Back to Life, Back to Reality | IFAM99/GBI27 | June 2021

For today’s discerning financial and investment professional

Back to Life, Back to Reality Collaboration is key.

JM Finn on working with advisers

June 2021

ANALYSIS

REVIEWS

Getting to know...

Neil Blankstone of Blankstone Sington

The opportunity of our age.

M&G Investments

IFAM99/GBI27

COMMENT

INSIGHT

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This advertisement is for Professional Clients in the UK only and is not for consumer use. *Investment risks The value of investments, and any income from them, will fluctuate. This may partly be the result of changes in exchange rates. Investors may not get back the full amount invested. As this fund invests primarily in small-sized companies, investors should be prepared to accept a higher degree of risk than for an ETF with a broader investment mandate. The value of equities can be affected by certain factors such as issuer’s circumstances or economic and market conditions. This may result in value fluctuations. Investments into the clean energy sector are considerably exposed to investment trends focused on environmental factors and may have sensitivities towards ESG related government regulations and tax implications.

Important information For more information please refer to the KIID specific to the ETF, which can be found at etf.invesco.com.

Issued by Invesco Investment Management Limited, Central Quay, Riverside IV, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland.

CONTE NTS

CONTRIBUTORS

June 2021

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Welcome

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Culture: crucial to pandemic recovery

Faith Liversedge

TCC’s Olivia Fahy suggests that advice firms have a unique opportunity to remodel the way they do things by putting culture right at the heart of strategy

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Pre-Nuptial Agreements Leading private client lawyer Tanya Roberts of Collyer Bristow highlights why pre-nups are not just for celebrities

Sue Whitbread Editor sue.whitbread@ ifamagazine.com

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Brand new thinking Faith Liversedge asks if your advice firm’s brand is up to the mark and highlights why it sometimes pays to think small

12 Peter Wilson Online Writer, IFA Magazine peter.wilson@ifamagazine.com

Why tax-efficient investing is good for your clients – and your business Octopus Investments’ Paul Latham highlights the benefits of using VCTs, EIS and BPR schemes in financial planning

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The opportunity of our age An IFA Magazine Q&A with M&G’s Randeep Somel about the challenges that lie ahead in the race to zero carbon emissions

18 Alex Sullivan Publishing Director alex.sullivan @ ifamagazine.com

How reducing interruptions can help tackle burnout for IFAs Moneypenny ’s Louise Wilson has practical steps for IFAs to boost productivity as well as mental wellbeing

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Getting to know Blankstone

Kim Wonnacott Head of Technical Sales and Marketing kim.wonnacott@ifamagazine.com

Peter Carey Technical Sales and Marketing Peter.carey@ifamagazine.com

An IFA magazine interview with Neil Blankstone, Director at investment manager and stockbroker Blankstone Sington

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Protection matters IFA Magazine talks to Protection Guru’s Adam Higgs about the different ways the information website can support advisers’ needs

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Collaboration is key IFA Magazine talks MPS with JM Finn’s investment director, Freddy Colquhoun

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It’s ‘still’ good to talk As always, it’s straight-talking tips from Michelle Hoskin to help you build an engaging and collaborative communication strategy with your team – wherever they’re based

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GBI Magazine Issue 27 Onwards and upwards

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Nova Introduces I The first of our series of investee spotlight interviews, Nova introduces us to Gavin Delaney,CEO of Hy-Genie

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The perfect EIS company?

GBI talksto Sarah Ellerby, CEO, Nova Pangaea on their perfect partnership with Par Equity

Designed by: Becky Oliver

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IFA Magazine is published by IFA Magazine Publications Ltd, Tel: +44 (0) 1173 258328 3 Worcester Terrace, Clifton, Bristol BS8 3JW © 2021. All rights reserved ‘IFA Magazine’ is a trademark of IFA Magazine Publications Limited.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in any printed or electronic retrieval system without prior permission.

All material has been carefully checked for accuracy, but no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies. Wherever appropriate, independent research and where necessary legal advice should be sought before acting on any information contained in this publication.

The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up and you may not get back the amount originally invested.

IFA Magazine is for professional advisers only. Full details and eligibility at: www.ifamagazine.com

The second in our investee spotlight series in conversation with Ben Sweeney, Founder of VidiVet

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Nova Introduces II

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Best practice, risk and sustainability in the post-Covid world Part 1 of our interview with Richard Roberts, Oxford Capital

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Open Offers Our listing of what’s currently available for subscription

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Career Opportunities From Heat Recruitment

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WE LCOM E

June 2021

BACK TO LIFE

BACK TO REALITY?

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elcome to this, the 99th edition of IFA Magazine - with the added bonus of the latest edition of GBI Magazine included too. We hope you’ll find plenty of great reading in both to get you thinking. And here’s a drum roll ahead of next month’s 100th edition – which also celebrates our tenth anniversary. How exciting – and how time flies!

For the time being at least, the financial advice profession continues to work from home. Our reliance on software programmes like zoom or teams have meant that supporting clients and running businesses has continued remotely. But for how much longer will this remain the case? As stage 4 of the Prime Minister’s Roadmap is scheduled for late June in England, change may be around the corner.

GETTING THE ADVICE RIGHT Keeping up to date with the advice which clients receive is key. This month, we’ve been talking to some of the leading figures in the world of investment - and protection too.

M&G’s Randeep Somel talks to us about investment opportunities on the road to zero carbon emissions.

Neil Blankstone of the Liverpool-based investment manager and stockbroker Blankstone Sington tells us about working with IFAs and planners. We’ve also been chatting to JM Finn’s Freddy Colquhoun about how the wealth manager works with IFAs based on a collaborative approach. Octopus Investments’ Paul Latham explains how tax-efficient investing is good for your clients and your business too. I’ve also been talking to Adam Higgs of Protection Guru, about all the information and support this technical information website provides free of charge to advisers about protection products.

TAKE A BOW There is little doubt that the profession has proved itself to have been hugely resilient and adaptable. But these

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changes to working practice have hidden personal and business costs which can often be overlooked. Our online series of articles during UK Mental Health Awareness Week last month paid particular attention to this important aspect.

BACK TO THE PRESENT TIME Across the pages of this magazine, business continuity, growth and development for financial advice and planning firms are also on the menu - amongst other topics of course.

Many of the articles focus on providing practical tips and different ways you can think and approach business and team development strategies. Faith Liversedge has excellent advice about paying attention to the detail of building your brand as client acquisition comes back to the fore. Michelle Hoskin has practical advice on how to build a communications and collaboration strategy for your team - regardless of whether you’re office or home based. Olivia Fahy, of compliance consultancy TCC Group highlights how after a prolonged time away from the workplace, financial advice and planning firms now have a unique opportunity to remodel the way they do things. And that’s by ensuring they have a purposeful and inclusive culture right at the heart of strategy.

Moneypenny’s Louise Wilson has an interesting take on interruptions – and how an effective strategy here can help avoid burnout.

So, it’s time to get yourself a coffee and settle down to check out this month’s selection of articles. As always, there’s plenty more great reading available on a daily basis on www.IFAMagazine.com See you there!

Sue Whitbread Editor, IFA Magazine

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FOR PROFESSIONAL CLIENTS AND QUALIFIED INVESTORS ONLY.

ORS ETHICAL INVESTING W CTIVE SUSTAINABLE FUND NTEGRATED REPORTING ES REEN BONDS INVESTING S TEWARDSHIP CLIMATE RISK CREENING ENVIRONMENTA OCIAL WITH GOVERNANCE TIMISED ESG INTEGRATION CHANGE CLARITY CARBON RINT ENVIRONMENTAL FAC iShares. Sustainable, simplified.

Indexing can give you the clarity you need to build more sustainable portfolios.

Invest in something bigger.

Capital at risk.

This material is for distribution to Professional Clients (as defined by the Financial Conduct Authority or MiFID Rules) only and should not be relied upon by any other persons. Until 31 December 2020, issued by BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered office: 12 Throgmorton Avenue, London, EC2N 2DL. Tel: + 44 (0)20 7743 3000. Registered in England and Wales No. 02020394. For your protection telephone calls are usually recorded. Please refer to the Financial Conduct Authority website for a list of authorised activities conducted by BlackRock. From 1 January 2021, in the event the United Kingdom and the European Union do not enter into an arrangement which permits United Kingdom firms to offer and provide financial services into the European Economic Area, the issuer of this material is: (i) BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited for all outside of the European Economic Area; and (ii) BlackRock (Netherlands) B.V. for in the European Economic Area, BlackRock (Netherlands) B.V. is authorised and regulated by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets. Registered office Amstelplein 1, 1096 HA, Amsterdam, Tel: 020 – 549 5200, Tel: 31-20-549-5200. Trade Register No. 17068311. For your protection telephone calls are usually recorded.

For investors in Switzerland. This document is marketing material. This document shall be exclusively made available to, and directed at, qualified investors as defined in the Swiss Collective Investment Schemes Act of 23 June 2006, as amended. © 2021 BlackRock, Inc. All Rights reserved. 1530135

TCC

June 2021

CULTURE: CRUCIAL TO PANDEMIC RECOVERY

Olivia Fahy, Head of Culture at compliance consultancy TCC Group suggests that after a prolonged time away from the workplace, financial advice and planning firms now have a unique opportunity to remodel the way they do things. And that’s by ensuring they have a purposeful and inclusive culture right at the heart of strategy

CULTURE FOR BUSINESS As the financial services sector starts to welcome back staff to the office, it’s essential that it doesn’t overlook the fundamental role that fostering a healthy culture can play in getting back on track.

Many banks and financial advice firms stepped up during the crisis to support clients remotely. The financial services sector has largely been part of the solution rather than the problem, fuelling recovery from the crisis and transforming to meet the needs of clients.

This good practice also extends to the treatment of staff. As a result of the lockdowns, businesses have also been forced to be more agile in adapting to the needs of its workforce, which is increasingly demanding a more flexible working environment. The companies that have driven people-led change and considered employees in their decision making throughout the crisis are the ones that have shone through.

For example, Nationwide told it’s 13,000 office staff that they can permanently work remotely when lockdown restrictions ease – a decision driven by employee insight, having asked staff what they wanted, and acting in response.

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As the economic consequences of the pandemic start to bite, financial advice firms need to continue putting clients first and also listening to employees. Culture is key in driving behaviours and decisions that benefit both clients and employees. Healthy cultures are characterised by purpose, psychological safety, diversity and inclusion, and underpinned by effective leadership and governance.

This is recognised by the regulator too, with the FCA emphasising the value of businesses improving their culture by putting it at the heart of its regulatory agenda.

Beyond the FCA’s expectations, building a healthy culture has a clear business and people case. It drives the right behaviours, builds more collaborative and creative work environments, improving employee happiness, productivity, retention, and ultimately business performance.

‘PANDEMIC BURNOUT’ However, driving healthy cultures in a dispersed workforce comes with its challenges. Remote working has heightened an ‘always on’ work culture whereby employees are not able to switch off. The often time pressured nature of the

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TCC

financial services sector further exacerbates the situation. After a year of working from home, many employees have experienced ‘pandemic burnout’, whereby the disintegration of a meaningful work/ life balance has led to overworking, stress, exhaustion, and disillusionment.

This is a huge risk for employers if not substantially addressed.

June 2021

be fully understood and properly implemented. Frequent, continuous assessment is a key requirement of effective culture management.

It’s also important to recognise that for some, the shift to home-working was never a novelty. It’s easy to revel in the luxury of working from home if you’re privileged enough to have the space and security to do so comfortably. We might all have been experiencing the same storm, but not from the same boat. There is a huge divergence in experience and impact of the pandemic, which will affect how people feel about returning to the office, and what they might want from the workplace moving forwards.

Some large firms have acknowledged this sentiment and taken steps to address pandemic burnout, with HSBC recently offering Zoomfree Fridays for all staff, KPMG giving UK staff one afternoon a week off to support wellbeing and allow them to ‘re-energise’. Meanwhile, Monzo has become one of the first UK companies to offer paid leave for employees who are affected by pregnancy loss, as part of the bank’s mental health drive.

Senior leaders need to be acutely aware of this and ensure they are not making decisions about the office of the future that are informed only by their own experiences. While it may be tempting to urge people to go back to an office as rules are relaxed, doing so may cause increased stress and anxiety in an already overworked and exhausted workforce.

It also risks demotivating employees who aren’t eager to return and are well aware they can do their jobs from home. This is one reason why gathering employee insight is so important.

REBUILDING CULTURES IN A HYBRID WORKING WORLD

It’s well known that culture change takes time – it’s deeply embedded within organisations and can be very resilient to attempts to change it. Unless it’s a new company, it’s unlikely that firms have the opportunity to build organisational culture from scratch. However, after prolonged time away from the workplace, firms are now being provided with a unique opportunity to remodel the way they do things. By committing to building and developing a purposeful and inclusive culture, they can provide the necessary support to their workforce as well as helping secure the long-term sustainability of the business.

With lockdown restrictions easing and people beginning to return to an office, it’s important that employers consider how their staff have been feeling, and work hard to reset and rebuild cultures for the hybrid environment.

Healthy cultures do not automatically follow flexible working policies, so firms need to think carefully about the culture they want to take forward, and properly embed good working practices into hybrid environments.

To do this, it’s important that employers get a sense of what their employees really want and need, and how various policies will impact them. Getting that employee insight is key, so that organisations put policies in place that address the true needs of employees, rather than the business’ perception of what is needed. For example, what policies do parents need to support them with childcare? And how can employers avoid a situation where people who go into an office are treated differently or more favourably than those who are remaining at home? Regular people surveys are a good way to gather insight, which needs to

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About Olivia Fahy Olivia joined TCC from the FCA’s Culture Team within Supervision, having spent over four successful years developing and leading its Transforming Culture initiative.

Leveraging this unique insight into the regulator’s culture agenda, Olivia spearheads TCC’s culture division, engaging with financial services firms to help embed healthy, sustainable cultures.

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COLLYE R BRISTOW

June 2021

PRE-NUPTIAL AGREEMENTS: WHY THEY’RE NOT JUST FOR CELEBRITIES

Following last month’s news that Bill and Melinda Gates are set to divorce after 27 years of marriage, with no reported nuptial agreements in place (neither pre nor post-nup). Leading private client lawyer, Tanya Roberts of Collyer Bristow offers advice to advisers working with entrepreneurs and HNWIs on why pre-nuptial agreements should be an essential part of marriage planning in 2021.

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s we emerge from the pandemic, pre-nuptual agreements (pre-nups) are certainly a timely topic: postponed weddings have meant that there has been an increased demand for venues and, with this, has come an increased desire for prenups between pre-marital couples. When a high profile divorce hits the press, a renewed interest in the subject is always sparked. The Gates’ divorce begs the question as to whether the couple actually had a pre-nup in place. Recent speculation indicates that they did not.

WHAT ARE THEY? Pre-nups are often entered into when there is a disparity of wealth between couples. This may be because there is a pre-existing disparity in wealth between the two parties or, alternatively, because one of the parties is likely to inherit significant wealth in the future. For high-net-

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worth (HNW) individuals pre-nuptial agreements are now much more commonplace.

