I am a Chartered Financial Planner at BpH Wealth:
As well as having my own clients, I support Partner, Simon Brown. I prepare financial planning reports, client cashflows and provide technical support and analysis. I enjoy working with older clients, ensuring they understand what we do, explaining what are sometimes complex issues with clarity and empathy.
I began my career in financial services in 1994 as a graduate paraplanner for one of the first financial advisers in the UK to embrace fee based financial planning. I was a fully qualified financial adviser, specialising in group pensions in the motorsport industry which included Formula 1 teams in the UK.
I have also worked as a technical trainer for NPI, advising and supporting financial advisers and NPI staff in obtaining their qualifications and enhancing their technical knowledge. I strongly believe that financial services can only be respected as a profession through continued study and completion of industry qualifications. I have worked with the Chartered Insurance Institute since 2000 in various consultancy roles with responsibility for compiling pensions examinations and monitoring marking teams to support this belief.
Time with us:
I first started working at BpH Wealth in 2004 on compliance and reporting projects as a self-employed consultant. In 2008, I joined BpH Wealth as an employee and became an adviser in 2015.
Qualifications:
Advanced Diploma in Financial Planning
Diploma in Financial Planning
Financial Planning Certificate
Chartered Financial Planner
Accreditations:
Society of Later Life Advisers- Accredited
In my spare time:
I enjoy skiing, swimming, theatre and time with my family. I am also a founder member of a local book group.
Q&A with Rachel
1. What did you study?
Business Studies
2. What attracted you to Financial Planning?
I was sponsored by British Gas throughout my degree. I wanted to specialise in Personnel but my mentor encouraged me to experience all aspects of business and he thought Finance was a crucial part. This focused my final year degree options and I started considering an accountancy career. Ironically, I decided against accountancy as I was unsure I wanted to commit to further exams and found a role as a graduate paraplanner in a financial advice firm. Now after 25 years in Financial Planning, I don’t think that I have had a year without sitting an exam!
The reason I’ve stayed in Financial Planning is due to the people I’ve met along the way; their stories, their families, their dreams and the role I play in supporting them.
3. What moments have been particularly satisfying when helping clients?
There is no one specific moment, but a collection of similar experiences with a range of clients:
- When you can see that a client has understood what you have been explaining and they visibly relax.
- When a client says they feel so much better after our meeting.
- When a client spends most of the meeting describing their adventures since we last spoke and how they would not have had the confidence if I wasn’t reassuring them they could afford it.
4. When did you discover BpH Wealth and why did you join?
After 10 years in the financial services, both as an adviser and as a technical trainer, I moved into self employed consultancy to fit around having a family and I approached BpH Wealth and other local IFAs. BpH Wealth offered me interesting and meaningful work that could fit around my family commitments and as my family became more independent I gradually increased my hours and became a full time fully employed member of staff.
5. What do you particularly like about BpH Wealth?
BpH Wealth is a family, who cares about its staff and their clients. There are no sales targets and no limits on how much time to spend with clients, the emphasis is always on making sure the client is looked after. This is also evident in how we are treated as staff members, work life balance is key, BpH Wealth understands and encourages us to put our own families first. I have never missed a school show.
6. What’s on your bucket list?
I have always had a dream to travel overnight to Italy on the Orient Express – perhaps I read too much Agatha Christie when I was young.
7. We advise clients to have a balance between life, money and society – how do you achieve that yourself?
Harpenden has a rich community life, and there are many organisations that work to improve lives both locally and more globally. I am a member of BpH’s charity committee and we have created partner relationships with two local charities – The Hygiene Bank and The Kings Pantry. As well as financial support, BpH voluntary hours mean I will be able to work more closely with these amazing charities. I was the treasurer for a local scouts group, and have organised a minis tour and fundraising at my son’s rugby club.
