One of the main reasons advisers tell us they love what they do, is because they have the capability of changing lives.
This article, brought to you by our featured company, St. James’s Place Financial Adviser Academy, explores how many lives you can change in just a matter of one week.
In her roles of Chartered Financial Adviser, founder of Moran Wealth Management, and Partner of St James’s Place, Nicola Crosbie changes the lives of her clients – and of others in the industry – every week.
She shares a glimpse of her day-to-day working life, and the soft skills involved in helping both her clients and her team navigate the difficult moments they face.
I get up about an hour before my three children, check emails and see what’s happened in the news over the weekend. I work from home for most of today, as I normally do on Mondays, except for when I go in for the team meeting.
Mondays allow me to focus on the week ahead, catch up with our seven-strong team (including two dogs), attend one-to-ones and ensure we all know what’s ahead of us. My team’s wellbeing and personal development is very important to me and I like to demonstrate that I appreciate them. I try to offer solutions whatever they are experiencing. My team is instrumental in ensuring our clients’ experience is top quality so I always want to ensure they’re happy and do what I can to help them to flourish.
As usual, I finish up work around school time to take my twins to football and drama.
Lives changed today: 7
There are always lots of meetings on a Tuesday. It’s usually my busiest day, working until 8pm as the children go to my parents after school. I use it as the day to get the most client-facing work done.
Today was no exception and was challenging emotionally, as I met with a client who, until last year, was preparing to retire at 55 to spend more time with her husband. Sadly, he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease and their priorities have had to adapt.
Before they dealt with their finances separately, him taking advice from his adviser at work. Now he wants to be part of the meetings I have with my client, to ensure she will be okay – using some of his savings to invest in boosting her ISA. Impact-wise, he is confident his wife and I have built up a relationship that is solid and full of trust, which will enable me to support her through the life stages when he is no longer able to offer practical support.
During the meeting, I was aware of the threat of vulnerability and ensured that my client was able to make decisions. The peace of mind awarded from having such a solid adviser-to-client relationship is very clear at times like this.
I met another client today, David, who lives with ongoing health issues he’s had since childhood. Now, he has a family of his own and is keen to boost his life cover – which he’s struggled to do. While his wife is financially stable with a good job, he has two children and wants to ensure he leaves a legacy to them all.
Part of the call with David today focussed on his mental health and the impact years of ongoing treatment has had on him. The call was very honest and frank, discussing the likelihood of achieving the cover he wants at a cost he can afford with a young family. The depth of time and solidity of a professional relationship allows you to speak freely and honestly, which clients appreciate much more.
I spent some time with another client going through a divorce, working out how he could save the family home while paying half the value to his wife. He wants to be fair but his focus is on ensuring his children are settled as his wife has met someone new. There were lots of practical and emotional aspects to work through, around which we built a plan of action together.
The client was worried about building up funds for his retirement again, and I reassured him that we could do this when the time was right but the main thing to focus on now is steadying his ship.
He was happier knowing that he could plan and recover from his change in circumstances, and we agreed to have more regular check-ins. This process has taken six months so far, over which time I’ve been able to add value when times are really hard, therefore solidifying the relationship.
You must be there for clients in good times and bad. You are the custodian of their assets, managing their wealth. Of course, there will come times when they need or want to spend it, and you must help them do so in a timely and tax efficient manner – even if that means you have less to manage, and your fees reduce.
We always ask clients to provide feedback and I was delighted to receive a client testimonial today, from the Managing Director from Dunfermline saying, “Nicola has helped me to build a plan for retirement by taking time to understand my priorities and circumstances in detail. The service and advice provided have been exceptionally good. I would recommend her to anyone.”
Lives changed today: 10
I actively seek to help other females in their financial planning career and have signed up to a CII (Chartered Insurance Institute) Mentor programme. Today, I spent some time with one of my mentees, Nicola, to discuss her recent achievements and challenges. We looked at the month ahead, as well as the quarter and year, touching upon what she’s looking to achieve over five years.
I take a lot from these meetings. The benefit of mentoring for the mentor is underrated. To be able to give back and offer support that wasn’t there when I started 20+ years ago brings me a lot of personal satisfaction. It’s beneficial for women to see others – and particularly working mothers – in our profession, as it encourages them to join. Of today’s session, Nicola says, “Invaluable feedback, and I learnt an enormous amount from you. Thank you for taking the time to pay it forward and give back.”
I go to lunch with a long-term client who has become an excellent referrer to my business, and we enjoy a professional friendship. It was good to catch up and thank him for his ongoing support. Gerry is gay and has always welcomed our deeper connection and empathetic approach. The LGTBQ+ community is an area underserved by advice, and I have always tried to engage and work to ensure advice is open for all.
Gerry is retired now and enjoying a different pace after life as a busy art teacher, social butterfly and adopted father to Declan. Gerry is considering buying a second property, and we discussed the pros and cons of this. He welcomes my counsel on bigger decisions and the practicality of them. The depth of our relationship allows us to talk freely.
Of our relationship, Gerry says, “I have known Nicola for at least fifteen years. Formerly as a financial adviser in the broadest sense and latterly as a trusted friend. As someone with no aptitude for finance, I was overwhelmed by Nicola’s patience and her natural flair for making things easier to understand This she achieved, through empathy, and an understanding of the state of my finances. I liked and trusted her immediately.
