“The level shouldn’t change because you’ve caught me on a good day.”
When I’m asked which moment from my career I’d want a prospective client to see, my honest answer is: any of it. You shouldn’t have to catch me on a good day. The level should be the same on a quiet Tuesday afternoon as it is when something big is on the line. If a client could be a fly on the wall in any of my meetings, I’d be happy with what they saw.
I started at Bradford & Bingley Building Society back in the day. It doesn’t exist anymore, but it’s where I caught the bug. Within weeks of joining, the branch manager was sitting his financial adviser exams and asked if I wanted to do them alongside him. I said yes. We did them together and I qualified 12 months later. I’ve been with the business that became Mattioli Woods since 2007.
What matters in this job, in my view, is fairly simple. Build long-term relationships. Talk in plain English. Don’t use jargon. Get back to clients quickly. Incredibly, people are still surprised when you ring them back when you said you would. It shouldn’t be unusual, but apparently it is. Some clients want a lot of detail; others are happy to leave you to it. The job is giving each one the level of service that suits them.
I do a lot of pension and Inheritance Tax (IHT) work, and the legislation in both has shifted significantly. With pensions becoming part of the IHT calculation from 2027, the advice I’m giving clients now is genuinely different to what it was two years ago. One couple I took on three years ago had never thought seriously about their finances before. A year later, on New Year’s Eve, they told me they were toasting “to Jon” because they finally had a plan. That kind of thing sticks with you.
For me, the discipline behind this comes partly from running. I took it up in lockdown and it stuck. I’m out three times a week, 5k to 8k, pushing hard. I’ll catch younger runners and go past them, which feels quite good. The hard bit is making yourself leave the house but once you’re out there, it’s great. The same goes for the unglamorous parts of the job – admin, CPD, paperwork. You’ve got to be disciplined enough to do them when nobody’s watching.
Outside of work, my wife and I love to watch tennis and go to the Monte Carlo Masters each year. We’re also working our way through all the Grand Slams – Wimbledon and the US Open done, Australian Open in January, leaving the French to complete the set. We give up Saturday mornings to take a guide dog (Ronnie) out. There used to be a guide dog boarding centre near us, and when it closed, one of the dogs we’d looked after went to a man about ten miles away who can’t walk him himself. So we drive over and take him out each week.
That’s how I work; turn up, Do the basic things well, be the same person on any given day.
