided to create an advisory firm where the focus was truly on that – delivering the best possible advice.
The original intention was for Informed Choice to be a part of a larger IFA firm, Weybourne Financial Services in Chertsey, where Nick was Pensions Director.
Within nine days this plan had changed quite significantly when a good friend, David Scott (the managing director at Weybourne FS) died at the tragically young age of 52.
So out of adversity our new business was formed.
Where have the past seventeen years gone? You might ask Martin, now managing director of Informed Choice, who was only 15 at the time and did the occasional filing for the company when it was formed.
Two years after the business was formed, in 1996, we moved into Sundial House in Cranleigh which remains our head office to this day. We then became directly authorised by the Personal Investment Authority (PIA) in 2001.
Nick and Andrea’s son Martin joined the business in 2002, becoming a director in 2004.
We started a big process of change in 2004 which resulted in Informed Choice becoming the 99th firm of Chartered Financial Planners in the UK in 2007 and winning the title IFA of the Year in 2010.
And along the way of course there are all of the individual stories of people come and gone until we arrive at the team we have today.
Many of the clients we work with today were our clients in 1994, and indeed many for longer than that from when Nick first became an IFA in 1989.
We have come a long way since the formation of our business in 1994.
Today, Informed Choice is one of the largest firms in the region, with a team of eight highly qualified and experienced Financial Planners supported by five Paraplanners and administrators.
With our company year coming up at the end of this month, we are on course to have annual turnover in excess of £1m for the first time in the history of the business. Last year was our most successful year ever in business and this year is set to be even better.
We continue to grow as a business, recruiting the very best people in retail financial services to deliver our award-winning services to individuals, trustees and business owners across Surrey and the rest of the UK.
What will Informed Choice look like in 17 years time? It is difficult to say, but we all hope that some of the attributes it has today are still around in the year 2028. A focus on really good advice will never go out of date.
As we celebrate our 17th birthday today at Informed Choice, we would like to say a big thank you to all of our clients, professional connections, providers, suppliers and staff.
Thank you for helping to make Informed Choice what it is today. We look forward to continuing on this journey together for many years to come.
Photo credit: Flickr/eirikso
