Ian Hemingway

“Talk less, listen more – then build a plan around what actually matters.”

I was one of the original employees at what was Ludlow Wealth Management, now part of Mattioli Woods. I ran the business rather than advised actively, although I’ve kept a small client bank I’ve worked with for 20 years and more. Our approach to financial advice has always been straightforward, and it’s the approach Ludlow was built on. Spend time with the client. Understand what their goals and objectives actually are. Talk less, listen more. Then build a plan around what matters to them. Products and funds sit a long way down the list of importance. Showing off technical knowledge in front of a client is, in my view, the wrong instinct. Leave the technical work and thinking for later, when you’re sat in front of a client, listen.

The job is the slow building of trusted-adviser status, then earning the right to keep it – with every client, year after year. The clients I’ve had for two decades aren’t there because of any single moment. They’re there because we consistently did what we said we’d do, never assumed standing still was an option, and never lost sight of who the advice was actually for. That’s still the approach. It’s why the firm has flourished, and it’s why our clients tend to stay.