A key requirement of a pre-nup is that it must be fair. By nature, pre-nups are complicated to draft as the whole purpose of the agreement is to restrict the terms of settlement but the agreement must also be considered “fair” enough to have weight. This is the balancing act that experienced family lawyers have to master when advising and drafting these documents.

Pre-nuptial agreements are especially common in a second marriage. This is often because both parties may have wealth they want to earmark for their children from previous marriages.

Some parties may want a pre-nup in place to provide a safety net in case the marriage is short and ultimately goes wrong. Parties may be less concerned if the marriage is to last longer. Others want to provide for different scenarios. For instance, a short marriage with no children, a short marriage with children, a longer marriage with no children and so

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on. Often therefore these documents provide for a range of settlement figures. Some also provide for review clauses.

WHAT DO THEY DO?

June 2021

The requirements: • That the pre-nup is fair.

• That it is signed at least 28 days before.

• That there has been full and frank financial disclosure.

The purpose of a pre-nup is to agree to a fair financial settlement between a couple in the event they should file for divorce. It seeks to protect any pre-acquired assets such as inheritance, businesses or property and will also seek to deal with any future inheritance. In England, the jurisdiction of the court cannot be ‘ousted’. This means that one party cannot stop the other party from trying to ask the court to intervene. The documents however, if drafted correctly and if procedurally sound, are likely to be given significant weight by the court and, accordingly, should be treated by the parties as being likely to bind them.

Put simply, pre-nuptial agreements help to provide security, clarity, and certainty in the future, for both parties.

Benefits of a nuptial agreement: • Certainty and clarity for the future and financial transparency.

• More control to the parties to decide a settlement in the future instead of the court.

• Less acrimony and expensive legal fees if the marriage breaks down.

• The ability to preserve family wealth for future generations and protect inheritance, or future inheritance.

• The ability to protect a pre- acquired business.

• The ability to protect assets for the benefit of existing children.

• An invaluable tool for wealth planning.

• A fair provision for the economically weaker party in the event of marital breakdown.

• Reassurance for both parties and certainty about the financial consequences of divorce.

Are there particular requirements?

Whilst nuptial agreements are not binding on the courts, they are likely to be upheld if certain requirements have been met. Providing the requirements are met, the parties can be reasonably certain that the agreement will be upheld by the English court.

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• That there has been no duress.

• That they have each had independent legal advice.

Ideally parties should start thinking about the pre-nup at least 3-4 months before the wedding date to allow enough time for any negotiations. The earlier the agreement is signed, the better. It should be signed at least 28 days before the wedding. In the event that it is signed within the 28-day period, a post-nuptial agreement may also be advised.

There are several risks involved with leaving the pre-nuptial agreement discussions until too close to the wedding date.

Firstly, it can be the source of tension if it left to the 11th hour.

Secondly there may be arguments of duress if it is ever tested in court and thirdly the nearer the wedding (less than 28 days) the higher the chance it will be considered less weighty.

It is essential that both parties obtain independent legal advice and provide full disclosure of their wealth. The party with the wealth should agree to pay the other party’s costs. The solicitor will clearly explain the law on nuptial agreements and how to structure an agreement to suit needs, for example separating certain assets, how jointly owned property will be divided or/and providing specific financial provision on divorce. This may include taking advice from other jurisdictions relevant to the circumstances of the matter. Often there are connections with other jurisdictions and there may need to be pre-nups in more than one place.

We are seeing many more pre-nups in England. For many years, there has been a “taboo” surrounding the idea but more recently, family lawyers are being called to draft more and more pre-nuptial agreements. For advisers and financial planners working with HNW individuals and their families, these should be looked upon as the norm.

About Tanya Roberts Tanya Roberts is a Partner specialising in Family and Divorce at Collyer Bristow. She has significant experience acting for both international and UK clients on family law matters and all financial aspects of relationship breakdown, including divorce, cohabitation, pre and post nuptial agreements and same sex relationships.

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June 2021

BETTE R BUSI N ESS

BRAND NEW

THINKING Is your advice firm’s brand up to the mark? Faith Liversedge suggests that sometimes it pays to think small as she highlights why paying attention to the detail – the tiny things we so often overlook – can make such a difference to business success

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here are a hundred different elements that make up a company’s brand. Well, maybe not a hundred, but there are certainly lots of them.

What I mean is, a brand is more than

just a logo.

There are many more imperceptible, almost invisible elements that contribute to a company’s image, which means there are a lot more ways for you and your firm to be judged.

We, as consumers, are now highly sensitised to a wide range of elements that can tell us about the company we might engage with, and therefore influence our decision. So let’s take a look at some of those more ‘sensory’ aspects.

TAKE SOUND With more and more of us plugging ourselves into music, podcasts and TV on-the-go, at the gym and who knows where else, we’re generally finding that listening is a convenient, efficient and enjoyable way to take in information and / or be entertained.

But it’s also a way of getting right to the emotions – just think of how music can provoke a response.

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We, as consumers, are now highly sensitised to a wide range of elements that can tell us about the company we might engage with, and therefore influence our decision

So the strategic use of sound can play an important role in differentiating your service, and building trust.

What do I mean by this? Well, lots of people use ‘hold’ music on their phone lines, but does your playlist reflect who you are as a business? Or is it just the default choice? This is an opportunity to decide whether something tranquil and classical or upbeat and modern suits who you are and who you want to work. All of these tiny clues can subtly help to create one impression or another of your business – at potentially a crucial point of the onboarding process.

Video voiceovers are another area to consider. A recent Facebook IQ study confirmed that 80% of story adverts with voice-over or music led to better results than adverts without sound. But who should you choose? Again, people

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can’t help but judge you on these things, so think about whether the voice should be male or female, accented or not. Received pronunciation may create an ultra high networth feel that you do or don’t want. An accented voice would provide a local backdrop that, again you might deliberately want to convey or move away from.

June 2021

For example LinkedIn’s ‘Oops, it’s not you it’s us. Please give us another try.’ Is much friendlier than ‘Page not found’ and shows that they’re taking responsibility for their mistakes.

TAKE VISION I’ve previously waxed lyrical on these pages about the harm dodgy stock photos can do to a brand’s image – particularly in financial services. And I’m sure most people are aware of the need to include copy that’s professional, clear and friendly.

But what about those other tiny visual elements that sit in important places that we might only give a passing thought to? I’m talking about microcopy: that the little bit of copy – one or two words – that come at key moments within your customer’s journey.

This might be on a button that’s encouraging you to ‘read more’ or ‘submit’ your information. And although tiny, again these elements can come at crucial points in your prospect’s journey, so it’s worth considering the alternatives.

I’ve previously waxed lyrical on these pages about the harm dodgy stock photos can do to a brand’s image – particularly in financial services For example, when you think about it, ‘submit’ feels quite formal and stuffy, especially compared to ‘go for it!’ which has a friendly tone, but might feel too brash for some. It’s about making sure there’s consistency throughout and ensuring that these elements add something to your overall message rather than detract from it.

Error messages are another area microcopy can work hard to put people at ease – for example, what does your website error page say? If you’re not taking the opportunity to reassure people in a light-hearted way at this point, it’s another missed chance for you to stand out.

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Wifi passwords are another place you put your brand’s stamp. Coffee shops and pubs do this well. My favourite wifi password is a self-service wine shop in London’s Spittalfields, which uses ‘Less net more wine’: fun, cheeky and brimming with personality.

TAKE TASTE If your brand were a cocktail what would it be? I’m partly joking here, but this might help you to think about your firm’s image beyond the more traditional elements of colour, logo, font etc. And you never know when you may host your own cocktail making class…

In short, give a little thought to these small but significant elements of your brand, because they might carry with them the ability to help shape your message. Think about whether, rather than going for the default option, you can put your own stamp on them, and therefore impact almost every interaction a prospect or client might have with you. But make sure it’s in tune with your brand’s DNA, otherwise it could be confusing!

About Faith Liversedge Faith Liversedge is an experienced communicator with a wealth of knowledge and understanding of the adviser profession. She was Marketing Manager at Nucleus for 5 years, creating innovative and award-winning campaigns.

Before that she worked for Standard Life, Prudential and Royal London. In 2017 she set up her own consultancy to help forward-thinking financial advisers and planners to become more profitable through websites, communications and other laser-focused marketing techniques.

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June 2021

OCTOPUS I NVESTM E NTS

WHY TAX-EFFICIENT INVESTING

IS GOOD FOR YOUR CLIENTS – AND YOUR BUSINESS

As clients look to maximise tax efficiency, there’s also a growth opportunity for advisers who look beyond ISAs and pensions

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ax planning is an integral part of what most advisers offers to their clients, yet it can also help attract and retain premium clients by adding even greater value to investment portfolios.

By providing advice on specialist tax-efficient investments, advisers can help clients achieve their planning goals, such as making it easier to pass on their wealth to loved ones or creating tax efficient income streams.

Opening up a discussion about additional tax-efficient investments could reveal a great opportunity for clients and future beneficiaries. And it could open the door to longterm business benefits too. Bringing these options to your most valuable clients gives you the chance to form longer lasting relationships with them and their family.

This article considers three specialist investments: Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs), Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) investments and portfolios that qualify for Business Property Relief.

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Opening up a discussion about additional tax-efficient investments could reveal a great opportunity for clients and future beneficiaries TAX PLANNING FOR HIGH EARNERS EIS and VCTs can help you to plan tax efficiently for high earners who are looking to make investments beyond their pensions and ISAs. A VCT is a listed company that invests in a diversified portfolio of smaller unquoted companies, with attractive tax reliefs offered to compensate investors for some of the additional risk this brings.

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VCT investments offer investors up to 30% upfront income tax relief, provided they hold the investment for five years. Investing into a larger listed company with multiple underlying stakes in early stage businesses means that a VCT can often pay out a dividend each year, creating a tax free income stream.

EIS investments offer the opportunity to access pioneering businesses with high growth potential. These investments are often made in a portfolio of ten to fifteen early-stage companies, and come with a package of tax reliefs such as 30% upfront income tax relief, tax-free growth on each successful exit and loss relief that can be claimed against income or gains if an investment fails.

For some investors, an EIS investment can also be used to defer capital gains tax otherwise payable on the disposal of another asset, and inheritance tax relief if the investments have not been exited when the investor dies.

It’s important for clients to understand that these benefits come with risks and we recommend that advisers talk to the provider they are considering recommending, to understand how it has addressed this risk.

The value of the investments highlighted in this article, and any income from them, can fall as well as rise, and investors may not get back the full amount they invest. The shares of unquoted companies and VCTs could fall or rise in value more than shares listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. They may also be harder to sell.

Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and tax rules could change in the future. Tax relief depends on portfolio companies or the VCT maintaining their qualifying status.

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June 2021

INHERITANCE PLANNING Tax-efficient investing helps clients to achieve their planning goals, one important example of which is estate planning. This is something that is becoming one of the most important elements of an adviser’s work. Clients have carefully built wealth up during their lifetime and most want to leave as much as possible to their loved ones, whilst enjoying a comfortable old age.

Clients’ needs are changing and many are now keen to retain access to assets later in life. In a recent survey of 700 advisers undertaken by Octopus, 79% said that clients were becoming more mindful of this than they were five years ago.

Anybody doing estate planning will have been shown through cash flow modelling that they can comfortably give away wealth. But clients can still be reluctant to give up access to their assets during their lifetime, making lifetime gifting an unattractive option.

Most inheritance tax planning strategies don’t allow for continued access to wealth. However, Business Property Relief (BPR) qualifying investments give clients the potential to do both.

BPR-qualifying investments are made into certain unquoted companies or companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM). If a client has held a BPR-qualifying investment for two years, and still holds the shares on death, that investment becomes zero-rated for inheritance tax.

Unlike many other types of inheritance tax planning, with BPR it’s possible to start a client’s planning to maximise the amounts left to the next generation, without giving

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June 2021

OCTOPUS I NVESTM E NTS

up access to that wealth later on if needs change. A BPRqualifying investment stays in the client’s name, so if a client’s circumstances change and they need to access some or all of it, they can request to make a withdrawal, subject to liquidity being available.

In practice, most investors tend to hold the investment for the rest of their life, but they know they can request to sell some or all of it at any time. For those comfortable with the additional risks, this can make a big difference to peace of mind and willingness to take action.

Unlike many other types of inheritance tax planning, with BPR it’s possible to start a client’s planning to maximise the amounts left to the next generation, without giving up access to that wealth later on if needs change Conversations around BPR typically involve moving money from one investment to another. Clients know their adviser for making investments, so this is all familiar ground.

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS Offering the full range of tax-efficient investments is good for advisers too. It’s an opportunity to grow your business through existing clients.

Estate planning in particular is a great way for advisers to grow assets under management.

investments had led to them advising on client assets they hadn’t previously.

Most advisers will have clients suitable for specialist tax-efficient investments. In fact, 65% of those in the Octopus survey had identified clients who would be suitable. And 39% said advising on these investments ensured they did not lose clients to another firm or wealth manager.

These investments also add value to client annual reviews.

The client can see you’re continuing to try to create opportunities and help them, even if they don’t ultimately choose to make an investment.

The industry is preparing for ‘The Great Wealth Transfer’ over the next 30 years, when an estimated £5.5 trillion is due to be passed between generations in the UK. As things stand, the bulk of those transfers will go to beneficiaries who are not currently being advised.

By engaging with the next generation through estate planning with existing clients, these future beneficiaries can become future clients.

Advising on specialist tax-efficient investments such as VCTs, EIS and BPR is also a great way to establish a reciprocal client referral process with accountants and solicitors. These types of clients will likely need guidance from all three professions.

For these many reasons, gaining a deeper knowledge of tax-efficient investment options, and having the capability and confidence to advise on them, is not just sensible, it’s a valuable part of an adviser’s toolkit.

Paul Latham is Managing Director of Octopus Investments

Often it involves expanding into unadvised assets such as cash savings or funds from the sale of a property. 40% of advisers we surveyed said recommending these types of

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M&G I NVESTM E NTS

June 2021

THE OPPORTUNITY OF OUR AGE

Randeep Somel, Fund Manager, M&G Investments, takes part in a Q&A with IFA Magazine to discuss some of the most significant challenges that lie ahead in the global race to zero carbon emissions

IFAM: LAST YEAR WAS AN IMPORTANT ONE IN TERMS OF THE RACE TO ZERO CARBON EMISSIONS. WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE WERE THE MOST SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS? RS: In the space of just six weeks, the future of the Paris Agreement on climate change was transformed by two significant events. On 22 September, shortly after US president Donald Trump called the Paris Agreement “a one-sided deal” and criticised China for being “the world’s largest source of carbon emissions”, president Xi Jinping of China told the UN General Assembly via video that China would scale up its intended nationally determined contributions (under the Paris climate agreement) by adopting more vigorous policies.

In practice, this would see China achieve a peak in carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060. Xi added that “the human race cannot ignore the warnings of nature over and over again” and he urged other countries to pursue “a green recovery of the world economy in the post-Covid era”.

