Professional standards

All Independent Financial Advisers are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. You can check my entry on the Financial Services Register here.

The Financial Conduct Authority requires, as a minimum, that advisers hold the Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning.  

In addition, I hold further exams at Advanced Diploma level in Pension Planning, Personal Tax and Trust Planning, and Investment Planning, as well as additional modules in Long Term Care Insurance and Discretionary Investment Management.

I am also an affiliate of STEP, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, holding their Certificate for Financial Services - Trusts and Estate Planning.

Before becoming an IFA, I worked for many years as a finance director in a number of different industries, which included several years as trustee of my company’s pension fund.

My business receives back office services and support from the Sense network.   

Sense is authorised and regulated by the FCA and provides back-office services to small, independent financial advisers like me. They provide checks of the work that we do, ensure that our training and qualifications are up to date, and provide research into products and investments, as well as giving training and other support. I chose Sense after looking at several other networks, and selected them for the importance they give to treating customers fairly, the quality of their technology and client interface, and their rigorous approach to compliance.