12 months with Foresight – Becoming the leader for wealth management advice in the North

It’s been just over a year since Five Wealth took on £6.7m of investment from Foresight Group, which marked the beginning of a new stage of growth for the business.

By partnering with Foresight, our goal was to build on the success of the last seven years by creating a platform for our next generation of advisers and directors to continue to grow the business through a combination of organic growth and targeted acquisitions.

Working with Foresight, and our investor Director, Matt McLoughlin, has been a wholly positive experience  and been hugely beneficial for our business. Foresight have been exactly who they said they would be, supporting the management team in delivering the original plan we presented to them at outset.

The investment also enabled us to bring in Tim Parsons, as non-exec Chairman, and Jonathan Partington, as Finance Director, both of whom have made significant contributions to our development over the last twelve months.

In short, twelve months on, the business has not only grown in terms of assets under management and the number of clients looked after but importantly it has a whole new level of structure and governance which stands us in good stead for further growth from here on.

Building a business to scale

To deliver on the plan presented to Foresight, scalability is key, and we are well on our way to achieving what we set out to do.

Some  changes are clearly visible such as refreshing our brand to align with the needs of our clients, whether they be high-net worth individuals, business owners or professionals. We’ve also updated our client proposition and been more active in producing content for distribution externally via LinkedIn and a whole range of business publications.

Whilst less visible but of equal, if not greater, importance to our service delivery and scalability is the work we have undertaken in streamlining our internal processes.

We have also launched a more structured professional training programme for our paraplanners, as well as a host of promotions. Amy Grace, Liz Schulz, and Rick Gosling have all joined the management team and are playing an active part in taking the business forward.

Relationships that last a lifetime

Since our inception, our goal has always been creating relationships with our clients that last a lifetime, whether that’s working with ambitious business owners, or advising families in building intergenerational wealth. This hasn’t changed and if anything, our proposition is even more closely aligned to this goal.

This greater focus has  positively impacted on our numbers and, since August last year with Foresight’s backing, our assets under management have grown significantly, increasing by 10% to £771m. Turnover has increased by 8.2% compared to the same period in the prior year and in the process we have brought on board over 30 new client family groups.

As we continue to grow, our ambition is to become the leader in financial planning and investment management in the North, and whilst we recognise we are still in the early stages of this journey we are making good progress.

Helping to realise ambition

We’ve learnt a lot since partnering with Foresight and made a lot of progress in a short period of time building on a solid platform created since 2016. Over the coming years, the intention is to build on this via a combination of organic growth, suitable acquisitions, new adviser additions, and greater efficiency across the business. In a profession with a high average practitioner age, we also intend to continue our focus on building the business with a relatively young but highly qualified team.

As we embark on our second year with Foresight, we are ready to move onto the next phase of our journey updating our original plan taking a more positive long-term view. Our ultimate aim is to create a sustainable, growing business with a long-term focus which provides security for our clients across the generations and our young and enthusiastic team.