23/09/2024
I was 26 years into the financial planning profession . . .
when I saw people queueing outside the Northern Rock Building Society wondering whether or not, they were going to get any of their money bank after Northern Rock collapsed. Wondering how they were going to recover their hard-earned savings.
At the time, the level of protection afforded by the FSCS was just £35,000.
Northern Rock was just the first . . .
Alliance and Leicester, Cheltenham and Gloucester, Bradford and Bingley, Derbyshire, Britannia; the list goes on.
As a regulated financial services professional, I simply asked myself:
“who is best placed to help individuals and businesses to make sure their cash is properly protected?”
Accountants?
Solicitors?
Banks?
Or the Financial Adviser?
The individual or business themselves??
No-one. Don’t bother. It’s not important.
By definition, no bank or building society can help anyone with more than £85,000 without sending them to another bank or building society – NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!
Accountants and solicitors provide skills, knowledge and services not akin to any form of financial planning activity.
Should clients be left to fend for themselves?
Any answer to this question, other than it being the financial adviser, puts shame on the financial services profession. In fact, in my mind, it is not a profession when financial advisers ignore helping the client with their most important financial asset.
This is why I set up Deposit Sense; to put the financial adviser at the heart of this activity to bring even more value and security to their clients.