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Inspiring the next generation: Five Wealth on financial education

Posted on: August 2nd, 2024 by stevejordan@fivewealth.co.uk

Inspiring the next generation: Five Wealth on financial education

“Waiting until you’re rich to learn about money is like waiting until you’re married to start dating.”  – Fagan and Ver Hage*

Sally Bowles wasn’t wrong when she sang “money makes the world go round” all those years ago in hit musical ‘Cabaret’. Yet we see so many young people grow into adults with little knowledge of how to manage simple finances, let alone create investments or set up mortgages. In fact, research from the Money and Pensions Service’s Financial Wellbeing Survey found that 45 per cent of UK adults don’t feel confident in managing their money day to day. Especially in a cost-of-living crisis, it’s more important than ever to make sure that everyone knows how to manage their money most effectively.

We believe that like any education, finance is best learned young. Whilst it can be thought of as being too complicated or boring, it can be broken down into manageable chunks, typically not taught in schools. A GoHenry study into the effect of financial education from a young age on adulthood adds to a growing amount of evidence to highlight the importance of financial literacy. It found that prioritising financial education could add nearly £7 billion to the UK economy each year.

It’s not just about boosting the economy. It’s about providing education that empowers young people to make informed financial decisions, enabling them to plan wisely and create a stable financial future. It’s also about introducing them to career opportunities they may not have otherwise been exposed to.

Unlocking career potential

Our work experience programme gives young people the opportunity to enter the workplace and learn about the industry by being immersed in the practical environment. Our aim here is to educate the next generation on the range of career options which are available to them.

Approximately 85 per cent of financial planners are male, with only 6 per cent aged under 30. Our work experience programme actively works to try and change this, to encourage people into the industry from more diverse demographics, to protect the longevity and accessibility of the sector.

Sowing the seeds early

Steve Hughes, one of our founding directors, recently visited Davyhulme Primary School during Primary Futures Week. He delivered talks on finances and shared his journey to becoming a financial adviser, with the aim of inspiring the next generation on how to get into the profession.

Steve is also an ‘Education Champion’ for the Personal Finance Society and delivers personal finance workshops in schools to children aged 12-18 as part of a pro-bono initiative. This all forms part of our belief in creating the building blocks of a financial education.

Giving back

Unique to Five Wealth, we also hold ‘Next Gen’ conferences where our clients bring in their children to the office to meet with our team to learn about a range of topics from budgeting, inflation, buying a house, workplace pensions, investing.

We’re passionate about financial education and continuously working on more opportunities to educate the next generation in learning the fundamentals of managing their money. After all, waiting until you’re rich to learn about money is like waiting until you’re married to start dating. It doesn’t pave the way for long term success!

Watch this space for more information about what we’re doing to help educate the next generation.

* Chelsea Fagan and Lauren Ver Hage in ‘The Financial Diet: A Total Beginner’s Guide to Getting Good with Money, 2018. 

 

 

 

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

Posted on: May 10th, 2024 by stevejordan@fivewealth.co.uk

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.