Family retirement advice firm continues to grow
the image and reputation of financial and asset management firms by instilling in his clients a trust that would help him grow through word of mouth and recommendations.
Now the 40-year-old from Peterlee employs 12 people from its Belmont Business Park offices in Durham and manages a portfolio of over £115,000,000 on behalf of clients.
Chris, who lives in Trimdon with his wife Jodene – who also works for the company – said: “When I launched the business, I wanted to do things differently. As an industry the working demographic is at the older end of the scale and is perceived as quite stuffy and elitist.
“I wanted to change that. I wanted my clients to trust me, to understand that the advice I was giving them was based on their best interests, not mine. If I met with someone and it wasn’t right for them to transfer their financial management to Wealth of Advice, that’s what I would advise them, even if it meant we lost out on that business.”
He added: “That approach very quickly paid off and gradually we got more and more people coming to us. That led touis adding to the team with the right people who shared my vision.”
The Wealth of Advice team includes experienced financial advisers and training paraplanners, as well as administrative and management personnel.
Chris also employs his sister, and two of his nieces, both of whom graduated from Northumbria University and joined the firm to embark on being trained into their current roles.
Chris added: “Our growth has been massive since we launched back in 2012 and my aim is for that growth to continue.
“Our next target is to grow the number of great clients, grow the number of quality people in our team and then hopefully get the funds to over a quarter of a billion.”