Second, on 3 November, the US elected a new president with a very different approach to the challenges of climate change. Joe Biden ran his campaign on a policy of getting the US back into the Paris Agreement, so it came as no

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surprise that his first act of business on entering the Oval Office was to do just that.

Meanwhile, the Democrats won both run-off elections for the Georgia Senate seats in early January – occupied

by Republicans since the 1980s – creating a 50/50 split in the US Senate. With vice-president Kamala Harris having the deciding vote, the Democrats now control all three chambers of the US government: the executive and both of the legislative branches.

China has been a laggard in terms of technological developments in the past and it now has an opportunity to develop a new industry in clean power and green technology

That doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy – Biden has wafer-thin majorities in both – but it does dictate that the Democrats effectively control the order of business being put to the floor. As long as they can focus their own

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M&G I NVESTM E NTS

members successfully they can work through any legislation they want now, and they are moving in the right direction.

IFAM: YOU MENTIONED EUROPE. WHAT PROGRESS IS BEING MADE IN THE REGION?

IFAM: ARE YOU POSITIVE ON THE PROGRESS MADE IN TERMS OF THE REDUCTION OF CARBON EMISSIONS?

RS: The major positive for Europe is that European companies (and I include the UK in this) have sustainability already built into what they do, as it is something they have been doing for a while. There has been lots of talk of Europe being behind in certain areas, particularly technology. Europe simply has not had the culture that has cultivated the kind of tech stocks that have done well in the US in the past decade.

RS: The timing of president Xi’s announcement just before the US election did have an element of politicking to it, as it was likely calculated to reveal the incumbent US presidents’ policies as outdated. It will be crucial now that the US and the rest of the global community keep the pressure on China to ensure it is making good on its goals.

China has been a laggard in terms of technological developments in the past and it now has an opportunity to develop a new industry in clean power and green technology. It can use this to support its own domestic economic growth and create a strong export market. As Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England said the transition to net zero is “creating the greatest commercial opportunity of our age”.

While progress is being made, we are still not doing enough. The next key event will be the UN’s Conference of Parties (COP26) summit in Glasgow in November this year. All countries that are UN signatories will attend and state their carbon reduction targets and what they are doing to achieve them.

The UK is well placed here. No country has decarbonised more in the past ten years than the UK. However, while the chancellor’s recent budget had green elements to it and a positive tone, we need to keep the momentum going.

The climate challenge can be thought of as a threelegged stool for the stakeholders that need to participate: consumers, industry and government. Studies from across the world now show populations are concerned about climate change and are willing to modify their own behaviour. Industry can see the economics working in favour of sustainability and are willing to commit capital to the effort and starve funding for ‘de-merit’ activities.

That then leaves government. While European governments have taken a lead, the awakening of both the Chinese and US governments will provide the much-needed impetus to reach our carbon targets over the coming decades.

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However, as we look out over the coming decade, there is a structural shift that may benefit European companies. Europe has a strong history in sustainability, especially with regards to the environment. With the Paris Agreement now in place, we believe we are at the beginning of a multi-decade transition to reduce global emissions. This is an area where European companies have a rich heritage and they are well placed for the coming growth in the domain of their expertise.

Europe simply has not had the culture that has cultivated the kind of tech stocks that have done well in the US in the past decade

IFAM: WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL HEADWINDS AND CHALLENGES THAT YOU BELIEVE ADVISERS AND INVESTORS NEED TO BE AWARE OF? RS: Unfortunately, due to Covid and the economic shutdown, the amount of debt at every level of society has greatly increased. To change our carbon behaviours effectively will require a lot of capital. The problem is there are governments globally with huge amounts of debt, in most cases at levels not seen since the Second World War. This will hinder their ability to progress effectively, especially if interest rates start to rise.

To replace your fossil fuel and electricity production with renewables requires capital, to transfer hard-to-electrify industries to green hydrogen requires capital and to get

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everyone recycling requires infrastructure build-out. This capital is needed at every level: consumer, industry and government. It is estimated that over the coming decades the UK is going to need £1.5trn and the EU €10trn (£8.55trn) to start hitting their long-term carbon targets*.

Due to the covid debt build-up, governments will likely raise taxes going forward. The question is which sources they raise from. The idea of a carbon tax has been mentioned by the US treasury secretary Janet Yellen. A more effective price for carbon and carbon-emitting activities will help our transition. As carbon is more and more considered a de-merit activity, like alcohol and cigarettes in the past, governments could use this as a potential source of taxation and income.

IFAM: IS ECONOMIC GROWTH GOOD FOR COMBATTING CLIMATE CHANGE? RS: In the past, economic growth was always bad for the environment because the richer people became, the more their carbon footprint increased. As industrial activity increases, the more pollution you have and the more carbon you emit. This is changing, however, and we have effectively reached a tipping point where economic growth is positive for the environment.

For example, in the past you would probably have swapped your old petrol car for something bigger like an SUV if you became more wealthy, increasing your emissions. Today, however, you would likely switch to an electric vehicle. But if you are worried about your job security, what are the chances you would make such a large purchase with confidence?

It is economic growth that provides the opportunity.

We have the tools today to decarbonise, but it requires capital and confidence.

IFAM: WHAT DO YOU EXPECT WILL BE THE GROWTH AREAS GOING FORWARD? RS: One of the main growth areas is likely to be green technology, whether it be geothermal, hydrogen or semiconductors. It will be technology that provides the solutions. While the effects of working from home and less business travel because of the pandemic have helped out on the climate side, there has also been a negative.

Most countries are now emitting more carbon than

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June 2021

pre-Covid-19. For example, people are worried about the confinements of public transportation so they are making more trips by car.

While we need to focus on the areas that are positive, such as remote working and cleaner business practices, at the same time we must push forward in areas like the adoption of electric vehicles and providing the infrastructure to speed this up. Again, Europe and the UK are leading the way, with the UK committed to banning the sale of new combustion vehicles by 2030. *https://on.ft.com/2Qj4HsI The value of investments will fluctuate, which will cause prices to fall as well as rise and you may not get back the original amount you invested. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

About Randeep Somel Randeep joined M&G in 2005 as a fund managers’ assistant on the equities team. At different stages between 2013 and 2019 he was fund manager or deputy manager of the Global Themes, Managed Growth, Global Recovery, Global Select, Pan European Select and Positive Impact strategies. In November 2020, he became manager of M&G’s newly-launched Climate Solution strategy. Prior to joining M&G, Randeep worked for State Street in a fund accounting role. He graduated from Birmingham University with a degree in economics in 2003. Randeep has the IMCand is a CFA charterholder.

Important information For financial advisers only. Not for onward distribution.

No other persons should rely on any information contained within. This financial promotion is issued

by M&G Securities Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK and provides ISAs and other investment products. The company’s registered office is 10 Fenchurch Avenue, London EC3M 5AG. Registered in England and Wales.

Registered Number 90776.

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MON EYPE N NY

June 2021

HOW REDUCING INTERRUPTIONS

CAN HELP TACKLE BURNOUT FOR IFAS

Moneypenny’s Louise Wilson has practical tips on steps IFAs can take to reduce interruptions and boost productivity as well as mental wellbeing

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he pandemic has seen a dramatic and sustained increase in demand for financial advice. It’s fair to say that IFAs are highly sought after right now; but it comes with a human cost.

Many IFAs are working extended hours as they seek to support and reassure clients during uncertain times, meet increased demand, operate to tight deadlines and capitalise on the opportunity to grow their business - all while dealing with their own challenges of life in a pandemic.

A study from Zurich[1] recently revealed that nearly a third (32%) of IFAs felt client relationships had strengthened throughout the pandemic but more than half (52%) disagreed. This polarisation may reflect the challenges Covid has presented for IFAs as individuals.

The HSE has also revealed that the rate of work-related stress, depression and anxiety has increased in recent years and that it accounted for 51% of all work-related ill health[2] in 2019/20. It’s not extreme to think that the picture will be far worse now, after just over a year of a pandemic, and particularly for IFAs facing a relentless workload.

INTERRUPTIONS GALORE One of the major stress-causing factors in our professional lives is interruption. Sending an email, listening to a voicemail, answering an unexpected call – these are all interruptions that can disrupt the flow of work. Data from Berkeley University[3] has revealed that on average,

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interruptions take 23 minutes and 15 seconds to recover from – even if the distraction is only a minute. This added pressure can cause already busy IFAs to become stressed and anxious, particularly when they’re exhausted due to working extra hours. It’s a vicious cycle which leads to heightened absence and eventual attrition. Firms that allow this to happen simply aren’t protecting their employees and run the risk of putting client care, best advice and their reputation in jeopardy.

AVAILABLE AND UNAVAILABLE The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the issue of availability into the spotlight – particularly as firms grappled with making sure client care was maintained despite the overnight switch to remote working. But firms must maintain balance.

Louise Wilson, Head of the Finance Sector at Moneypenny, which provides telephone answering and live chat support to hundreds of finance businesses across the UK has practical advice for advisers. She comments: “As a business we talk a lot about availability and making sure businesses are available when clients call or reach out – but there is value in being unavailable too. Businesses need to actively help their advisers to ringfence time for the quiet, headdown working that is so important to productivity as well as the individual’s feeling of accomplishment and control.

“They must also actively promote and support wellbeing by giving IFAs the right tools. That means making sure they can easily switch off their availability when they don’t

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want to receive calls or be interrupted by colleagues – as well as more tactile things such as offering counselling programmes, organising social activities, launching colleague buddy systems and encouraging time away from technology.”

The last 12 months have provided some valuable lessons – perhaps most significantly, that health is wealth and protecting a workforce’s mental state must sit at the top of every financial business’s agenda.

Louise added: “Good housekeeping is the foundation of improved wellbeing. That needs to span internal practices and respect for colleagues, improved meeting etiquette and the right level of internal and external communications support. Together, these can help to reduce the unwanted interruptions that can prove so disruptive.”

Now is the ideal time to rethink company practices and the following tips offer a good place to start: 1. Formalise meeting etiquette With the rise of video calls, it can be tempting to just book them in without the level of scheduling that would have gone into a physical meeting – particularly when travel is not required. Video meetings afford flexibility but try to avoid unplanned meetings, or those that don’t stick to time and leave ample time between each one for a mental break.

When meetings do occur, always use an agenda to stay on topic and issue companywide ‘meeting etiquette’ to help engender positive change and an empowered approach to time management.

2. Outsource communications If your team knows there’s the right infrastructure in place to support them, it can reduce worry. For example, if staff know all client calls will be handled warmly, professionally and efficiently, even when they’re busy or in a meeting, it can instil calm and focus without a ringing phone breaking their concentration. Outsourced telephone answering, switchboard and outbound follow-up support is the ideal solution for keeping interruptions to a minimum while maintaining the client experience.

June 2021

integration which means call handlers know who’s available and when. The result – less interruption for busy staff and a better client experience.

4. Diary management Diaries aren’t just for meetings. Encourage your team to use their diaries to block manage their time, include tasks and add detail about whether they’re available or need quiet time. By making sure that front of house, reception or outsourced switchboard teams have access to these diaries it’s possible to give employees the space they need to look after themselves, be productive and thrive.

Louise concluded: “The last 12 months have been all about business survival and adaptability, but the importance of protecting and nurturing employee wellbeing and performance must not be overlooked. Interruption is dangerous. It affects concentration, productivity, happiness and health. Companies that fail to address the costly repercussions of interruption for IFAs and their wider team will fail to get the most out of their greatest asset of all.”

About Louise Wilson Having been a client of Moneypenny, as well as a supplier, Louise was so impressed with the service quality and inimitable culture that she transitioned from a successful 20-year career in recruitment, to the forward-thinking environment at Moneypenny, joining our business development team in 2017. It was in this role that she masterfully built trusted relationships with clients and partners in the professional services sector, before taking a keen focus on providing solutions to the finance industry. Louise now heads our finance sector and it’s thanks to her determination that Moneypenny has a team of dedicated receptionists answering calls and chats for hundreds of accountancy and finance professionals. Combining her unrivalled knowledge with her experience as a Moneypenny customer, Louise has a profound understanding of the challenges our clients face in outsourcing and growing their businesses:“Every client is different, but the common thread is an aim to increase efficiencies, reduce costs and improve service, so it’s a pleasure to provide them with a solution that does just that.”

3. Choose technology that aligns Streamline the number of video and project management platforms in use across the company so that employees come to ‘know them’ and don’t lose time loading different systems or finding multiple log-ins in-between meetings and tasks. There’s real value in keeping it simple and choosing technology that has wider value – for example, our telephone answering system has a Microsoft Teams

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[1] As reported here https://www.financialreporter.co.uk/finance-news/ pandemic-causing-surge-in-demand-for-mortgage-and-protectionadvice.html [2] 2019/20 data from HSE https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causdis/ stress.pdf [3] https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/please_stop_ interrupting_me

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BLAN KSTON E SI NGTON

June 2021

GETTING TO KNOW

BLANKSTONE Neil Blankstone, Director and Business Developer at Blankstone Sington, sat down with IFA Magazine to discuss why clients have been coming to his firm for over 40 years and why he’s so keen to support the needs of IFAs and Financial Planners

B

lankstone Sington is an investment manager and stock brokerage firm based in Liverpool, with heritage dating back to 1976.

The business has evolved from a traditional stock brokerage firm into an investment management company that now provides bespoke investment solutions, a model portfolio service and an inheritance tax portfolio, all while continuing its stockbroking services.

As Blankstone begins, “we have a somewhat unique offering in the sense that we are the masters of our own destiny, having dealings, settlements, and custody so that we can actually power people’s propositions.”

Blankstone Sington is firmly rooted in its local history with the firm’s offices sitting in Exchange Flags, near the original location of the Liverpool Stock Exchange. Blankstone explained, “I think a lot of people like to use a company of our size as against some of the extremely large players. It’s a horses for courses exercise.”

Blankstone Sington offers plenty of scope, with a bespoke and private client focussed service, all delivered

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through a highly qualified team. Blankstone admitted, “It’s a bit more traditional in some ways.”

The firm’s clients clearly find this personal touch appealing. In fact, one of the results of the pandemic was that the business found that client enquiries increased significantly as people wanted to talk to people, rather than doing things robotically.

Like it was for many, the COVID-19 pandemic required the firm to adapt and respond to the circumstances.

Blankstone commented, “It’s a people’s business, and obviously in a pandemic that’s harder. We’re nothing without our clients and our connections.”

On the appeal of the business for intermediaries and IFAs, Blankstone stressed the message which they’ve always tried to get out to intermediaries and IFAs they work with is to see the firm as an extension of their own business. He added, “If I can put it so crudely, in lots of ways we’re there to be used and abused.”

Amongst offering different services and products, Blankstone Sington can offer investment management capabilities if an adviser can’t, they can offer handholding on both the advisory and investment committee side, or simply execute investment.

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BLAN KSTON E SI NGTON

June 2021

MAKING INVESTMENT SIMPLE

basis. Blankstone commented, “All of that can then be used because we can power other people’s propositions.”

One of the firm’s tag-lines is Blankstone Sington stands for making investment simple and their director certainly echoes this sentiment. Blankstone commented, “We want to open investment out to the widest audience possible. We have a ‘can do’ attitude and we like to get on with it.”

