Your Financial Planning Maestro

In this week's episode we talk to David Burgess CFP™, Financial Planner at Bloomsbury Wealth, about his journey to CFP certification.

He shares why he decided to embark on a career in financial services and why he want to seek out a great financial planning firm to work in.

We talk in detail about the parts of the CISI L7 assessment process that were the hardest and what he did to overcome those issues.

This episode is packed full of tips for anyone about to embark on the process.

David Burgess bio:

David has been at City-based Bloomsbury Wealth since January 2022. 

Prior to that he was an Associate Partner with St. James’s Place for four years.   

Bloomsbury Wealth works with a relatively small number of private client families and provides a financial planning-led wealth management service.  It is a member of the Global Association of Independent Advisors, an international best practice grouping of like-minded fiduciary firms. 

In this week's episode we talk to Steve McBurnie CFP™, paraplanner at Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie LLP, about his journey to become a Certified Financial Planner professional.

We explore his approach, what happened along the way and how he achieved a long-held dream.

This is a story of determination and hard work!

Steven share's lots of tips to help you if you are thinking of embarking on your own journey to become a CFP professional.

We also talk about Steven's volunteering work and why it's so important to give something back to help the profession grow and flourish.

Steven's Bio:

I am a Fellow of the CISI, an Accredited Paraplanner and a committee member of the Paraplanner Interest Group.

I have recently passed my Level 7 case study and awaiting confirmation of my entitlement to use the Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP™) designation. I work for Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie LLP as a Paraplanner within our Wealth Planning department.

WJM is a full-service law firm with an impressive client base throughout Scotland and the UK. We act on behalf of private individuals, businesses, companies, trust and charities, providing tailor-made plans to help you achieve your goals and objectives, now and in the future.

In this week's episode we talk to Daniel Ryan CFP™ Director and Client Advisor at UBS Wealth Management about his journey to become a CFP professional.

Daniel shares is approach, honestly how long it took him and the different thought processes along the way.

Daniel is Director – Client Advisor at UBS Wealth Management and is responsible for managing a portfolio of private clients to deliver advice towards achieving the financial objectives of his clients and their families at UBS.

Throughout the last 20 years, Daniel has been focused on working with private clients from a vast array of backgrounds; including business owners and entrepreneurs in the UK, Energy Specialists throughout Africa and Financial Executives across Europe. Daniel also has experience working in tandem with single and multi-family offices to deliver solutions for their investors.

Daniel is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (CISI) and currently holds the PCIAM, CeMap and CFP™ qualifications.

In this week's Your Financial Planning Maestro podcast we talk to Sian Davies Cole CFP™co-owner at Plan Works about her journey to becoming a CFP professional as well as the importance of mentoring and why she helped set up the Paraplanner Club to give paraplanners more support across the profession.

Sian's journey wasn't plain sailing, but determination and application of her extensive knowledge helped her be successful.

Sian's bio:

Sian is a Certified Financial Planner professional, Mentor and Paraplanner. 

She joined outsourced Paraplanning business, Plan Works, in 2020 and is a co-owner, co-director and a fundamental part of their paraplanning team. 

She believes that paraplanning works best as a collaboration between Financial Planner and Paraplanner and having a strong awareness of the skills and personalities involved in both roles is key. This along with a quality mix of experience and qualifications, she feels, is necessary to provide the support Financial Planners want and need.

Sian is engaged with the Paraplanner and Financial Planning community, and co-founded The Paraplanner Club which offers free 1:1 mentoring for anyone wanting to be an awesome paraplanner.

In the final episode of this series we talk to Chloe Phillips CFP™, Financial Planner at Pura Vida Financial Planning.

Chloe shares her journey to gain her CFP certification with lots of tips on how NOT to do things! Chloe is a self-confessed crammer and took quite a different approach to others that we have interviewed on our podcast. During this very honest interview, Chloe explains how she tackled the CISI L6 exam and the L7 case study along with how she came unstuck initially before getting back on track to pass the L7 case study assessment.

Chloe also shares lots of ideas for those getting into the profession and those feeling a bit disillusioned and thinking of leaving altogether. She talks about the various important groups there are there to support everyone and we talk specifically about the additional support for women as well as those who identify as non-binary.

Here are links to those groups that we talk about:

NextGen Planners

The Paraplanner Club

FFEM - Education and Mentoring for Female Financial Planners

Chloe's bio:

Meet Chloe, a Chartered & Certified Financial Planner™ with a passion for empowering her clients and those entering the profession. Chloe joined the team at Pura Vida Financial Planning in April 2022, following a successful transition into a client-facing role in the summer of 2021. With 15 years of experience in financial services industry, Chloe has honed her skills across a diverse range of roles. As the co-founder of The Paraplanner Club mentoring scheme, Chloe is committed to providing a supportive environment for individuals. Through this initiative, The Paraplanner Club offers a valuable sounding board and guidance to help others excel in their careers.

In this week's episode we talk to Lara Gentles CFP™ a Vice President at Santander Private Banking.

Having recently passed her CISI L7 case study assessment and become a CERTIFIED FIANCNIAL PLANNER™, Lara shares her experience of the process as well as loads of tips along the way, including the things she wished that she had done beforehand, how she got ready for the assessment, her approach and the outcome.

Lara Gentles Bio:

Lara is currently a Vice President within Santander Private Banking in Scotland. As a designated Chartered Wealth Manager and Certified Financial Planner™ with 25 years’ experience, Lara advises a diverse group of High-Net-Worth Individuals, predominantly based in the UK, with both domestic and global investment requirements. Previously, she was an Associate Director with HSBC Private Banking and has held relationship management positions with Barclays and Bank of Scotland.

