A challenging and fulfilling year – your Depledge review of 2020

14th December 2020

Despite the obvious challenges we have all been facing in 2020, it has been an extremely busy and successful year for Depledge SWM.

Read on for a review of 2020, and an update regarding what we have been up to and how things are going.

Welcome to all our new clients

We’re thrilled to have welcomed approximately 50 new family groups in 2020, bringing the total amount of client funds under advice to approximately £180 million.

It’s particularly gratifying when we welcome so many new clients who have been introduced to us by existing clients (more of this in a moment!). We are also naturally pleased to see our other ongoing marketing activities are working well.

We have grown our team despite Covid-19 and we’re optimistic about the future

We continue to be ambitious about growing as a firm and solidifying our reputation as one of the premier wealth management organisations in UK. To do this, we have invested in the quality of our team.

This year we recruited Rachel Leonard, an experienced administrator, to bolster the back-office support team. Rachel has worked with three of our team in the past so was already well known to us. We are delighted to welcome Rachel to the team, and we are already benefiting from her knowledge and experience.

We have also recruited Ben Lancaster, a Senior Chartered Financial Planner and Pension Specialist, from Tilney. Ben enjoyed a long and successful period advising high net worth clients at Tilney and we are delighted to welcome him on board. Ben’s main responsibility here at Depledge SWM will be to deal with most of our new enquiries – find out more about Ben below.

We continue to win awards and gain recognition for our high standards

We are delighted that our commitment to delivering great results, outstanding service, and running our business in a diligent and careful way has resulted in several prestigious accolades for us.

In summary, we:

• Have been re-accredited with the British Standard BS 8577
• Were named as a Citywire New Model Adviser top 100 firm for the sixth year running.

On an individual level, Andrew Day has enjoyed an outstanding year of achievements. As well as once again achieving ‘Top-Rated adviser status’ with VouchedFor (the independent client review website), he also managed to get down to the final three of the prestigious Personal Finance Society (PFS) Chartered Financial Planner of the Year awards, narrowly missing out to another leading adviser.

Andrew then topped off an outstanding year by being re-certified at the ISO 22222 Standard and passing the CISI Advanced Financial Planning Diploma in early November. This means he is well on the way to achieving the highest possible qualification for UK financial planners. Well done, Andrew!

Meet Ben, our new Senior Chartered Financial Planner

Earlier this year we were delighted to welcome Ben as a Senior Chartered Financial Planner and Pension Specialist. Ben is widely considered to be one of the advisory stars of the future and the fact he has decided to leave a large national IFA to join us is great testament to our development and the reputation we have built.

The recruitment process to bring Ben on board took a long time, as we interviewed and assessed several candidates to find the right person to drive our business forward. As a Chartered Financial Planner and Pension Transfer Specialist with excellent communication skills, an unwavering commitment to ‘do what he says he will do’ and many years of advising ahead of him, we really feel that we hired the right person.

You may have seen the update on our website where Ben explains the key reasons that influenced his decision to join the business.

As mentioned above, Ben joins Depledge SWM to spearhead the development of our business by dealing with all new client initiatives and enquiries. In his first three months, he has been dealing with a significant number of enquiries, so it has been a fast start to life at Depledge.

Ben’s age and ability provides further security to our business and, when the time comes for Andrew and Adrian to ‘hang up their biros’ at some stage in the future, we expect that Ben and others will continue to look after long-standing relationships and provide a continued safe pair of hands.

We will look to grow our advisory and administrative capabilities over the coming years. However, this will not be easy due to our insistence of only bringing onboard the very best individuals who genuinely care about delivering great outcomes for our clients and the Depledge business.

It is therefore pleasing to see both Dan Gordon and Shannon Lowe pass further CII exams in furthering their careers at Depledge.

Can we help anyone you know?

With Ben now onboard, we have capacity to take on more clients. So, we would be delighted to hear from any friends, family, colleagues, and acquaintances whom you think may be able to benefit from our services.

As a reminder, we do offer a £150 John Lewis and Partners voucher for any client introductions that lead to an engagement. Alternatively, for clients who would prefer not to receive anything for a referral, we will donate the same amount to the Francis House Children’s Hospice – a great cause supporting children with life-limiting and/or life-threatening conditions.

A personal update from Andrew Day

I am proud of how the team have pulled together during this trying time and continued to deliver excellent service to our valued clients. I strongly believe that we are well-equipped to work under testing conditions for as long as is required and continue to deliver at the highest level.

I am also delighted to see that our advice and careful management has successfully navigated clients through this difficult period with portfolios being in positive territory over the last 12 months.

A special mention at this stage must go to Adrian who, despite being hospitalised with Covid-19 in March, has recovered quickly to maintain service to clients throughout this challenging year.

It’s lovely to read the numerous positive comments his clients have shared regarding the quality of advice and service they are receiving from Adrian. Many of his clients have also introduced him to people they know, which has resulted in a record year of new clients working with Adrian. They are clearly attracted by his clear, consistent communications, and reliability. Well done, Adrian!

Finally, in what I know has been a very difficult year for so many of our clients, we thank you all for your continued support. We truly value your custom and look forward to many more years of working together and delivering success.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2021.

Andrew and the team at Depledge SWM