From Blankstone’s perspective many IFAs are reticent to get involved in the investment trust market. Blankstone pointed to the recent success of the Scottish Mortgage Trust and their sizeable stake in Tesla.

Blankstone continued, “Perhaps more importantly, we also think we’re honest enough to say if we can’t do it, we’ll know somebody who can. We’re quite happy to make referrals - it’s simply about helping the wheels go round.”

The direct services within Blankstone Sington as discretionary fund managers are split two ways; the bespoke portfolio service and the model portfolio service.

It’s amazing how many people wait to the back end of their lives to look at things like IHT planning

Blankstone prefers to call the model portfolio service bespoke light as although it is designed for the smaller client, as it is templated and doesn’t have CGT constraints, its asset allocation and population tap the client into Blankstone Sington’s in-house research team.

Perhaps Blankstone Sington’s most interesting offering is its award winning inheritance tax portfolio.

The portfolio invests purely in AIM stocks and is led

by Neil Blankstone himself.

Although designed to benefit from business relief for inheritance tax purposes, MJ Hudson Allenbridge labelled it, “a portfolio worthy of consideration in its own right.”

As Blankstone puts it, “It’s my baby.”

On the stockbroking side, Blankstone Sington gives intermediaries and advisers access to markets, funds, and investment trusts either on an advisory or execution

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Commenting on this Blankstone said, “What inevitably happens when these things come into the news is the herd follows and it’s almost too late. What we’d like to do is encourage people to come and talk about it.”

IHT AND AIM STOCKS Blankstone drew a comparison to the aforementioned IHT proposition, saying “It’s amazing how many people wait to the back end of their lives to look at things like IHT planning.” Blankstone wants to encourage advisers and their clients to invest earlier, and suggests that many are discouraged due to regulation.

AIM is high risk, and deemed so, but as Blankstone says AIM stocks are listed equities and highly transparent.

Blankstone argues investors should be encouraged, seeing it as an opportunity, rather than be discouraged from a highrisk point of view.

We have a ‘can do’ attitude and we like to get on with it

Blankstone said, “People are looking at it too late, if you start to invest in an AIM portfolio early in your planning cycle then you would reap the rewards ultimately.”

Blankstone Sington is always open to speak to advisers, you can get in touch through their website.

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June 2021

PROTECTION GU RU

PROTECTION MATTERS:

WHY PROTECTION IS THE BEDROCK OF SOUND FINANCIAL PLANNING IFA Magazine talks to Adam Higgs, Head of Research at Protection Guru about the help which is available to advisers and paraplanners to support the research and advice process for clients on matters of protection

IFAM: CAN WE START WITH A BRIEF BACKGROUND TO PROTECTION GURU? HOW AND WHY DID IT COME ABOUT? WHAT DOES IT SEEK TO DELIVER? AH: Protection guru is a technical information website aimed at the needs of advisers and paraplanners, to help them to better understand protection products and hopefully in turn have more engaging conversations with clients.

We do a lot of benchmarking of protection products, the features they offer and the overall quality of plans. This means we can help advisers compare plans. From the start, we’ve had advisers coming to us saying it's great that we’re helping them to compare plans and understand which plans are more suitable for their clients based on their circumstances.

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We enable advisers to compare policies based on many different features, some which advisers are very familiar with and know a lot about whilst some they aren’t. There are even some features that advisers have said they didn't even know existed. To offer direct support in those areas, we started writing and posting a series of short articles. Each one would focus on a particular feature of a protection plan and explain that feature in terms of what it does, which types of clients it helps and how different insurers offer them. Ultimately advisers can see what the differences are and how those features are offered across different insurers and different plans.

We’ve accumulated a large bank of articles on all sorts of aspects of the features of protection products. Advisers can access them for technical information and help and to learn more about the different features. Protection Guru now has well over 250 articles all designed to help advisers

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better understand protection and to become more comfortable, hopefully, in discussing the wider features with their clients.

IFAM: IS PROTECTION ADVICE THE “CINDERELLA” FIGURE WITHIN THE FINANCIAL PLANNING PROFESSION? IF SO, WHY DO YOU THINK THIS IS AND DO YOU BELIEVE THAT IT IS TO THE DETRIMENT OF CLIENTS? AH: In many respects it is. Of course, it really depends on the individual but, advisers will understandably focus on the reason the client has approached them which may be investment, pension or mortgage advice and only have a glancing reference to protection if it is discussed at all. I believe that this is to the detriment of clients.

If you go back to basics with financial planning, looking at short term cash funds and protection against unforeseen circumstances then everything else follows

If we consider a financial plan which an adviser helps their client to create, it will predominantly be built around the client's ability to continue to fund that plan in the future with a large part of that coming from their income. If due to unforeseen circumstances that income is reduced, or worse still ceases all together, the plan will fail. There is only a very, very small number of people who would be able to self-insure. For some of those too, if they lost their income, that would affect their ability to meet their financial plans.

Protection is always the foundation of sound financial planning. If you go back to basics with financial planning, looking at short term cash funds and protection against unforeseen circumstances then everything else follows.

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June 2021

With effective protection plans in place, it just means that client is more resilient to any changes to their health that may stop them or hurt their ability to earn an income.

This means the financial plan is far more resilient and therefore more achievable in the long term. When we talk about protection, it's not just life and critical illness cover which needs to be considered. Income protection is the cornerstone of financial planning, in my view as without an income, most people's plans will fail.

IFAM: HOW CAN PROTECTION GURU HELP ADVISERS AND PARAPLANNERS DELIVER MORE EFFECTIVE SERVICES TO THEIR CLIENTS? AH: I think one of the key reasons that advisers who specialise in wealth management or mortgages don't do as much protection as they might is because protection can seem complex. There's a wide range of products across the market, all varying in complexity. That’s not to mention the difficulties some may face, particularly during the pandemic and getting policies on risk in the first place, especially if you've got clients who have health problems.

Protection guru aims to arm the adviser with the knowledge they need in order to be able to demystify protection and hopefully make it easier for them to feel more comfortable talking about protection with clients.

We do that by breaking down the different features when they might be appropriate for certain clients, exactly why they might be appropriate for those clients and how that might differ across the market. We aim help build an adviser's confidence around protection and better understanding the product sets so that they can have more engaged client discussions and talk about more than just price.

For a long time, protection was sold predominantly on price. In some segments it still is. In our view that's not the right way to go because cheaper products, by their nature, will be less comprehensive. There are some exceptions to that where some plans are competitively priced, but generally speaking, cheaper plans will be cheaper because they are not offering the same level of cover as more expensive plans. By helping advisers better understand what the features do, they can take a more informed decision

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about whether their clients would benefit from those and be able to compare the market easier around more than just price.

IFAM: IT SEEMS AS THOUGH A LOT HAS CHANGED IN THE LAST FEW YEARS, ARE YOU SEEING A LOT MORE FEATURES COMING IN, DIFFERENT ONES? AH: We absolutely are. Protection has evolved massively over the last five years. If we look at protection five years ago, it was a product that was built to protect a client financially; to protect their family if they die or contract a critical illness, or to protect their finances if they get ill and are unable to work. Of course, that still is at the core of the plans and absolutely has to be.

However, the protection market has moved on. It has started to offer more features to help the client with their health, their mental well-being and to support the clients through physical ailments that they might have. This is done through what the market calls ‘added value benefits’.

We now see added features such as the ability to be able to access counselling or the ability to access a second medical opinion for example.

Plans now give access to virtual GPs. This has been particularly popular during the covid pandemic given all of the problems people have had in actually going out and physically seeing their GP.

definitions. This has been a really positive change for the protection market. The definitions offered were often quite complex and very focused with long lists of conditions that, frankly, most clients would never read anyway.

Protection has evolved massively over the last five years

The market has taken an active step towards simplifying that list whilst not lessening cover. For example, amalgamating definitions where there are two conditions that are very similar and one definition would be able to cover both conditions and also taking a more impact based approach to critical illness.

AIG led the market when they came out with their recent enhancement. They are more focused on the impact of the condition and covering people based on their actual symptoms and what they're suffering from, rather than covering a set condition. That's a really positive move and helps simplify things for both the adviser and client whilst at the same time broadening the cover.

The market has moved on massively in that not only are plans protecting clients financially and making them more resilient, but it's also providing services to help them reduce the risk of becoming significantly ill. There are services that can help them keep fit, keep active and stay mentally strong.

IFAM: WOULD YOU SAY THAT IN SOME WAYS, THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC MIGHT HAVE CHANGED CLIENTS’ THINKING ABOUT UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES? HAVE THEY BECOME MORE OPEN TO THE IDEA THAT AWFUL THINGS CAN HAPPEN AND THEREFORE

BY PROTECTING YOURSELF AGAINST THE WORST IMPACTS IF SUCH EVENTS DO HAPPEN TO STRIKE IS IMPORTANT?

Critical illness has also changed a lot in the last 5 years.

There's a lot of competition in the market to be the most comprehensive. And in more recent times, a lot of plans are looking to simplify the way they cover conditions and their

AH: Yes, absolutely. I think that the pandemic has highlighted to people that they're not invincible and that sometimes the bad things can happen. We've seen quite a

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big increase in consumers coming to advisers and talking about things like income protection.

Of course, the pandemic has been such a disaster for so many people’s lives and livelihoods worldwide, but in many ways for the protection industry, it has increased its profile.

More customers have begun to understand they do need some kind of protection against loss of earnings.

As you’d imagine, we've seen a massive increase in death claims and an increase in income protection claims which are being paid whether the cause was COVID or not. In terms of critical illness we have actually seen a decrease in the number of claims being made.

The reason for that is because people have not been going to their GPs and therefore have not actually been diagnosed. Unfortunately that might mean that for some clients their diagnosis might be more severe than it might have been if they had seen the GP earlier. As such, we do foresee a period over the next few years where we will see an increase in critical illness claims as people start going back to see their GPs. IFAM: ARE THERE PARTICULAR PROTECTION PRODUCT AREAS WHICH YOU FEEL ARE PARTICULARLY UNDERUTILISED - OR MAYBE NOT FULLY UNDERSTOOD -BY THE ADVICE PROFESSION? AH: I’d have to say it’s income protection which is ironic, because ultimately it's the product the client is most likely to claim against. You're more likely to spend an extended period of work due to illness than you are to be able to claim on a critical illness plan or to die. And as such, I'll keep coming back to it, but without sustainable income flows, every financial plan fails.

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highlight to a client how long their savings would last, or how unlikely the financial plan they have is to succeed if they went without any income for a period of time. Based on these findings, for most clients, Income protection would be a no-brainer.

IFAM: WHAT WOULD BE YOUR KEY MESSAGE TO ADVISERS AND PARAPLANNERS? AH: My key message is go back to financial planning 101. Most financial plans are reliant on a client earning an income for their success. Protecting that income is key and income protection is the perfect plan to do that.

Also not all plans are equal and protection is about much more than just price. The plans in the market now are becoming more and more comprehensive, offering more and more features. And if we can help people better understand those as well as the suitability and benefits of those wider features through Protection Guru, then then we've done our job.

Finally, protection plans do more than protect people financially. They also look after people's mental and physical well-being, regardless of whether you're able to claim on the plan. A lot of these added value benefits, such as counselling or the ability to access a GP virtually can be accessed at any time with no additional cost and as such are are supporting people from day one all the way through to the end of the plan.

That's really thought provoking.

Advisers can access any of Protection Guru’s information services, reports and tools for free via ProtectionGuru.co.uk.

I would love to see more cash flow modelling tools provide advisers with easier ways of modelling lost income as “what if” events. In doing this an adviser could

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June 2021

J M FI N N

COLLABORATION IS KEY Model Portfolio Services (MPS), are a vital tool for financial advisers, but they certainly don’t need to be a ‘cookie cutter’ product off the shelf. That’s the ethos of wealth manager, JM Finn. It’s one of the factors which have led to incredible growth over the last ten years as our interview with JM Finn’s Investment Director, Freddy Colquhoun, highlights.

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M Finn has seen spectacular business growth over the last ten years, evolving from a traditional stock brokerage firm to a fully-fledged wealth management business, managing just over £10bn of assets.

Investment Director, Freddy Colquhoun, wears two hats within the business; looking after traditional client portfolios as well heading the team that runs the model portfolio service for IFAs. The firm’s unique approach to its model portfolio services puts a deep emphasis on collaboration with advisers.

Colquhoun clarified this saying, “We’re not going out there being everything to everyone. We have a service that we feel is quite embedded, whereby the client always comes first.”

Colquhoun elaborated, saying, “We hear the word ‘tailored’ a lot in this industry, but at JM Finn we certainly try and tailor everybody’s portfolio to that individual’s circumstances.”

MADE TO MEASURE Although the JM Finn team puts parameters around what they will and won’t invest in, their approach is proving popular amongst clients. They conducted a survey a

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few years ago which not only got high engagement, but demonstrated near industry-leading key performance indicators. Notably, JM Finn’s ‘net promoter’ score came in above 70. The high marks on the net promoter score is emblematic of the firm’s approach, as Colquhoun said, “You won’t necessarily see billboards with JM Finn on.”

The referral process is the favoured approach to business acquisition, and it’s proven to be very successful.

JM Finn has been working with IFAs since 2012.

Following the retail distribution review many advisers were looking to outsource the investment function to discretionary fund managers (DFMs). Colquhoun said, “we saw this as an opportunity to engage with IFAs where we hadn’t done previously.”

The wealth manager has built its approach around identifying like-minded IFAs who wanted to, “nurture their client base, provide them with good advice and then have trusted partners helping them to achieve the outcomes.”

They started by launching a tailored platform solution, enabling the team to speak directly to advisers. This early service was formative for the business and its approach to MPS. Colquhoun said, “Rather than advice firms outsourcing to accountants, we like to insource our proposition to the IFAs proposition itself.”

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June 2021

He continued, “We want to have a conversation like we would with any private client, and tailor the models we would put together for the underlying requirements of the IFA.”

“We want to provide a service at a reasonable price and try and distinguish ourselves from MPS off the shelf.”

A TEAM APPROACH

Taking a step back, Colquhoun delved into the active vs passive debate in the context of MPS. Colquhoun reflected, “I think in the early days when passive funds really got going, a lot of people did see it as a threat to the active world.”

JM Finn saw immediate success with this approach in 2012, where other firms did not. Rather than putting model portfolios on third party platforms and waiting for the funds to flow in, the team sought engagement with IFA firms by structuring portfolios specifically along the lines they wanted to meet their clients’ needs.

Colquhoun said, “That's how it started, and it just evolved from there.” JM Finn has launched an MPS service for internal clients only, and soon they will launch an external MPS service.

Colquhoun hopes this new external service will enable IFAs to test out the firm’s approach and then to progress to having more detailed conversations with the team about their tailored platform solution.

Discussing MPS more broadly, Colquhoun had a lot to say, “There is no doubt that MPS is an easy way for many more investors to access discretionary fund managers at a reasonable price.”

MPS is oft labelled a commoditised space. However, Colquhoun doesn’t see the recent growth as a negative, far from it, saying, “ultimately, I think MPS is a really positive step forward to enable more people to invest in good products.”

