Are you making wise decisions with your money?
Mail Finance has teamed up with Skipton uilding Society to offer readers like you access to the financial advice you need to build your long-term plans. At Skipton, they believe that developing a financial strategy, tailored to your individual needs, takes a huge amount of understanding and research.
HOW A SKIPTON FINANCIAL ADVISER CAN HELP YOU
Kevin Quick is part of Skipton’s nationwide network of advisers. He has over 12 years’ investment experience and shares some of his views.
Q. Kevin, when you meet a customer for a review, how do you establish their circumstances and needs?
A. “I sit down with my customer to discuss their current financial situation, what works for them, what does not work for them, what they are looking to achieve from their money and, ultimately, what their money allows them to do. This means really getting to know the person sat in front of me, so I can provide them with the correct and appropriate advice.”
Q. What is the level of advice you can offer Mail Finance readers?
A. “We can help with your investments, pensions, retirement and inheritance tax plans. Our financial advice service is all about planning your future and what’s important to you, so we can create long-term tailored solutions for you - all with no pressure. The team researches thousands of investments to build a panel of fund options for us to consider for our customers. I say to a lot of my customers that the technical research team looks the fund manager in the eye and gets a feeling for what is going on. They ask the fund manager tough questions, to get right under the bonnet and make sure we know all about the fund.”
Q. How do you use this panel to make recommendations?
A. “We typically recommend to customers a range of investment funds that match and marry each other. When customers ask me what funds we are choosing and why they are on our panel, I tell them we want to see fund managers who have been through difficult periods like the banking crisis. Rather than somebody who can do a lot of computer modelling and make themselves look good in the last two years.”
Q: Is the advice you provide tailored to the customer?
A. “Absolutely. I base my advice around what the customer wants and needs, and on the research we carry out into their current plans. It is not about just having a short-term answer, it is about lifetime planning – and we need to make sure we get it right. With our research team there for support, we can provide the solution you are looking for.”
HOW SKIPTON'S TECHNICAL RESAERCH TEAM CAN HELP YOU
For nearly a decade, Mark Elliott has headed up a technical research team who work closely with Skipton’s financial advisers to help Mail readers like you.
Q: Mark, how do you and your team decide which funds to add to the panel?
A. “We take a high level view on what our typical customers’ needs are, which draws us towards certain products that we know would be relevant for them. We are interested in customers’ longterm future, so we support funds and products provided by well-capitalised and well-structured businesses. We also want to make sure we have a suitable breadth of options, so advisers like Kevin can make personalised recommendations to as many customers as possible.”
Q: There are thousands of investment options available, so what is the benefit of narrowing this universe down into a panel?
A. “We are the gatekeepers for customers’ money, and so I need to have confidence that I am placing that money with an experienced fund manager who has been able to demonstrate their ability through different market conditions. With equity and bond markets being so buoyant over the past few years, the pool of managers with genuine experience of difficult market conditions is getting smaller and smaller. We do have to work really hard to identify these managers.”
Q: What value does Kevin and other Skipton financial advisers bring to the customer?
A. “When I look at the skills Kevin and other advisers have, to sit down and really understand what the customer wants, what their needs are and what is driving them, where they want to get to in 10, 15, 20 years’ time – I think that is incredibly important. What Kevin is able to do is build a financial plan that meets those objectives. Without that conversation with the customer, and without that in-depth knowledge Kevin has, it would not work. You can have the best financial planning solution in the world, but if it is not relevant for that customer it just falls apart.” Whether you already have investments or are looking to invest for the first time, Skipton Building Society can help. It may just be worth simply checking your own situation with Skipton just for peace of mind that all of your plans are doing what you want them to. Please remember that stock marketbased investments are not like bank and building society savings accounts as your capital is at risk and you may get back less than you invested. The value of your investments and any income from them may fall as well as rise.