FISHER DUGMORE FINANCIAL
FISHER DUGMORE FINANCIAL
Helping YOU Become
Financial Independent PRODUCTION: Karl Pietersen
Andrew Dugmore of financial planning and wealth specialist business Fisher Dugmore talks to Enterprise Africa about how his business can help clients keep more of their hard-earned money and how he expects the company to continue growing strongly in the coming years.
//
Last month, we heard from one half of the dynamic duo at the head of Fisher Dugmore, the Gauteng-based boutique financial advisory firm. Dave Fisher told us that Fisher Dugmore had managed to
2 / www.enterprise-africa.net
achieve yearly growth of 15 to 20% because of its ability to build “very close relationships with clients, providing one-on-one trust-based relationships where we do everything for them.” This month we talk to the other
half of the business, Fisher’s Partner and co-Director Andrew Dugmore about his plans for growth and we ask if he feels as positive about the future as his colleague. “I go to sleep just so I can wake
www.enterprise-africa.net / 3
INDUSTRY FOCUS: FINANCE
up and come back into this business,” he says. “If I had a choice, I would do the same work for no pay. We love this business and we love the interaction with our clients.” Dugmore, also a certified financial planner, is passionate about helping his clients manage their wealth. He heads up the Silver Lakes office of Fisher Dugmore, located just 30 minutes drive from the company’s Centurion office. Clearly, he is confident about the company’s strategy. “It’s always a learning curve,” he admits, “but we consistently perform well and I expect us to continue performing well. It’s an attitude towards life and an attitude towards investment and saving – with a positive attitude business usually goes well. A positive mindset works wonders for anything.” PASSIVE INCOME The profile of a typical Fisher Dugmore client places the individual among South Africa’s top LSM classes. They usually are high net worth individuals, with various income streams, who can afford the services of a first-class financial planner. Fisher Dugmore brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to these clients. And the whole idea is around helping people keep more of their money. “We do complete, holistic financial planning but on a very personal basis,” explains Dugmore. “Dave came up with the river-dam concept – everyone earns a stream of income and we strategize for our clients to build dams in the river to stop the money disappearing – and with that concept we help create passive income. Whether its dividends from shares, rental properties, pension
// A LOT OF PEOPLE WASTE A LOT OF MONEY ON A MONTHLY BASIS WITHOUT EVEN REALISING // 4 / www.enterprise-africa.net
// WE EVENTUALLY REALISED THAT WE HAD SO MANY THINGS RUNNING TOGETHER THAT WE DECIDED TO REBRAND THE WHOLE GROUP. THE RESULT IS A BUSINESS OF MUCH LARGER SCALE. WE HANDLE AROUND R3 BILLION IN INVESTMENT // or from an income stream through a business that runs independently. We try and get the clients to understand that as soon as passive income equals their lifestyle expenses, they become financially independent.” A big part of this financial management system is budgeting. “We are very big on budgeting,” says Dugmore. At its very core, this is the practice of estimating income and expenditure over a set period, and it is as vital for individuals as it is for successful businesses. The difference between Fisher Dugmore’s system is that it is tailored, clear, realistic and strict. “Most families or most individuals go on holiday at the end of the year but they haven’t made provision for paying for that holiday and they use a credit card which they then pay off at 24% over the next year and a vicious cycle begins. We develop savings pockets to care for all of our client’s financial concerns and they have no shocks. It’s very personal and based around each individual lifestyle,” Dugmore explains. He says instilling a savings culture at the front of the mind is of the utmost importance. But that is not easy. South Africa’s savings rate was as high as 23% in 1960 and is now only 16%, according to recent figures from the World Bank. Compare that to Europe or the US where the figure is always over 20% and sometimes as high as 30%. However, at the Fisher Dugmore end of the market, execution of the right strategy can reap rewards. “A savings culture is taught. It depends very much on upbringing, education and environment. If people are used to that sort of culture, they usually follow it. Many do not have
the correct financial education to get involved with a savings culture because they simply do not have knowledge of it, so we try and empower people with knowledge so they can see what compounding interest can do for them – knowledge is power at the end of the day. “We try and align people with a savings concept. We use a system called Super Saving. A lot of people waste a lot of money on a monthly basis without even realising. We start people saving and every quarter, we increase their saving by 10%. In the first couple of years, people always seem to find the money in the budget. It’s all done electronically so it’s very easy. We very much believe in the savings culture,” says Dugmore. FISHER & DUGMORE Dave Fisher and Andrew Dugmore aligned their mentality long before they formed their business. Their involvement in the financial services industry goes back a long way and begins at Sanlam in the late 80s. The pair were working as investment planners before both leaving the corporate to become independent. Dugmore resigned from Sanlam in 1988 and started his short-term practice with Fisher doing the same soon after. “For a long time, we couldn’t get the businesses to grow so we decided to put the two short-term practices together and appoint managers to look after them. That was in 2006 and that was the first real step in us working together officially. That short-term practice has now grown into a really big entity,” says Dugmore.
YOU’VE SPENT YEARS WRITING YOUR SUCCESS STORY. NOW IT’S TIME TO SIGN ON THE DOTTED LINE.
At PPS we encourage leading professionals to continue realising their ambitions. We provide excellence in financial, investment and insurance solutions to ensure graduate professionals have the freedom to focus on their goals and benefit from a Profit-Share Account that has no rival.