Colquhoun continued, “Yes there's commonality in the MPS landscape, and perhaps that makes it difficult for people to get under the bonnet and find out what are the real differences between the various providers’ MPS.” However Colquhoun sees that as an opportunity for advisers, and an area where JM Finn is poised to stand out. Colquhoun elaborated, “we’re taking a more tailored approach, whereby advisers can have direct contact with their DFM.” Colquhoun added, “We have advisers who predominantly liaise just with us but we are open to meeting the underlying clients as well if they want to have access to us.”

Perhaps the wealth manager’s biggest strength is their strong collaboration with advisers. Colquhoun said,

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ACTIVE V PASSIVE

Colquhoun noted that it indeed was a threat to the active fund management world, as many active fund managers withdrew from the market place. But Colquhoun highlights the result of this, saying, “What happened was that the active universe has got a lot better because of passive giving it a kick up the backside.”

Colquhoun said that now JM Finn has been left with “sweet pickings” as new fund managers and groups have joined the marketplace enabling them to use a lot of boutique asset management funds within its model portfolio service.

Ultimately, Colquhoun sees the passive approach as being a benefit for active management, certainly where he’s placed, “I see them as being intertwined for many years going forward. I don’t foresee investors having 100% passive funds necessarily - because you can blend them really nicely.”

JM Finn is happy to talk to advisers about its products and services, as the title suggests, collaboration is key.

About Freddy Colquhoun – Investment Director Freddy is an Investment Director at J M Finn and leads two teams that manage direct private client portfolios and the Model Portfolio Service (MPS) for advisors.

Freddy also sits on key investment committees including the monthly Asset Allocation Committee and regularly contributes at J M Finn Investment Conferences and publications.

Freddy joined JM Finn in 2005 from HSBC Investments, is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute for Securities and Investment and holds a Masters in Politics from the University of Edinburgh. Freddy is married with three children and lives in Hampshire. In his spare time he enjoys cricket, yoga, playing the piano and bee keeping.

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June 2021

M ICH E LLE HOSKI N

IT’S ‘STILL’ GOOD

TO TALK As the Covid restrictions ease, will you be returning to the office, continuing to work from home or a mixture of both? Whichever option you choose, Michelle Hoskin has some great tips on how you can build an engaging communication and collaboration strategy to ensure that your team works together for future business success

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f we are truly on a drive to build a qualityfocused, striving for excellence financial planning profession, it must all start with quality communication streams. In fact, I would go one step further and say that communication will only get you so far, but ‘collaboration’ will take you all the way.

I feel it is ironic that in a profession where we predominantly listen (and then talk) all day long in our interactions with our clients, when it comes to our relationships with our teams, the profession as a whole quite often falls short.

Endless meetings, de-briefs and catch ups, were starting to take over our working lives

The ‘run for the hills’ approach that we all had to take at the beginning of 2020 has certainly stress-tested the

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communication methods of even the most amazing firms.

But while chaos was raging through our profession, at both client and team level we had to step-up, regroup and focus on what is really important – and that is our relationships with those who matter the most.

In the absence of daily face-to-face, ad-hoc interactions and chats in the office kitchen, we have had to really consider how best to go about ‘chatting’, ‘meeting’ and ‘discussing’ all of the things we used to talk about in person. Why? Because we needed to become very deliberate and intentional with our communication strategies in order for everyone to know what was going on.

We know the drill. Endless meetings, de-briefs and catch ups, were starting to take over our working lives. They became seen as simply another drain on resources, especially when most teams (including financial planners and advisers) are constantly running against the clock to get their work done and clients through the door. So previously we’d been trying hard to minimise these, to ‘slim down’ or ‘find efficiency’ around our communications.

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But when COVID came – it all changed. We became socially distanced but virtually connected and this has opened up a can of worms that none of us expected.

June 2021

• Human Resources • Information Technology • Operations and Business Development

ARE WE ARE HEADING FOR AN ICEBERG THAT NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT?

• Marketing and Communications

Having spent literally thousands of hours in financial planning and advice firms, I have seen that there is not one problem that cannot be tackled by being ‘together’, talking it through, and coming up with a solution.

• Compliance and Governance

• Service and Propositions • Continual Improvements • Projects and work in progress

Believe me, I am not talking about having meetings for meetings sake. I am talking about the magic of human interaction. It is so important to capture, and repeat, this magic with a good communications strategy encompassing regular catch-ups as teams, between direct reports and among those who are working on key clients and business projects.

These pretty much cover the breadth and depth of the whole business, but feel free to add any of your own topics which may not fall into one or more of these areas.

Why? Because it is good to talk. Whether that’s remotely over one of the many wonderful and liberating platforms we can now tap into, or more intimately, face-to-face. Put simply, a team is a group of people working together on projects and tasks which help your business take one step further towards achieving its goals and then ultimately its vision. We won’t get there unless everyone involved understands exactly where they are at - and where they are going.

3) Now… and this one is a new addition to this message.

You may need to decide how and where you are going to discuss each of these topics. In the new world, that could be face to face, fully remote or a hybrid of the two! So, again, mark up your list with either F2F – Face to face, R – Remote or HB – Hybrid.

SIMPLE? SO WHERE DO YOU START? 1) Take the opportunity of our newfound virtual freedom.

But before you dive in, getting all trigger happy and start scheduling a ‘ball breaking’ number of meetings into everyone’s diaries, you must start by mapping out what topics you/the business needs to/would like to discuss.

Involve the whole team in this exercise. I suggest running this at your next team meeting (if you have them).

I suggest the following 11 key areas: • Purpose and Vision • Plan, Policies and Objectives (Company and Individual) • Financials and Accounting

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2) Next, have a think about how frequently you would like to discuss each of these. Then mark them with an A – Annually, Q – Quarterly, M – Monthly, W – Weekly and D – Daily. Simple!

4) Then mark at the side of each of the areas, the initials of the roles that should be involved in the discussions of these. Do not use the names or initials of the people in your team, as I am trying to highlight if another problem exists. o For example, for Financial Planner – use FP, Paraplanner – use PP – you get the idea.

5) Work through each area until you are done.

BE AWARE – it may feel a little overwhelming and may look like you’re never going to have any time to do anything else after all of these meetings, but please trust me and stick with it.

6) Once you are done – take a step back and have a look.

Check you haven’t missed anything. If you have done this right you will never have to do this exercise again. Winner!

What you have created is your whole year’s communication strategy; right there on one piece of paper.

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June 2021

M ICH E LLE HOSKI N

It should look something like this.

missed or being bumped to another day or time. Schedule them and stick to them. If certain members of the team cannot make it – it doesn’t matter, they happen anyway.

Now it’s time to have some fun! At first, they may last a little longer than you’d hoped, but that will ease as you get more used to them and the agenda becomes more free flowing. Warning (yes another!) don’t get bogged down in the details. Detail can be discussed ‘offline’. These meetings should be high-energy, fast paced, informative, engaging and productive.

If people start to lose the will to live half way through, you may have gone a little off track.

Enjoy it and stick with it. It really is good to talk, and in over 20 years I have seen the best firms achieve their goals, accelerate their progress and transform their business by getting together and spending some good quality time collaborating.

For further insight into the value of great communication please check out my podcast on… https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/little-miss-woww/id144 8890628?mt=2&i=1000427875822 About Michelle Hoskin

If you are all in agreement with what’s been written, then you need to create the year’s schedule. Planning ahead is key here.

The worst-case scenario is that you start having these meetings and catch ups, and then, because you get busy or certain people are not in that day, they simply peter out to nothing. This will send a terrible message to the team as a whole, and trust and confidence will start to break down.

This is by far the worst possible outcome and needs to be avoided at all costs.

So, map it out…

7) Give each meeting a name, for example – Leadership Team Meeting, Work In Progress Meeting, Morning Huddle etc. You decide, be as creative as you wish – these are your meetings after all.

8) Now start to map out a high-level agenda for each meeting. Every meeting needs direction and an agenda will help by outlining the areas that need to be discussed.

9) Finally, get these meetings in the diary. Schedule them and make sure you share the importance of these not being

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Michelle Hoskin (aka Little Miss WOWW!TM) is well known for her endless enthusiasm and energy, infectious personality and unique outlook on what she describes as a “magical profession”.

With over 20 years’ experience working alongside some of the world’s most successful financial services organisations, Michelle is an internationally recognised author, speaker, coach and leading expert in the design and implementation of international framework-based best practice standards.

Michelle is pioneering a drive towards increased professionalism and operational excellence through her continued work at Standards International – the UK’s premier certification body for British and international financial services standards – of which she is the founder.

She also most recently led a sector committee whose objective was to develop and launch an exciting new international standard for professional paraplanners.

Relentless in her pursuit of a global movement of change within financial services, Michelle is fully committed to supporting financial professionals worldwide to achieve things they only dreamed were possible, and to working with them so that they become the best possible version of themselves.

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FOR PROFESSIONAL INVESTMENT SPECIALISTS

MAGAZINE

O NWA RDS A N D U PWA RDS J U N E 2 0 21

GOVERNMENT BACKED - GREAT BRITISH INVESTMENTS - EIS - SEIS - BR - SITR - VCT

M AGAZINE

I NVESTE E SPOTLIGHT

June 2021

NOVA INTRODUCES In the first of our series of investee spotlight interviews, for GBI Nova introduces us to Gavin Delaney, CEO of Hy-Genie

WHAT WAS YOUR LIFE LIKE BEFORE HY-GENIE? I have been involved throughout my career with early-stage businesses, especially with medical devices and NHS partnerships, so it was in my blood!

business to come in and develop the business.

That is where I came in. I was particularly attracted by the ownership model, with Nova Growth Capital providing the financial backing, Nova Cofoundery providing the expertise and support (and me), and the relationship with Alder Hey Hospital providing the ink to the NHS.

Prior to Hy-Genie I was with a company that focused on the issue of hand hygiene compliance in healthcare settings.

In terms of identifying the need for something like Hygenie, it was really the World Health Organisation that must take the credit!

This was a natural background for Hy-genie, as hospital acquired infections are made worse by a lack of hand-washing!

SO WHAT DOES HY-GENIE OFFER?

WHAT GAVE YOU THE IDEA?

Hand hygiene is a key component to preventing the spread of germs and bacteria in hospitals. It is estimated that over 300,000 patients suffer from health care associated infections each year in the UK.

It was Richard Cooke, Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital that had the idea, and as it developed and matured both he and Nova needed someone with the experience of growing a

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The current baseline in the NHS with independent validations is that less than 50% of staff actually wash their hands appropriately.

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I NVESTE E SPOTLIGHT

If all hospital staff were hand hygiene compliant MRSA would largelybe eradicated from Hospitals. Hy-genie has the potential to save thousands of lives each year and the NHS an estimated £1.2bn in treatment costs annually. Hygenie provides the measurement and monitoring system that is needed at an individual level.

WHAT PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES DID YOU ENCOUNTER? The biggest problem was to manage the need for speed in development because of demand, alongside the ability to run regular testing programmes to learn what works best.

It has also been important to find ways of changing people’s behaviour, without appearing as though we are ‘big brother’, and watching them all the time!

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WHAT DIFFERENCE HAS NOVA MADE? The main thing is that Nova has been utterly supportive of us. There has been the financial input of course, but to goes far beyond that. They actually empower a company to succeed.

The support that I received included a dedicated person to help, support on the Board, using their network to find the right people to help take us on to the next stage, and of course the team to develop the technology. Yet through all these. They don’t dictate, rather guide and suggest.

They also organised an academic study to prove the efficacy of what we were doing. The relationship with Nova is one very much based on partnership rather than ownership.

AND WHAT DOES THE FUTURE LOOK LIKE?

HAS COVID-19 HAD ANY SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUR BUSINESS? The impact of Covid-19 has been immense in terms of growing awareness of the need for very regular handwashing. In turn it has focused much more attention on what we are offering, but it has also brought its own challenges. Partnering with Alder Hey hospital was an enormous plus, but Covid-19 slowed us down as it became harder to access live environments to test the product. There were far tighter access controls in hospitals, and staff were far too stretched to give us as much time as they might have liked.

By being forced to slow down, it has made us very methodical and precise, which has been very helpful for regulatory testing.

Having proved what we can do through the tests at Alder Hey, we are now ready to go live with our service there.

Already there are 6 other hospital trusts that we are talking to about introducing our service…and after that, the sky’s the limit.

NOVA’S VIEW ‘Hy-genie offer a product that is absolutely right for our world today. When you combine this with the support of Alder Hey hospital, it has been a very powerful combination. The public awareness of the importance of handwashing is going to be with us for very many years, and Hy-genie will undoubtedly be at the forefront of how this is implemented.’

GBI

But overall, the government have been running a great advertising campaign for what we do!

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M AGAZINE

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PAR EQU ITY

June 2021

THE PERFECT

EIS PORTFOLIO COMPANY? GBI talks to Sarah Ellerby CEO of Nova Pangaea, on their perfect partnership with their investors Par Equity.

INTRODUCING NOVA PANGAEA Very simply, Nova Pangaea is a cleantech business that has created a revolutionary process to convert woody and agricultural plant residues into sustainable biocarbons, biopolymers, biochemicals and biofuels. It displaces the need for industry to use fossil based products It is a process and product that is attracting interest from across the globe. Multi-national companies are at their door, because of what they offer, as the whole world moves towards decarbonisation.

Sarah Ellerby, the CEO, was quick to point out that there is a funding gap in the early-stage ‘scale-up market. She said ‘there’s lots of funding support for start-ups and

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then support from the larger venture capital companies and Venture Capital Trusts once revenues hit £1m+ per annum, but there is a gap in between. Par Equity have been tremendous as they backed us near the start and have kept on supporting us. Not just with money, but in helping to develop the strategy and assisting develop our network within specific sectors. They have gone far beyond what one would expect from an investor. Since I joined the company, Par have continued to invest throughout our scale-up journey. They have been our perfect partner for growth.’

THE FUTURE Nova Pangaea are currently going through a further funding round of £3.5m. The purpose is to help them accelerate their growth and scale up the business prior to a potential IPO in 2022.

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PAR EQU ITY

Par Equity has led the round, supported by the Northern Powerhouse, Cambridge Angels, and their Chairman, John McNeil (one of Par Equity’s operating partners).

Sarah said, ‘This funding will help us accelerate our strategic plan, including securing our first licence and first of a kind REFNOVA plant in the UK. It will also help us extend our range of partnerships, and to continue to innovate and grow our team. Currently we have 17 people, and I see this increasing over the next 18 months’.

Paul Munn from Par Equity said ‘Nova Pangaea has in many ways been a model EIS portfolio company. It has a ground-breaking idea with global applications. It is right on trend as the world seeks to live more sustainably. It has been a pleasure to work with the team and they have been very responsive to the help and support that we have been able to offer them.’

A CEO WITH A DIFFERENCE The step from being the No 1 women’s Pool player in the world to CEO of a fast-growing cleantech company with a process that is now in global demand seems to be a giant leap. But the CEO in question doesn’t agree!

