About three weeks in to the new venture and I’ve taken a lot of calls from people interested to know what I was doing. I was going to begin the Pelican Briefing series (shout out to Hans Price for suggesting that pun and I’m annoyed I hadn’t got there first) with something financial planning related however, I’m getting quite a few of the same questions so I thought “why no start with an FAQ”.
Growing up there were various crested knick knacks knocking around the house, some with a phoenix and some with a pelican. Of the two it was the pelican that I found most fascinating and that launched an interest in heraldry. Although my pelican is a common or garden variety, the idea of a pelican “in her piety” or “vulning”, piercing its breast to feed its young from its own blood, captured my imagination. Although often used as a symbol of self-sacrifice and redemption, for me I was more the nurturing aspect that felt right when my younger son suggested that I use it.
When Shaw Gibbs decided to sell the Financial Planning company that I had run for almost 13 years, I wasn’t ready to retire and I wanted to continue to be true to the principles that had started me down the road of independent, professional, fee-based financial planning some 25 years ago. Fitting the approach, the products, the planning and the fees to the client rather than fitting the client to what you have to offer is too important to me to compromise on. Fortunately, in ValidPath, I have a firm who will allow me to continue to do this in a way that I am comfortable with, whilst providing an overarching compliance and support framework that adds value to what I can provide.
Working closely with people on their financial planning involves them placing a huge amount of trust, not just in your technical ability, but in you as a person, to do the right thing and to care about what is important to them. It’s not something that you can just walk away from if you are doing it right. For me, retiring means planning; planning how to retire such that I know that clients will be left in the right hands, able to continue to get the levels of service and advice that they deserve. The final part of doing the Right Thing for the Right Person, just without a price.
Next chapter will be a financial planning piece but I’m happy to take any other questions people may have.