If you’re good enough to get in, why would you go anywhere else? For more information contact your financial advisor or visit www.pps.co.za
INDUSTRY FOCUS: FINANCE
// YOU HAVE TO TEACH CLIENTS THAT MARKETS DO GO UP AND DOWN AND ITS BENEFICIAL TO STAY PUT. IT’S ABOUT EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE // Eventually it became clear that separate businesses was just doubling costs. The businesses were almost identical in every way and shared a similar culture. The obvious move was to merge fully.
Andrew Dugmore - Director
6 / www.enterprise-africa.net
“We started noticing that we are doing exactly the same thing in two separate locations. We are employing the same type of people, using the same software, using the same systems, with the same ideologies, but duplicating costs. This is where the rebranding came about. “We eventually realised that we had so many things running together that we decided to rebrand the whole group. The result is a business of much larger scale. We handle around R3 billion in investment. My office is in Silver Lakes, Dave sits in Centurion and our securities company, headed by Duncan Kirkman, is also in Centurion.”
EDUCATING Fundamental in the offering from Fisher Dugmore is the transfer of knowledge from the experienced team within the company to its clients. Suggesting the best products and services is one thing, but empowering people with knowledge is invaluable and something which Dugmore is only too happy to do. “We are proud to educate people,” he says. “Even if a client isn’t financially big for us, we like to part with our knowledge so that we can uplift. We’ve been in this business for more than 30 years and we know that eventually people’s circumstances change and they become valued clients. If we can leave a good impression then we have been successful.”
FISHER DUGMORE FINANCIAL
In challenging times, educating people in correct financial behaviour is so important. The last few years have seen a stagnant economy grow only minimally and foreign exchange markets become very unpredictable. Dugmore admits that the challenges in the markets have been visible for his clients, but again points to education as the key. “In the lean years, like the last three years, investment portfolios have been very flat. You have to teach clients that markets do go up and down and its beneficial to stay put. Again, it’s about education and knowledge. The markets have certainly been affected in the past three years; balanced funds have been running at 5% where previously they were running at 11-12%. Obviously, politics has played its part but that is also part of an education.” Dugmore believes that an upswing in the South African economy is coming in the future, but says even during tough times, there are opportunities. “Over the longer-term there will likely be a positive change but it’s not an instant fix. South Africans have gone through many hard times before but they have always survived. Because our inflation rate and interest rate is fairly high, returns on average remain higher than worldwide.” In terms of the growth of Fisher Dugmore in South Africa, both Directors believe there is much opportunity. There will not be an expansion of the physical footprint, but there will be growth of business through development of existing relationships and continuing to drive referrals. MASTERS OF WEALTH “Our strategy is to build with our existing clients and to bring more on board. We have a lot of clients and they keep us busy. We have very strong admin offices and our new business comes from referral – we don’t tout for new business. Organic growth is our preferred method; we tried previously with our short-term business to buy
Today your children love you for who you are. Tomorrow, they will love you for who they are. A good education is essential for your children to maximise their potential. With Discovery Life’s Global Education Protector, you can make sure they get the best. Should something happen to you, your children’s education from crèche through to the end of tertiary education is covered at some of the best institutions both locally and abroad. Better still, if you don’t claim and lead a healthy lifestyle through our Vitality programme, their tertiary education could cost you nothing. Your children deserve all the rewards life has to offer.
SPEAK TO YOUR FINANCIAL ADVISER TODAY Discovery Life Limited. Registration number 1966/003901/06, is a registered long-term insurer, and an authorised financial services and registered credit provider, NCR Reg. No. NCRCP3555. Product rules, terms and conditions apply. Subject to limits determined by Discovery Life.
other books and it was not successful, you have to have a relationship with clients from the start. “We have just opened a corporate saver with Nedbank and we can open savings accounts on behalf of our clients and take instructions to transfer money to third parties anywhere. We deal with anything from medical aid, estate planning, investments, stock broking, life planning – it’s a full package, we are a one stop shop, there are very few products that we don’t offer,” says Dugmore. He adds that the company will also soon get to a position where more financial planners are required to satisfy the workload. When recruiting, the company prefers to bring in people that can absorb training and add to the already talented group. “Training is very important – you must have the
knowledge and ability. We like to get people and train them from scratch, teaching them how we work and encouraging them to get involved with our culture.” Asked if the company can continue on the successful growth path that has seen it become one of the country’s undoubted masters of wealth navigation, Dugmore is unequivocal. “We can certainly sustain it, we just have to carry on delivering the service,” he says. “Because we deliver on a personal basis, meaning we are actual faces in a company, we can still handle the smaller clients as well as the biggest.”
WWW.FISHERDUGMORE.CO.ZA
www.enterprise-africa.net / 7
Published by CMB Media Group Chris Bolderstone – General Manager E. chris@cmb-media.co.uk Sackville Place, 44-48 Magdalen Street, Norwich, NR3 1JU T. +44 (0) 20 8123 7859 E. info@cmb-media.co.uk www.cmb-media.co.uk CMB Media Group does not accept responsibility for omissions or errors. The points of view expressed in articles by attributing writers and/ or in advertisements included in this magazine do not necessarily represent those of the publisher. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained within this magazine, no legal responsibility will be accepted by the publishers for loss arising from use of information published. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in a retrievable system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher. Š CMB Media Group Ltd 2018
AS FEAT UR ED IN
ENTERPRISE AFRICA
SEPT EMBER 2018