Sarah Ellerby won over 80 Pool tournaments in the UK, before going to live in the US for greater challenges. She said ‘It was really a natural progression. I have always wanted to be the very best at what I do, and that is the same in business as in sport. Working in sport I worked with several global brands, so I always looked at what value I could bring to them, before I looked at ‘what's in it for me’. Striking mutually beneficial partnerships came naturally to me’.

June 2021

With family back home in North Yorkshire, it became time to return to her roots, and she looked round to see what she could bring to the region. One of the reasons why she wanted to come back to Yorkshire is the amount of activity in the renewable energy and clean energy sectors. And so Nova Pangaea, right at the heart of the cleantech economy, was a natural choice. Sarah joined them in January 2020.

ABOUT PAR EQUITY Par Equity is a leading venture capital firm, based in Edinburgh, investing in innovative, high growth technology companies in the North of the UK. Since it was founded in 2008, Par Equity has invested more than £95m across 62 companies, leveraging a further £172m of capital from third party investors. Par’s investment focus is on enterprise technologies, and more specifically “deep tech”, i.e., companies with strong IP and technical expertise, including innovation across AI, photonics, energy storage, sensors, advanced materials, and nanotechnologies. The portfolio includes other rising stars like Current Health, Integrated Graphene, Qikserve, Cumulus and Novosound.

Par’s investment approach is to combine the professionalism and rigour of a venture capital manager with the skills and expertise of a broad base of individual investors who can add value throughout the investment life cycle. This investment approach has produced strong and consistent returns across 22 realisations to date, gaining UK wide recognition. Most recently Par won the “Highly Commended” award in the Best EIS Fund Manager category at the 2020 EIS Association Awards.

GBI

While still playing Pool, Sarah started her own business consultancy, and then had several CEO roles across energy, natural resources and manufacturing.

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M AGAZINE

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I NVESTE E SPOTLIGHT

June 2021

NOVA INTRODUCES

In the second of our investee spotlight series, we are in conversation with Ben Sweeney, Founder of VidiVet

WHAT WAS YOUR LIFE LIKE BEFORE VIDIVET? I qualified as a vet back in 2008.

Seeing trends in the veterinary market, I set up my first business, Simply Locums, in 2016. This was a digital careers platform that I grew and sold in 2019.

Like all founders, my cogs started turning again and recognised the opportunity for a digital-first pet owner engagement which lay the foundations for what has become VidiVet. INDUSTRY CHANGES BRING NEW OPPORTUNITIES The veterinary industry has changed out of all recognition over the past 40 years. Back in 1980 90% of vets were male, today 82% are female. Many want their job to fit around a more flexible lifestyle, particularly if they are bringing up children. Increasingly vets and nurses want their job to

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suit them, rather than dictate to them. The days of James Herriot are largely gone forever!

What is also clear is that there is a shortage of vets and veterinary nurses to cater to the ever-increasing population of pets in the world.

As a result, the industry is having to adapt to new ways of working and offer more solutions that are customer centric.

SO WHAT DOES VIDIVET OFFER? In determining what VidiVet offers, we talked to a wide range of vets and pet owners to ensure that what we offered is absolutely in line with what both sides wanted.

The result was what we offer today-a genuine replacement alternative for google search that is personalised to people’s pets...

The opportunity for animal owners to ask any question about their pet at any time and get an instant personalised response AND to have digital appointments at a time that suits them. It is designed to reassure owners, to educate

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I NVESTE E SPOTLIGHT

them and direct them to the right treatment where it is needed. It is more flexible and cheaper for owners in most instances.

The service gives us the opportunity to explain and educate what is needed to the owners of the animals.

VidiVet is a service that works in partnership with traditional practices, helping them with their workflow, so that they are only used where their real expertise is needed. If a visit is required, it enables both sides to plan and prepare for what is required, again, saving time and improving outcomes.

Pet owners have never been better supported than they are now and VidiVet gives them a reliable, easy way to engage with their pets’ health.

WHAT PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES DID YOU ENCOUNTER? The veterinary profession tends to be traditional, with slow adoption of new alternatives for change. There is a generational split. But our aim was not to harm the industry. Far from it. It is an industry we love. Instead, we wanted to offer a solution for a profession that is responsive to the needs of its clients and to improve access to our expertise rather than a reliance on google searches and Facebook ‘experts’.

The biggest challenge was how to build a scalable business, but with the help of Nova, we are now achieving this.

HAS COVID-19 HAD ANY SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON YOUR DEVELOPMENT OF THE BUSINESS? If anything, Covid-19 has had a beneficial impact on the development of the business. People have become more digitally engaged and used to video communications. VidiVet has helped reduce face to face contacts and offers a more efficient use of time.

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June 2021

SO HOW DID YOU COME ACROSS NOVA? Nova Cofoundrey Ltd (Nova) popped up on LinkedIn as a company looking for new ideas to invest in. This was just at the time when I was looking for both development finance and a sounding board for my ideas. I have extensive market expertise and experience, but recognised that we needed help in building a tech business.

What really appealed about Nova was twofold. Their methodology that helped ensure that the service was really wanted before it was launched, and the expert tech support that they offered to build a scalable service.

THE DIFFERENCE THAT NOVA MADE Nova was the perfect match for us. Nova Growth Capital Ltd provided the funding and Nova Cofoundrey Ltd the digital development, to build a robust and highly attractive service. That left me free to undertake detailed client research and build relationships with potential clients, leading to their appetite for the service.

THE FUTURE Together we have built a service that is one that people want and is making veterinary services more accessible and efficient. We are looking forward to creating real growth and business scale over the months and years to come.

NOVA’S VIEW ‘We were attracted to Ben and his ideas because he clearly knew his market very well, understood the changes happening in it, and had identified opportunities arising from this. It has been a bonus that Covid-19 has encouraged both vets and their clients to use digital communications more.’

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M AGAZINE

M AGAZINE

OXFORD CAPITAL

June 2021

BEST PRACTICE, RISK AND SUSTAINABILITY IN THE

POST-COVID INVESTMENT WORLD

In this first part of our in-depth two part interview, GBI Magazine speaks to Richard Roberts, Director of Investor Relations at Oxford Capital about who, what and how they are investing following an unprecedented year.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR INVESTMENT STRATEGY? Our investment strategy is about supporting what we consider the best of British companies. We focus on businesses that are solving commercial, technical or scientific problems in innovative ways. We're also looking to support credible, talented entrepreneurs to deliver their business ideas.

DO THESE COMPANIES FALL INTO PARTICULAR CATEGORIES OR ANY DIFFERENT TYPES? HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THAT? One category is tech companies that are developing ground breaking technology. For example, Xihelm, a company in the portfolio produces a tomato-picking robot that's looking to revolutionise the way that growers across the world harvest stock like tomatoes.

That’s first on their list but the idea is to allow this to be developed out to become a world leading company. We're also looking for what we consider early growth - tech enabled companies that are disrupting existing markets.

We're looking for product/market fit stage where we are investing, asking if we can we actually help these

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companies exploit slow moving incumbents. An example of that would be Money Box, which advisers may have heard of, and many of their clients may actually be using it as an investment tool for their ISAs. It’s a company that allows investors to save money through their mobile devices and build assets.

WHAT ABOUT THE SORT OF THE PERSONNEL THAT YOU ARE LOOKING TO BACK WITHIN THESE BUSINESSES, WHAT CHARACTERISTICS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? We have a very diverse portfolio, but it's really people that are looking to exploit existing markets, using their experiences.

Many entrepreneurs have actually had businesses before or worked in industry and have already spotted market opportunities to try and exploit.

WE HEAR SO MUCH ABOUT ESG INVESTING AT THE MOMENT, WHAT’S YOUR PHILOSOPHY OR THOUGHT PROCESS ON THIS? ESG is something that we feel very strongly about within Oxford Capital. When it comes to choosing and investing

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OXFORD CAPITAL

in companies, we are looking to back those that have the potential to have a positive impact on the environment and society as a whole. We believe this is part of our role as a VC investor especially when it comes to ESG within small companies. Often the thought of ESG is with regard to much larger companies, or seen as something to do when a company gets to a much bigger stage. But actually, if we can influence how the smaller companies develop best practice in creating their policies we can help to shape them to become responsible companies. In turn we find that by adopting these ESG policies they have the potential to achieve much stronger levels of growth.

TELL US ABOUT THE COMPANIES YOU'VE GOT WITHIN YOUR EXISTING PORTFOLIO, WHAT ARE THE SECTORS THEY ARE INVOLVED IN? The sectors cover a wide range as we're trying to build a diverse portfolio for investors. They include artificial intelligence and machine learning. We also have a number of investments in digital health, Fintech and Insurtech which form a large part of our portfolio. We also look at the e-commerce world, the future of work and the future of mobility.

FROM AN INVESTMENT POINT OF VIEW, WHAT ARE YOUR SPECIFIC GOALS AND OBJECTIVES? We aim to help investors build a portfolio of alternative assets to sit alongside their core investment portfolio.

We're looking to build a portfolio of approximately 8 to 12 different companies that cover a variety of stages, geographies and sectors and really allow investors to access high potential companies at early stages in their growth.

COULD YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THE SECTORS YOU SPECIALISE IN AND WHY THESE ARE IMPORTANT? We look to specialise where we think there is the highest growth potential. When you look at what's happening in the market at the moment and ahead to a post-Covid

GB Investment Magazine

June 2021

world, the incumbents within retail, within the workplace there’s going to be huge amount of disruption. We're looking to back companies that are ready to exploit the opportunities that result from this and to become the FTSE 100 companies of the future. We're also looking at different themes. These include the future of mobility, future of retail, the future of work and how artificial intelligence and machine learning really enhance some of those opportunities and allow for explosive growth in early stage companies.

ONE OF THE KEY AREAS WE SHOULD ADDRESS IS RISK WITHIN THESE INVESTMENTS. WHERE DOES THAT FIT WITHIN YOUR PHILOSOPHY AND HOW DO YOU MANAGE RISK? Risk is obviously key, especially within early stage investment management. The EIS sector is high risk too.

Risk management sits at the core of our portfolio construction, beginning at the initial screening of companies that we see through the due diligence process.

The central tenets within the portfolio construction are twofold. Firstly, we invest early -from late seed stage. We are often the first institutional investor that will come into a company's round. When we're building a portfolio for our investors we are taking a small amount of that initial subscription and investing it into maybe three or four early stage companies. Our aim is to invest early and then back progress. As companies look to grow and require more money, if they're demonstrating that their strategy is working, hitting their KPIs and really growing quickly, we look to follow on. We want to back the emerging winners.

Ultimately 60 percent of investors’ subscriptions are going on to the later stage company. From Series A all the way through series C rounds, these are companies that have demonstrated market fit with less risk than those at very early stage. Investors are therefore getting a more blended opportunity with a variety of different investments rather than everything being very early stage. This helps manage both investment risk of progression within each company, but also duration risk of their overall investment. Not every single company is going to take potentially seven years to exit, because if we're investing at a later stage, hopefully they are reaching maturity much earlier.

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M AGAZINE

M AGAZINE

June 2021

OXFORD CAPITAL

AS AN INVESTOR, WHAT ARE THE MAIN CHALLENGES THAT YOU FACE? Challenges are split into two parts; trying to identify and work with these early stage companies and helping shape them to grow in the future. It's incredibly difficult and takes huge amounts of effort and hard work from our management team. On the other side it’s trying to manage that dynamic between the adviser and the investor and ultimately the investment timeline to build these companies. These are early stage and are going to take a while to build and develop products to be of sufficient value to then build out. There is a tension between EIS tax relief and building high value quality companies for the long term. In EIS, this three year holding period to ensure qualification often dictates an exit time horizon that's shorter than it actually takes to build valuable large scale businesses. Managing that dynamic is a key challenge that we encounter on a daily basis. It's one that we manage by educating advisers and investors. Our risk management and portfolio construction challenge is helping to ensure that that's managed across the investment table.

IN TERMS OF THE LAST 12 MONTHS AND THE PANDEMIC HOW HAS THAT AFFECTED THE BUSINESS OR WERE THERE SPECIFIC CHALLENGES YOU FACED AS INVESTORS? The initial shock of lockdown affected the UK as a whole.

Within our portfolio, there was a lot of nervousness amongst entrepreneurs and founders; concerns around how this would affect businesses, how could they respond to the challenges and about cash flow. That's a key central tenet when we're making investments, to ensure that these companies have got strong enough balance sheets to at least see themselves through a rolling 12 month period.

The founders that we backed have been incredibly resilient.

They've really adapted to the challenges in the way their businesses operate, often making them more efficient through the impact of Covid-adopting technology and reducing unnecessary overheads.

Much of the portfolio is much stronger because of Covid.

They have become leaner and more focused on what they're doing, rather than allowing it to become inflated. So it is a huge challenge for everybody. It's been incredibly wearing, having to have zoom calls for hours on end but we’ve discovered that our portfolio and our founders are incredibly resilient. They have adapted and met the challenges head on.

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WHAT ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF THE OXFORD CLUSTER IN TERMS OF SUPPORTING NEW BUSINESSES? Yes, the Oxford clusters are very hot at the moment. I think the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine has helped draw attention back to this. We are central supporters of the tech-enabled businesses that sit within Oxford and the surrounds. We are a key supporter and we are very well networked in with a lot of the other early stage supporters within the universities and other VCs in the area.

WHAT ABOUT OXFORD CAPITAL IN TERMS OF BUSINESS, DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE CHANGED OVER THE LAST 12 MONTHS? We've had to change our working practices, we’ve become a fully digital organisation and we’ve embraced that.

We've recruited new staff and increased our headcount and we’ve moved to a hybrid working structure, similar in many respects in terms of what's been happening with our portfolio. We have looked at better ways of working, so using technology to improve what we're doing and really becoming a much more efficient business overall. The learnings that we've taken on internally can then be shared with our portfolio companies across the board. We have different companies at different stages in their growth and not all of them want to have to learn the hard way. By sharing our experiences across the portfolio of what we have been doing and what we have learnt about what other companies have been doing really benefits everyone.

GBI

Oxford Capital invest in unquoted securities, which are classified by the FCA as a Non-Readily Realisable Security (NRRS). As such, these products may only be marketed to limited categories of investors, relating to knowledge, experience or financial situation. If an investor decides to pursue any investment opportunity after your personal investment recommendation, they will be investing in an unquoted company. Capital is at risk and investors should only invest if they can afford to lose their capital.

Investment is of a long term and illiquid nature. It can be difficult to value and to sell unquoted investments.

Any tax advantages associated with investing are based on current legislation, are subject to change, and depend on the individual circumstances of each investor. Sole responsibility for suitability of the investment for an investor lies with the investment adviser.

GB Investment Magazine

M AGAZINE

GBI OPEN OFFERS A selection of tax efficient opportunities currently open for investment

EIS

SEIS

Open

Close

Evergreen

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised: £5m Minimum Investment: £15,000

Oxford Technology Combined SEIS and EIS Fund - “The Start-up Fund” Oxford Technology invests in high risk, high reward technology start-ups, in general within an hour’s drive of Oxford, and has been doing this since 1983. The latest fund, OT(S)EIS made its first investment in 2012. By 31st December 2020, OT(S)EIS had completed 149 investments in 42 companies.

