How To Quality Check Your Adviser

2000: Million Dollar Hotel - Wenders

A friend of mine is very high up in a large hotelier group. He’s responsible for securing services on a worldwide basis for his company. We were talking about an aspect of his work that essentially means that he has a nose for quality. Whether it is the breakfast cereal, catch of the day, duvet covers or the acoustic sound system, all need to be assessed in light of the authenticity of quality running throughout the hotel. This isn’t lip service to quality, it’s a fully immersed attempt to ensure that everything is as it should be.

So how do you assess the quality of your financial planning? It is based on the price you pay? The smile you get? The speed of the response? The tie or no tie? The paper that your report is written on? The coffee that you are served at the office? The website or blog? Well it is possibly all of these things and many more besides. However, most important of all is – does it work? Do you have a financial plan? Do you know whether you are on track for the lifestyle that you want to maintain?

Most financial advisers are heavily focussed on your money, which is different from being focused on you. The money is important of course, but it doesn’t have a plan, it doesn’t have experience or life. The quality of your financial planning should be based around the quality of time given to understanding you and what the money is for. Frankly, who is really interested in an ISA or pension? nobody! (other than product providers, HMRC and the regulator). Product “advice” (selling) is missing the purpose of financial planning – which is to plan your finances around your life, not the other way around. This is the true quality check in my field. I obviously am concerned that what I do also reflects the quality of our service, however the blog allows me to detach more from the marketing and speak from the heart, so that you have a sense of the person not just the gloss. After all, expensive gloss without substance is just another coat of a paint job.