“Every client deserves the same care you’d give a guest in your home.”
Before I ever talked about pensions or investments, I was running a restaurant and guest house in Scarborough. Long days, demanding guests, getting the details right, and making sure every single person who walked through the door left feeling looked after. It taught me more about people than any qualification ever could.
When the business was sold, I found myself at a crossroads. A tutor on a training course told me I had “the gift of the gab” and suggested a role at an insurance firm. I turned up at the local office only to find it closed. I knocked on the window anyway. The manager was still inside, heard the banging, and hired me on the spot.
My first role had me knocking on doors with a tea bag in my pocket, asking if I could sit down and talk finances over a cup of tea. Different setting, same instinct: put people at ease, earn their trust, and genuinely look after them. That mindset has shaped everything I’ve done across 36 years in financial services.
Over that time, I’ve held virtually every role in the industry including adviser, regional manager, operations director. But I always came back to advising, because it’s what I love. Nothing replaces sitting with a client at the end of a review and hearing: “I’m very happy with where we are.”
Good financial planning is really about communication and education. My job is to translate the complex into the clear – in your language, not the industry’s. Some clients want every detail walked through; others just need to know things are on track. I’ve helped clients hold steady through the 2008 financial crisis, the pandemic, and the volatile years in between. What keeps people calm isn’t prediction – it’s preparation and trust.
I work across wealth management and financial planning, covering investment strategies, Inheritance Tax planning, and pension advice. Whatever we’re working on, the goal is always the same: I want to be the first person you think of when a question comes up – not a helpline, not a department, but me.
I’m very proudly Italian, a Manchester United fan, and a keen golfer, and perhaps unsurprisingly, some of my best client conversations happen over 18 holes. Hospitality was my starting point. Looking after people has never stopped being the job.