Things continue to go well and in the most recent quarter, the tax free gain on the portfolio increased from £10.59m at the end of Q3 to £11.80m at the end of Q4.

The figures for the fund as a whole since its inception are as follows:

T. 01865 784466 E. info@oxfordtechnology.com www.oxfordtechnology.com

Gross amount invested by OT(S)EIS:

£ 7.91m

Cash back to investors via tax reliefs (1):

£ 2.98m

Net cost of these investments after tax reliefs (2):

£ 4.93m

Cash back from exits (3):

£ 0.24m

Fair value of remaining portfolio (4):

£ 16.73m

Total value: £ 19.95m Tax free gain (on paper only so far):

£ 11.80m

After tax losses on the three failures:

£ 0.14m

*OT(S)EIS investors who made an SEIS investment in Animal Dynamics, an Oxford University spinout at 14p per share (7p after SEIS tax relief) in Jun 2015, had the opportunity to exit in March 2019 at 97p per share (so 14x the after tax share price). About 50% of the shareholders opted to sell with 50% opting to remain – the company is doing very well.

OT(S)EIS remains open for investment at any time. We average about one or two new investments per quarter, and investors in the fund receive their pro-rata share of these. The latest quarterly report, with a page of information on each investment is downloadable from www.oxfordtechnology.com.

At 10am on the first Thursday of every month, Oxford Technology holds a Zoom meeting at which 3-4 of its existing investee companies which are seeking expansion capital present, enabling investors to make direct EIS investments; sign up to attend via the website.

EIS Open

Close Evergreen

Amount to be Raised:

£10m+ this year

Minimum Investment: £10,000

T. 07958 213122 E. jessica@haatch.com www.haatch.com

EIS Open

Evergreen

Close

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised: N/A Minimum Investment: £25,000

Haatch Ventures EIS Fund The Haatch Ventures EIS Fund is an award-winning Fund managed by successful entrepreneurs who have between them founded, scaled and sold businesses worth over $150 million.

The Fund aims to back four to six early stage companies per tranche that have highly scalable and disruptive models for growth through digital transformation. The Haatch team of hands-on value creators use their knowledge, experience and network to accelerate the growth of portfolio businesses via its 'Smart Money' approach, providing support in many areas, including go-to-market, digital development and marketing.

"The Fund has a target return of 10x which is significantly higher than any other SEIS or EIS Fund currently fundraising and listed on MICAP, and the track record of Haatch Angel somewhat supports the ambition of this target." - MICAP.

Oxford Capital Growth EIS Established in 1999, Oxford Capital is an alternative investment manager passionate about investing in early stage technology companies. For over 20 years, we have offered private investors access to many high-impact technology companies in sectors which the UK is considered a world leader. We partner with portfolio companies and founders to help grow their businesses and deliver meaningful impact in their fields.

The Oxford Capital Growth EIS is an evergreen fund that offers investors the opportunity to invest in a portfolio of shares in early stage technology companies that have the potential to grow rapidly.

The portfolio of 8-12 companies provides exposure to sectors such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, financial technologies and future of retail.

We aim to invest in companies that are:

T. 01865 860760 E. investors@oxcp.com www.oxcp.com

• Run by credible, talented and highly driven entrepreneurs, founders and management teams • Solving commercial, technological and scientific problems in innovative ways • Businesses that have the potential to have a positive impact to the environment and on society We aim to fully invest each initial subscription within 12-18 months and exit most investments within 5-7 years. Capital at risk, unquoted companies are a high risk investment.

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GB Investment Magazine

Open Offers

EIS Open

17 November 2020

Close

n/a

Amount to be Raised:

n/a

Minimum Investment:

£50,000

Octopus Ventures EIS Service We created the Octopus Ventures EIS Service to give investors the opportunity to invest in 10-15 earlystage businesses with high growth potential (each targeting 10x growth), handpicked and managed by our expert investment teams.

The Octopus Ventures EIS Service could be suitable for those who want to target high growth from a long term investment, want to diversify their portfolio and those who want to directly own shares in exciting earlystage companies, providing they are comfortable with the risks of early stage investing.

We believe that there are three stages to achieving capital growth from investments in early-stage businesses, which our specialist in house investment teams are experienced at delivering: 1. Access to investment opportunities that have the potential to achieve high growth.

2. Effective nurturing and support of a business as it matures.

3. The ability to manage a successful exit.

T. 0800 316 2067 E. support@octopusinvestments.com

octopusinvestments.com

For someone investing on their own, each of these stages would pose a challenge.

We are fortunate that through 20 years of investing in smaller companies, we have established a reputation that means many talented entrepreneurs approach us with their ideas when they are looking for a first investment into their business. We also have access to an exciting range of follow-on investment opportunities in smaller companies seeking additional funding for further expansion.

Key risks to keep in mind • The value of an EIS investment, and any income from it, can fall as well as rise. Investors may not get back the full amount they invest.

• Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and may change in the future.

• Tax reliefs depend on the portfolio companies maintaining their EIS-qualifying status.

• The share price of EIS companies may be volatile and they may be hard to sell.

EIS investments are not suitable for everyone. We do not offer investment or tax advice. Issued by Octopus Investments Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered office: 33 Holborn, London, EC1N 2HT. Registered in England and Wales No. 03942880. We record telephone calls.

Issued: November 2020. CAM010471.

BPR Open

Close

2007

n/a

Amount to be Raised:

n/a

Minimum Investment:

£25,000

Octopus Inheritance Tax Service Since 2007, the Octopus Inheritance Tax Service has given investors the opportunity to invest in the shares of companies making a positive contribution to the UK’s economic growth. The companies are unquoted, which means their shares do not trade on any stock exchange. We select companies that we expect to qualify for Business Property Relief (BPR). This is a government approved relief from inheritance tax.

Provided the investment has been held for at least two years at the time of death, it can be left to their beneficiaries free of inheritance tax.

Octopus Inheritance Tax Service is a Discretionary Fund Management Service. The service aims to deliver steady investment growth of 3% per year on average over the lifetime of an investment. It's also flexible, and should circumstances change investors can request to sell their shares at any time, although liquidity cannot be guaranteed.

Key risks to keep in mind

T. 0800 316 2067 E. support@octopusinvestments.com

octopusinvestments.com

• The value of an investment, and any income from it, can fall as well as rise. Investors may not get back the full amount they invest.

• Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and could change in the future.

• Tax relief depends on portfolio companies maintaining their qualifying status.

• The shares of unquoted companies could fall or rise in value more than shares listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. They may also be harder to sell.

BPR-qualifying investments are not suitable for everyone. Any recommendation should be based on a holistic review of your client's financial situation, objectives and needs. We do not offer investment or tax advice. Issued by Octopus Investments Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered office: 33 Holborn, London, EC1N 2HT. Registered in England and Wales No. 03942880. We record telephone calls. Issued: July 2020. CAM010110.

GB Investment Magazine

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PLATFORM Open

Evergreen

Close

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised: N/A Minimum Investment: £5,000

GrowthInvest - The Tax Efficient Platform for Advisers GrowthInvest simplifies research, investment and reporting on alternative and tax-efficient assets. Through our smart technology platform, we serve wealth managers, financial advisers, and their clients. Our core service offers: • A market-leading range of investment offers including EIS, SEIS, VCT, IHT and other alternative investments.

• Reporting on all alternative assets in one online secure portal (including the onboarding of historical assets) • An extensive library of educational materials alongside research from independent partners,

T. 020 7071 3945 E. enquiries@growthinvest.com www.growthinvest.com

• Digital administration solutions and innovative products, driven by client demand, such as our diversified VCT service.

• Personalised client service with an experienced team from institutional backgrounds: because technology is not always enough We have placed the adviser and their clients at the heart of everything we do. Contact us to discuss your specific requirements and for a demonstration of the future of alternative and tax efficient investing.

EIS Open

April 2017

SEIS Close

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised:

Up to £25,000,000

Minimum Investment: £10,000

T. 020 7071 3945 E. enquiries@growthinvest.com www.growthinvest.com

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GrowthInvest Portfolio Service The GrowthInvest Portfolio Service is a discretionary managed EIS & SEIS portfolio service that leverages the experience and expertise of the GrowthInvest investment team to select a diversified portfolio of some of the most promising companies that are brought to the platform, and the Investment Committee.

Clients can invest in three different strategies in the GrowthInvest Portfolio Service. The first will target investee companies which qualify for SEIS reliefs only; these companies tend to be the highest risk that are often developing their minimum viable product and will be pre-revenue businesses. The second strategy will target investee companies which qualify for EIS reliefs only, i.e. those businesses that are already trading and require equity capital to expand their operations.

The third strategy is a mixed investment policy which will target investee companies which qualify for both SEIS and EIS relief and offering a more moderate level of risk. The GrowthInvest Portfolio Service aims to return to clients twice the initial ixdes whole-of-market access to alternative and tax efficient investments for the clients of financial advisers, wealth managers and investors.

GB Investment Magazine

Open Offers

EIS

SEIS

Open

Open

Evergreen

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised:

Uncapped

Nova Cofoundery SEIS & EIS Fund Members of the Nova team have spent the last 10 years developing their cofoundery model which we believe addresses 5 of the most common mistakes made by startups.

The Fund is intended for those UK tax paying individuals:

Minimum Investment:

£10,000

• Seeking a diversified exposure in a highly concentrated asset class to knowledge intensive companies in the UK • With income tax liability in the preceding or current tax years • With large capital gains to defer or mitigate • Who look to benefit from IHT relief

T. 0151 318 0761 E. alistair@novagrowthcapital.co.uk www.novagrowthcapital.co.uk

The minimum individual investment in The Fund is £10,000. At the Investment Manager's discretion, smaller individual investments may be accepted, however, this is not guaranteed.

The selection of investee companies and the subsequent allocation of investor’s subscriptions to the investee companies are made at the discretion of the Investment Manager with guidance from the Investment Advisor.

Highlights An engaged hands-on approach from an experienced startup team • Free of manager fees to the investor for subscriptions received via a financial adviser, facilitating 100% deployment of investor funds and aiming to ensure maximum tax efficiency for the investor • All SEIS and EIS tax advantages applicable, depending on personal circumstances and subject to HMRC approval • Target return of 172p for every 100p invested (Not including EIS or SEIS reliefs) • Performance fee aligns our interests with the investors

EIS Open

Close

Evergreen

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised:

N/A

Minimum Investment:

£20,000.00

Newable EIS Scale Up Fund 3 The Fund seeks to leverage Newable’s unique corporate infrastructure to invest in knowledge intensive companies at the point of commerialisation and once a company has proven the concept through early-stage revenues. The investments are supported by Newable's wider platform, providing serviced offices, advisory services, and lending solutions.

Newable also benefits from the expertise of circa 300 professionals, the Newable EIS Scale-Up Fund 3 has a unique eco-system from which to originate, undertake due diligence, execute, support, monitor and ultimately exit investments. The Fund aims to provide investors with a diversified portfolio of 7-10 knowledge intensive companies, offering investors exposure to an exciting asset class without the need to stock pick and commit management time.

Newable is independently recognised as one of the UK’s leading investment networks and draws on a 36 year track record as well as long term partnerships with the U.K. government and business community.

T. 0785 091 5378 E. sanjeev.gordhan@newable.co.uk www.newable.co.uk

Risk is mitigated through a selection methodology and due diligence built around Newable’s +300 strong investor group as well as by leveraging the Enterprise Investment Scheme for early stage investments.

Highlights • Newable can provide strong support at the scale-up growth stage, drawing on broader group resources across a range of disciplines including grant writing services, export services and innovation advice.

• Newable curates one of the most comprehensive and sophisticated deal flow eco-systems in earlystage investing. This eco-system yields around 1,500 investment opportunities every year.

• The Newable Ventures Investment Advisory committee has over 110 years of combined investment experience with a track record of making successful investments across the Innovation and Technology space. Recent examples include:

GB Investment Magazine

45

EIS Open

Evergreen

Close

30th September 2021

Amount to be Raised: £10m Minimum Investment: £25,000

E. invest@o2h.com www.o2hventures.com

The o2h human health EIS knowledge intensive fund o2h ventures launched the o2h human health EIS Knowledge Intensive Fund as the first HMRC approved knowledge intensive fund.

The investment focus of the HMRC approved knowledge intensive fund will be therapeutic drug opportunities or technologies that enable drug discovery with an emphasis on Artificial Intelligence (AI). The geographic scope shall be UK wide, following on from the success of the ‘o2h human Health EIS Fund.

Knowledge intensive investing offers investors an opportunity to take advantage of the predictability of the tax year, from which they are able to claim relief. To date, investors in EIS funds claim relief when the funds are deployed into a business. However, in the new HMRC approved knowledge intensive funds, relief is dated when the investment into the fund is made (with carry back option depending on individual circumstances).

Our first human health hybrid S/EIS fund was launched in November 2018 and closed to new investors in October 2020. This allowed us to ensure that the fund was fully deployed in the last tax year giving investors access to a diverse portfolio of 8-15 companies for each of our investors depending on the date of their investment. As a result we closed the 2020/2021 tax year with an increase in overall AUM of the o2h Ventures funds by almost 65%.

At o2h Ventures, we have been working diligently behind the scenes to curate and build a strong pipeline of deals to invest in over the next few months. The deal pipeline is likely to ensure our investors’ get one of the most diversified and unique portfolios in the ‘human health’ and related AI sector.

The biotech sector is one of the leading sectors in the UK economy. The large pharma companies now rely on the small innovative biotechs for new ideas in disease areas such as cancer, genomics, anti-ageing and neurosciences amongst others which has led to higher potential exit valuations.

The fund will widen the community of investors that will help expand early stage research in the UK. The o2h group team are leaders in the biotech community and have been actively involved as investors, holding various board/industry positions as well as being engaged in grassroots scientific activity for over 20 years. o2h Ventures operates from their proprietary 2.7 acre o2h SciTech Park where they are developing a unique model for incubating small life science companies.o2h Ventures, CEO & Fund Manager - Sunil Shah has been awarded UKBAA Angel of the year 2019 award as well as the OBN Special Recognition Award for his exemplary contribution in the life sciences industry. He was also recently awarded as CEO of the year at Cambridge Independent Science and Technology Awards.

Key Highlights • The first HMRC approved Knowledge intensive fund • Portfolio Diversification - Investment in 5-7 portfolio companies • Closing Date – Bi annually (April and September)

SEIS Open

Evergreen

Close

30th June 2021

Amount to be Raised: £1m Minimum Investment: £10,000

The o2h human health SEIS fund o2h Ventures also launched “the o2h human health SEIS fund” in December 2021 to invest in early seed stage SEIS qualifying companies covering novel drug discovery along with enabling services, tools and AI Technologies.

By investing in SEIS, UK investors have the potential to claim up to 50% income tax relief on their investment amount and pay no Capital Gains Tax on returns. ** The biotech sector is one of the leading sectors in the UK economy. The large pharma companies now rely on the small innovative biotechs for new ideas in disease areas such as cancer, genomics, anti-ageing and neurosciences amongst others which has led to higher potential exit valuations. The fund will widen the community of investors that will help expand early-stage research in the UK.