After only a few meetings, she turned everything around for me and I felt confident in the decisions Nicola helped me to make. Her approach is both gentle and methodical and I appreciated the clear out of my cluttered filing system for the new, simple alphabetical order I use now. Subsequently, I have guided many friends who are confused by financial jargon to Nicola. Her intelligent competence never overrides her ability to speak with clarity or her gift of the common touch.”
I head back to the office for a face-to-face advice session with a couple, David and Jean, who are early retirees and enjoying some breaks in the sun, voluntary work and a general slower pace of life. The focus is on demonstrating that their income is sustainable and will last for their life expectancy.
They want to achieve three sunny holidays a year using David’s drawdown pot for the next ten years, which is achievable. It was a positive meeting and the couple left feeling they were on track financially. They had also finalised their will and were due to meet with their solicitor the next day around signing their power of attorney.
These are all jobs I have been advising them on for two years, since they retired. It felt good to see them progress with this and protect them against risks.
After work, I safely deposited the children at my parents’ and flew to up Birmingham.
Lives changed today: 4
I attend a networking event with St James’s Place at the Cheltenham Races, as part of my voluntary work for Help For Heroes’ Recovery College, to provide financial education to the forces. Both of my uncles and ex-husband were part of the forces and it is apparent to me that life/money skills are lacking in this group. By delivering five weekly financial education sessions to the forces, I feel I am helping to build financial literacy and their confidence in money.
Feedback from the courses is excellent; veterans feel empowered with knowledge and finance becomes less daunting for them. We demystify and simplify it for them. Networking is not natural to me, but I have pushed myself and I do enjoy it now. I know it’s important we connect with other advisers and learn from one another. We are stronger together.
Lives changed: 2
Today, I worked from a friend’s house in Cheltenham. The flexibility of working from anywhere is an attractive component of my role. I enjoy the peace and quiet of being away from the office and home. It allows me to tick off some long-standing admin tasks and handover the notes from my meetings this week. In a normal week, I attend around 12 meetings, so it is admin intensive and a part of the job you don’t often see from the outside. It’s important to be organised and have a structure.
Evidencing client reviews and documenting client discussions is an important part of the role as an adviser. You need to do what you say you will, keep in contact with clients and be timely.
Very sadly, I found out that one of my longest-standing clients has died. He’d had some health issues for a few years and a stroke in January, followed by a nasty fall in hospital. I spent some time on the phone to his widow to discuss a plan of action for after the funeral. They had a very traditional relationship where my client, George, dealt with the finances, and Isabella the home.
Isabella was very worried, so we arranged for some money to be withdrawn from her ISA until she has access to George’s accounts. She also left our session with a list of things to collate, including the life cover that George had in place many years before his health issues. The couple had many worries over the years as their daughter is now in residential care, due to alcohol induced brain damage.
Throughout these obstacles, I’ve offered practical help and support, access to solicitors to help implement a guardianship, and even liaised with social workers over the funding of care, down to helping the couple sell their daughter’s property. George always said he would like to adopt me, which I think demonstrates the extent of the trust and friendship we built.
I also spent time with my Marketing Consultant, Jo, who acts on a self-employed basis to Moran Wealth Management. We discuss where we’re at with some client-facing documents we’re designing around the client journey and a one-page summary of goals that will impact our seven-strong team (including two office dogs)! We looked at our social media content for the month ahead and any news. It’s important to engage and discuss the bigger issues in finance and take advice. We have worked hard to build our own brand and be clear on our business values and morals.
We discussed my new member of the team, Emma, her job role, and the possibility of including her in strategy meetings for marketing once a month. Emma’s role is to help us achieve operational excellence and ensure that the office runs on processes and makes best use of technology.
I spent some time judging the Charity Champion of the Year for the Money Marketing Awards 2024, reading the submissions and finalising my scores. The next stage is to compile a shortlist of 5 for interviews in June. I was delighted to be asked to judge, and it was amazing to hear all the work the applicants are doing to help finance become a force for good. It’s a great thing to be a part of.
To end the week, I take a few hours off in the afternoon to spend time with friends, enjoy a massage and lunch. It was lovely to be able to do this, fit it in around work, and maintain activities that are important to me. My friend is also a client, so we incorporated a quick review of her plans to move house, ensuring she’s on track for her mortgage offer which expired at end of May.
I take the train back to the airport and make my way home, ready to enjoy the weekend with the children.
Lives changed today: 16
It’s been another busy week, with lots of energy spent on appointments and meeting people. It’s important that I always remain optimistic, confident and reassuring in client meetings, masking my own feelings to make sure the client is the centre of everything, and that they feel they are my focus.
As always though, I feel a great deal of satisfaction, and when I write it all down, I can really see how I’ve helped to change people’s lives – whether clients’, my team’s, fellow advisers’, and even my own.
Lives changed this week: 39
If anybody has any questions around applying for the St. James’s Place Financial Adviser Academy, head over to their profile on the BTS Careers Zone to find out more information about how you can become a Financial Adviser and change lives.
If you’re still not sure whether advice is the right option for you, get in touch with us here at BTS, we’re happy to chat through your ideas before you make your initial approach.
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You can find out more on how to apply to join the St. James’s Place Financial Adviser Academy and get in touch to find out more information about the programme.
Read the Day in the Life of article from SJP, to find out more information on what it’s like to work within the Academy:
