BpH Wealth Celebrates 40 Years

BpH Wealth provides Lifestyle Wealth Management, helping their clients achieve a better balance between their money and their life. Michael Freedman, founder, and Simon Brown, partner, both share their reflections as the business turns 40 this year.

Michael - The history of BpH Wealth

In 1984, I found myself at a crossroad of life. I was a Chartered Accountant (ACA) and had a high-level of experience running a clothing factory, employing over 300 staff. The 80s were not easy for manufacturer-exporters like us; the value of the Pound Sterling doubled overnight as interest rates reached 18% to “squeeze inflation out of the economy”.

The sheet was clean, so I could apply my guiding values to wherever I went next. With my experience running a comprehensive trading company and my professional qualification, I set myself up to give advice on group pensions. This was a much-neglected area; half of employees were not provided for, relying solely on the meagre State Pension.

A Fresh Start

My rules were, briefly:

1. To do something which relied on my brainwork, not the performance of many employees.

2 To maintain the high ethical standards I had developed through my accountancy studies.

3. To always put the client first. Simply, to only give advice I would be happy to give to my family.

4. To not rely on banks for funding. I had found they provide an umbrella when it is sunny but withdraw it when it rains.

5. To treat any employees with respect.

With no preconceptions of how to build a new business, I hit the ground running. I simply applied my principles and lot of hard work. I soon began to make new friends and colleagues through the wonderful flock of clients that accepted me as their adviser.

A Very Different Time

The financial services sector, now arguably one of the most heavily regulated in the UK, was more like the Wild West back then. There was no regulator and no defined qualifications to be able to give advice. The old mantra in ‘The City’, “my word is my bond” gave a green light to many, self-appointed “experts”.

In 1987 the first financial regulator, FIMBRA, came on to the scene amid howls of protest from the cowboys. However, as a Chartered Accountant, I thought a regulator was long overdue.

Growing

By the end of my first year, I had made some fine clients, many of whom I still help today, and employed a secretary. After four years, I asked Simon Brown if he would like to work with me, an opportunity he jumped at in 1988, he was 21. He worked for Sun Life and replied to me, that of the 400 companies he helped, mine was the only one with which he would like to be associated. We clicked.

The week Simon joined me, we upped roots from my home office and moved into Oddstones House, our present home. Our client base continued to grow apace. Although I initially assisted companies, many staff and executives asked for my help. The individual side of advising came into being, forming the basis of our present practice.

A Firm of Firsts

Qualifications were initially not available, but these emerged from the Chartered Insurance Institute in the 90s. I had long wanted to demonstrate my skills extended from accounting to my present occupation. I rather naively applied to take a set of four exams in one week.

I set to work in my evenings, much as I had done many years earlier for my ACA. This time though, I was well-versed in the subjects and was delighted to find that what the industry wanted was what I had been doing all along. Again, hard work paid off and I passed all my exams.

A few years later, chartered status was granted to individuals who met the required standards. I was invited to the very first graduation ceremony, held with much pomp and pride at the Guild Hall. This was a high point for me and enabled me to set a standard for the other advisers to follow.

Since then, the firm has sponsored ten chartered advisers and a good number are on the way, of which I am rather proud. In 2008, when firms became eligible for chartered status, we were also in the first batch to achieve this. In 2015 we committed ourselves to an even higher standard, becoming the first firm in the UK to be certified by the Centre for Fiduciary Excellence.

Simon has helped us move into the high-tech realms, a far stretch from the first crude word processor I acquired in 1985. We were among the first firms to ensure our charging structure incentivised quality advice, rather than making sales. We broke away from the commission-based model to a genuine advice-giving setup in 2003, nine years before this became compulsory.

We continue to build on the basis I founded, and I am immensely grateful to my wonderful team of colleagues who now form part of the BpH work family. I do not think we have strayed far from my original founding principles.

Simon - The value of Financial Advice

As an adviser to many clients and their families, it is easy to get caught up in the day to day. The work and care we put into each client is intensive and multifaceted, but it is important not to lose sight of the wood for the trees.

As we mark our 40th anniversary as a business this year, I would like to share what I have learned during my experience as an adviser about the true value of financial advice, and how the process has helped so many of our clients to live better lives.

Confidence

There is a lot to say about the benefits of financial planning. Equally, providing a robust, evidencebased investment proposition to help clients’ finances where they need to be is crucial. However, my time working with clients has taught me that there is a clear distinction between having enough money and having the confidence to actually spend it, or to retire and stop earning altogether.

Attitudes to money are often deeply rooted from an early age. Having ‘enough’ money is a mindset as well as a material state. Those that do not have the mindset can be prone to hoarding, risk averse or risk-seeking behaviour.

I have discovered the importance of helping to guide clients from a restricted mindset to a mindset of ‘plenty’. This involves asking the right questions, identifying mental blocks and providing the necessary education and guidance to ensure that they live a flourishing balanced life with no financial regrets.

Freedom

Some of my favourite meetings are not where we get into the nitty gritty of a client’s finances. Instead, they are where clients are excited to share all of the wonderful things they have been up to since the last meeting.

True freedom is being able to do what you want, when you want, with who you want and for as long as you want. This is the goal, not some arbitrary amount or level of return.

Aiming to give clients their best chance of living the life they want is difficult, as the goalposts are constantly moving. Circumstances can change for the better or worse and clients’ preferences and goals can change too. I have learned the value of building flexibility into plans, helping clients have the best chance of financial and lifestyle success –whatever that means to them.

Perspective and Balance

During my 35 years as an adviser, BpH Wealth, and the industry as a whole, has undergone a huge transformation. We have transitioned from recommending pension products to corporate clients in return for commission to a bespoke, feebased, holistic service for individuals and families.

Working with the same clients over their whole lifetime, I have naturally developed deeply trusting relationships and I constantly strive to get better at supporting those I serve through the many ups and downs that life can bring.

It is my hope to help those I work with to gain perspective on their life, and to help them work through what they really want to get out of it. Our lives are not a rehearsal, and a life well lived requires a balance between many factors. Finances are important, but so are family, friends, health, purpose, and connection to a wider community.

With advisers informed by decades of collective experience, and equipped with the right tools, I hope to create a lasting business that, through the generations, helps clients discover and pursue their ideal balanced life.

BpH Wealth Management LLP

Oddstones House, Thompsons Close, Harpenden, Herts AL5 4ES 01582 461122 • balance@bphwealth.co.uk • www.bphwealth.co.uk