E. invest@o2h.com www.o2hventures.com

The o2h group team are leaders in the biotech community and have been actively involved as investors, holding various board/industry positions as well as being engaged in grassroots scientific activity for over 20 years. o2h Ventures operates from their proprietary 2.7-acre o2h SciTech Park where they are developing a unique model for incubating small life science companies. o2h Ventures, CEO & Fund Manager - Sunil Shah has been awarded UKBAA Angel of the year 2019 award as well as the OBN Special Recognition Award for his exemplary contribution in the life sciences industry. He was also recently awarded as CEO of the year at Cambridge Independent Science and Technology Awards.

Key Highlights • SEIS fund - Focused on investing in seed stage therapeutic and biotech companies.

• Minimum investment amount for investors is £ 10k.

• Portfolio Diversification - Investment in 5-7 portfolio companies • Closing Dates – 30th June 2021, 30th September 2021, 31st December 2021 & 31st March 2022 *capital at risk **o2h Ventures limited is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 812245). ***Please note that tax reliefs depend on individual circumstances

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GB Investment Magazine

Open Offers

EIS Open

Close

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised:

Mercia EIS Funds The Mercia’s EIS funds have been independently reviewed multiple times and are recognized to be amongst the top four EIS fund managers – please request reviews from enquiries@mercia.co.uk.

N/A

Mercia EIS fund creates diverse, early-stage portfolios of technology companies, investing nationally with a focus on the underserved regions of the UK, where the investment entry prices are substantially improved, which enables superior returns to EIS investors.

Minimum Investment:

Mercia has a large team of investment professionals, who are supported by in-house entrepreneurs.

Due to the scale of Mercia, it can provide value add services to portfolio companies, such executive search, access to our 750-strong network of NEDs, Chairman and FDs, legal and marketing support and discounts on software packages.

£25,000

Via the Complete Connected Capital strategy, the Mercia group can invest anywhere from £50,000 to £10m or more, enabling Mercia to be a very patient and supportive investor of high growth companies.

Highlights A portfolio of 10-15 companies, across industry sectors and stages from seed to series A.

T. 0330 223 1430 E. enquiries@mercia.co.uk www.mercia.co.uk

In the last 8 months, Mercia EIS fund has exited 4 companies very well, including Refract (1.8x), Clear Review (8.0x), Native Antigen Company (8.7x) and OxGene (16.3x). In 2020 Mercia won both of the Exit of the Year awards, and they have stated that this will be their primary target for the coming years, as Mercia states that “exits define the success of an EIS”.

Mercia EIS is part of the Mercia group of companies, including the Northern VCT, which has c£900m AuM, over 400 portfolio companies, 19 university partnerships, 8 offices and 110 staff.

The Mercia group sees about 3500 deals a year, deploys about £100m a year into regional business, and the EIS fund is less than 25% of that total. There is scope to deploy £250m per year into regional businesses, and there is no limitation on the size of the EIS fund.

Due to the number of companies that Mercia invests in per year, the EIS fund deployment averages under 8-months at the time of writing, although Covid-19 has slowed deployment down, Mercia fully expect to capital within a year.

EIS Open

1st February 2020

Close

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised:

£20m raised, uncapped Minimum Investment: £25k

Scale Up EIS Fund This is Fuel Ventures flagship EIS fund that we have been investing from for 5 years. We invest into 10-15 technology companies each year, with a focus on businesses that are marketplaces, platform or software. We now have 40+ portfolio companies and after 5 years our first fund has an average multiple uplift of 5.6X, validated by external fundraising rounds.

We have an advisory committee with over 50+ year’s experience and exits totalling £3bn+. We put a Director on the Board of every company we invest in and take an active and hands on role in the management and development of each company, plus bring added extra value through our network of sector experts. As a team, we invest 5-10% in total in every fund alongside our investors, which is £2m - £3m into the current fund.

T. +44 2038689723 E. investors@fuel.ventures https://fuel.ventures/

GB Investment Magazine

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EIS Open

Close

July 2019

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised: £5m Minimum Investment: £10,000

T. 020 7788 7539 E. invest@jensonfunding.com www.jensonfundingpartners.com

Jenson EIS Fund The Jenson EIS Fund has a mandate to focus on long-term capital growth and enables private investors to invest in a range of committed and ambitious entrepreneurs and their early stage growing companies. The Jenson EIS Fund predominantly facilitates syndicated follow-on funding to its existing portfolio, external opportunities are also considered allowing us to benchmark against our existing opportunities. Investing in our portfolio allows us to support management teams that we have already worked along side. All companies will be small unquoted UK companies that qualify under the EIS tax rules. The Fund is a generalist fund, thereby the sector focus is agnostic, and the type of businesses and opportunities can be anything that is EIS compliant (typically small early stage companies in non-capital intensive sectors).

Highlights • Follow-on funding for 25 of our existing portfolio companies.

• Syndicated investment strategy releasing £3 for every £1 of Jenson Investment.

• Solid pipeline of investment opportunities with capacity to deploy, targeting £6m for deployment into 10-15 portfolio companies.

• First EIS Exit in February 2021 providing a return on two Funds from 1.4x to 2.2x which should increase with companies that still remain in the fund.

SEIS Open

June 2019

Close

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised: £3m Minimum Investment: £10,000

Jenson SEIS Fund Jenson are one of the longest running SEIS Fund Managers and have been investing in early stage growth companies since 2012 with over 110 investments to date. The Jenson SEIS Fund aims to target new innovative companies which are developing disruptive technologies with established plans and management teams, demonstrated growth potential with strong commercial opportunities with a planned exit strategy. The Fund is a generalist fund, thereby the sector focus is agnostic and the type of businesses and opportunities can be anything that is SEIS compliant (typically small early stage companies in non-capital intensive sectors).

Highlights

T. 020 7788 7539 E. invest@jensonfunding.com www.jensonfundingpartners.com

• Two tranches closed and deployed this year.

• Target Size – £3 million in respect of the 2021/22 tranche.

• Diversified Portfolio of 8 to 12 investments per tranche.

• Nine exits to date with a range of multiple returns from x.5 to potential of x12.

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Open Offers

EIS Open

March 2012

Close

Evergreen

Amount to be Raised: £10m - £25m per annum

Minimum Investment: £20,000

T. 0131 556 0044 E. pauline.cassie@parequity.com www.parequity.com

Par EIS Fund Recognised as "highly commended" in the 2020 EIS Association Awards for Best EIS Fund Manager.

Across 22 realisations made to date, Par is demonstrating strong and consistent returns to investors.

Par Equity is a leading EIS fund manager, investing in innovative, high growth technology businesses across the north of the UK. We harness the expertise and contacts of our Par Investor Network and wider contacts to create a distinctive, operationally focused investment model that benefits both investors and entrepreneurs.

The Fund is focused on innovative companies. These are companies which are developing new technologies for sale or using advances in technology to disrupt existing markets. Par Equity has invested in companies operating in areas such as software, public health, e-commerce, social media, consumer electronics, photonics, technical textiles and medical devices. The unifying characteristic of Par Equity’s portfolio is therefore the importance of innovative technologies to the investment case underpinning each commitment of capital. In building the investment case, Par Equity draws on the experience, expertise and contacts of the Investment Team, but also the resources of individuals within the Par Investor Network. In this way, Par Equity can make informed decisions across a range of sectors, providing the potential for Investors, over a series of Subscriptions, to gain exposure to a diverse range of growth-oriented investments.

Strategy for the Fund: • Focused on early stage technology companies with high quality management teams addressing global markets • Co-investing with experienced angel investors who add value to portfolio companies at each stage through to exit • Target portfolio of 7 - 8 investments • Target deployment within 12 months • Expected holding period of 5 - 7 years with a benchmark IRR of 15% Experience and track record of the Fund Manager: as at 31st March 2021 • 90+ years’ experience in EIS • 256 EIS qualifying investments • 62 companies backed • £92m invested by Par leveraging a further £142m • 8.9 months average time taken to full deployment into 8 companies • 83 days on average for EIS3 certificates • 22 realisations to date

GB Investment Magazine

• 3.4x money multiple (before tax relief)

• 25% IRR (before tax relief)

• 4.5 years average holding period.

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CANDIDATES Financial Adviser: JB607757 Salary Indicator: £60,000

Location: LONDON

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Experienced Financial Adviser

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Many years within the industry, developing high levels of knowledge.

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Proven track record working with HNW clients.

Paraplanner: BS111846 Salary Indicator: £32,000

Location: MANCHESTER

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Over 15 years’ industry experience

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Worked in several roles including Senior IFA Administrator, Paraplanner and Business Manager

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Highly-capable individual who can produce complex suitability reports and undertake extensive research to provide optimum investment solutions to HNW individuals

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Immediately available following expiration of FTC in May 2021

Paraplanner – KL 441395 Salary Indicator: £35,000

Location: CARDIFF

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Dip Qualified Paraplanner, AF7 passed

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3 years+ Paraplanning experience

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Excellent attitude, hard-working, professional, great communication skills

Junior Paraplanner- Ref: 596975 Salary Indicator: £30,000+

Location: LONDON

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Obtained R01 - R05, Awaiting R06 result

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Worked as a Paraplanner for 1 year within his father's reputable IFA company

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Assisted with drafting letters, sits in on all client meetings, attends investment seminars, conducts research under the supervision of the Adviser

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Keen to secure a Junior Paraplanner / Junior Adviser role

Compliance Manager – AM540797 Salary Indicator: £50,000

Location: LONDON

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Highly experienced

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Held CF1, CF10 & CF11 positions

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Holds Diploma in Investment Compliance

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Available immediately

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CAREER OPPORTUNITIES Position: Paraplanner

Job Ref: LW65242

Salary: £30,000 - £40,000

Location: LEIGHTON BUZZARD

A reputable, financial firm is seeking a paraplanner to join their team. This company has experienced steady growth over the past few years and has achieved this through developing strong relationships and their balance of professionalism and friendliness has a big part to play in their success.

The Opportunity This is a fantastic chance to join a firm that can offer you a team environment and a chance to build on your existing experience. You will be working with a team of experienced administrators and paraplanners whilst supporting the firms IFA’s. Progression is highly supported.

• Bonus scheme • Employer pension contribution of 8% of basic salary (non contributory) • 35 hours per week • Christmas office closure in addition to normal holiday allowance.

• Will cover the cost of future CII exam entries and training material.

Position: Chartered Financial Planner Salary: Up to £75,000

Job Ref: JB63214

Location: ESSEX

Due to strong growth and expansion, this firm are looking to add an experienced Chartered Financial Planner to their team. This Financial Planning practice offers high quality holistic planning to HNW clients.

Position: Paraplanner Salary: £40,000+

Job Ref: BS64817

Location: WILMSLOW

During a period of key expansion, our client is looking for a highly experienced Paraplanner to support the successful Financial Planners of the business.

Responsibilities include; •

Assisting in the preparation and maintenance of client records

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Preparing recommendations

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Preparing Annual Reviews

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Assisting in the preparation and maintenance of central research systems, procedures and appropriate wording/appendices for suitability reports

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Position: Junior Paraplanner Salary: £25,000-£35,000

Job Ref: KL65202

Location: PONTYPRIDD

The opportunity for a Paraplanner to join a well-established Financial Services Practice which provides a highly personalised financial planning and investment management service.

The Opportunity • Support advisers in all file preparation for client meetings.

• Competent at preparing annual review reports.

• Ability to analyse investment funds.

• Prepare suitability letters and files for pre-approval by the advisor – able to convert soft facts & fact finds accurately to suitability letters.

What’s needed to be considered: • Previous experience within a Financial Planning role • Professional communication manner, both written and verbally • Any Financial Services qualifications are desired

Position: Junior Paraplanner Job Ref: AW65128 Salary: £30,000 - £40,000 Location: CITY OF LONDON The opportunity has arisen for an Experienced Administrator / Junior Paraplanner to join a new, and growing, IFA firm in City of London.

• The opportunity will involve working directly with the Founder to support with Paraplanning functions & sit in on all client meetings.

• This role is based on Lower Thames Street, in a fantastic state-of-the-art office overlooking Tower Bridge, and will sit within a team of 4 on the Wealth Management side of the business. You will be directly assisting the Founding Director/Adviser and you will be supported with progression & growth opportunities.

• Exams obtained towards the Level 4 Diploma is essential.

Position: Senior Mortgage Adviser Job Ref: AM65090 Location: LONDON Here is your opportunity to become a part of a rapidly growing financial business.

My client is looking for an established and experienced Mortgage Advisor to assist their clients.

The successful candidate will provide mortgage and protection solutions to help clients plan for both expected and unexpected eventualities.

You will need at three years’ experience and hold CAS. In return on offer is a competitive salary with OTE earnings of between £50,000-£60,000.

You will be expected to be a self-starter and have a good understanding of Buy-to-Let and residential mortgages.

If you’re looking for a chance for great income potential, independence and flexibility, we encourage you to apply today.

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May 2021 This month we have seen a few changes from the trend we were experiencing. There seems to be more people now unsure about moving jobs even though companies are calling out for new talent. Candidates may interview then decided they want to stay within their current firms, so be clear on why you are looking to change when you decided to move.

One thing that is now clear, is candidates have more options than ever before, we have seen candidates have up to 7 different interviews and so the process can feel like playing roulette. Companies need to act quickly, offer competitive salaries and packages to secure the top talent.

Should you be looking for any changes then please get in contact.

Alex Russon Associate Director – Financial Planning Division, Heat Recruitment Alex.russon@heatrecruitment.co.uk 0117 284 1248

What’s next?

If you are interested in any of the above opportunities, please contact us directly. If suitable, one of our specialist consultants will be in contact with you to discuss the opportunity in detail prior to submitting your Curriculum Vitae to the client. During this discussion, we will aim to identify your specific skills and motivations and, where appropriate, can also recommend other relevant opportunities to you that match your requirements.

And finally…

If these specific vacancies are not exactly what you are looking for, please contact us to discuss other opportunities we may be recruiting for that aren’t necessarily advertised.

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0330 335 8347 Visit the Heat Recruitment website for more details of these and hundreds of other jobs too www.heatrecruitment.co.uk

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Real change starts small.

At Vala, we’re investing in the early-stage, innovative companies that will change our future for the better.

Their visionary founders are creating technologies, products and services that will help us all live more sustainably.

And with change comes growth the Vala Sustainable Growth EIS targets substantial returns to investors.

Get in touch to find out more. invest@valacap.com 0203 951 0590 Investing in start-ups and early-stage businesses involves risks, including illiquidity, lack of dividends, loss of investment and dilution. EIS-qualifying investments should be seen as long-term investments. Investments are targeted exclusively at investors who understand the risks of investing in early-stage businesses and can make their own investment decisions. Please note that any investments into the Vala Sustainable Growth EIS Fund can only be made after an investor has received the information memorandum, Key Information Document and completed an application form. Investments made in investee companies via alternative investment funds are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Vala Capital Ltd (FCA number 827386) is an appointed representative of Sapphire Capital Partners LLP (565716), which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.