She holds qualifications from the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland, Chartered Insurance Institute, CFA Society of the UK, and is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment.

Outside of work, she loves the great outdoors and spends most of her spare time walking or mountain biking in Scotland.

In this week's episode we talk to Dante De Gori CFP® the newly appointed CEO of Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd. (FPSB).

The FPSB is the global standards setting body for the international CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Certification which is licensed in 27 territories around the world and boasts over 213,000 CFP Professionals worldwide.

In this episode we talk about the continued growth in numbers of CFP Professionals, what is driving this growth and what the plans are to support the existing community and embrace new territories as well.

We also talk in detail about Dante's plans for the profession, where FPSB can help individual territories, independent research studies and what we can all do to help the public benefit from financial planning advice rather than product sales.

Bio: Dante De Gori, CFP® , Chief Executive Officer, Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd.

Dante De Gori, CFP®, is the Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd. (FPSB), the nonprofit standards-setting body for the global financial planning profession and owner of the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER certification program outside the United States. 

Prior to this, De Gori served as Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) – the financial planning professional body in Australia and sixth largest Affiliate within the FPSB Network. For six years, he led teams focused on standards, certification, education, events, advocacy and consumer awareness, and made exceptional contributions to the Australian financial planning profession through a period of tremendous reform to help raise education and professional standards.

A proud CFP professional, De Gori is passionate about advancing the profession of financial planning and supporting CFP professionals around the globe. He has served on several FPSB committees and working groups, including as chair of the Council and chair of the Chief Executives Committee (CEC) from 2018 to 2021. In early 2022, De Gori joined FPSB as Head of Stakeholder Engagement. 

De Gori has more than 20 years of experience in the financial planning profession. He’s worked in various senior roles within financial planning and compliance at ClearView Financial Management, Zurich Financial Services, Asteron Life and Suncorp Bank. He also spent six years as General Manager, Policy and Government Relations at FPA Australia before being named CEO. De Gori also served as Director of the Future2Foundation, the charity foundation of the financial planning profession in Australia, from 2016 to 2021.  

De Gori was recently awarded the Association Influencer of the Year 2022 by the Australasian Society of Association Executives (AuSAE). He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (finance and marketing), a graduate certificate in politics and policy, a diploma in financial planning, has completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors Course (2021), and is currently completing a Master of Laws at the Australian National University. 

De Gori is a proud husband and father who dedicates his life to the four F’s: family, food, football and financial planning.

In this week's episode we talk to Louise Oliver CFP™ co-founder of Piercefield Oliver, a very successful financial planning business.

We cover a wide range of subjects in this enlightening conversation, including:

* How you can set up and run a boutique financial planning business,

* How to attract more women into the profession and why more should be encouraged to become client facing advisers for the long-term benefit of clients.

* The good and bad things the Government are doing in the field of financial education and what they should be doing more and less of!

* What financial planners should be doing more of to help younger generations understand their finances better.

* What Louise thinks of the recent Government announcement on the reviews of PRIPS and KIIDs.

Louise's Bio:

Having a wealth of experience in the financial services sector amounting to over 30 years I am often a go-to expert for commentary for the National and local media. I particularly enjoy working with individuals and families to help them navigate through life’s changes such as divorce, bereavement, retirement, and inheritance. Having the benefit of supporting people through some challenging situations and out of the other side feeling empowered and happier gives me huge pleasure.

I have been fortunate to be recognised by my peers winning several awards including, Role Model of the Year in Financial Services and Female Financial Adviser of the Year.

As UK President of the British Association of Women Entrepreneurs, which is part of the largest international women’s entrepreneur network in the world, I am able to fulfil my passion for supporting women in business. 

This voluntary role enables me to provide guidance and connect businesses not only in the UK but all over the world. I enjoy guiding young women starting out in business and seeing their successes. More locally I enjoy connecting with local businesses, schools and Universities. I am a Visiting Professor at Aston University, a role I thoroughly enjoy.

I am a fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and commerce. My goal continues to be to break the mould in financial services and provide clear, accessible financial planning and advice to all age groups at whatever stage of their lives. I believe it is something we do very well here at Piercefield Oliver.

I truly love the great outdoors and in my spare time, you will find me paddle boarding, sailing and travelling around the country in my beloved motor home, Tilly. As a proud Sheffield girl, I also love going home to catch up with family and long-standing friends. In contrast, I enjoy trips to London to meet with clients and enjoy the buzz of the City. I have set myself goals to raise funds for charities close to my heart and recently completed a cycle ride from Milan to Venice in 3 days for women’s cancer charities.

Quirky fact about myself? I hate wooden lolly sticks!!

In this week's episode we talk to Dr. Moira Somers, a neuropsychologist, family wealth consultant, author and executive coach. 

Moira specialises in behavioural economics and the psychology of money. 

We talk to Moira about the practical things financial planners can do to improve the questions that they ask clients in order to gain a deeper understanding of their clients' needs.

Moira's bio:

In her work, Dr. Somers addresses matters that range from the highly personal concerns of business-owning individuals and families all the way up to broader service, design and structural issues affecting financial follow-through and equitable access to capital. 

Although Canada is her home, her client base is international.

Dr. Somers is a faculty member at the Ultra High Net Worth Institute and at the Financial Transitionist® Institute. She leads the Financial Psychology Special Interest Group for the American Psychological Association.  She is a featured guest and writer for many financial advising / family office podcasts and publications. 

Her book, Advice that Sticks: How to Give Financial Advice that People Will Follow, tackles the problem of unimplemented financial advice. It has been adopted as an authoritative guidebook by such diverse groups as advisor training institutions, private firms specialising in Ultra Hight Net Worth clients, and credit counselling agencies.

To learn more about her services, check out the following: www.moneymindandmeaning.com