Mattioli Woods PLC - Financial Planning Newsletter

10 In the 1990s Ian Mattioli and Bob Woods teamed together to create a brand new and exciting pension and wealth management company – Mattioli Woods – and had high hopes of what they could achieve within the first 12 months. The company is now celebrating its 30th anniversary and we spoke with Ian and Bob about what has happened since they started out in a converted garage in Leicester. IM It seems like yesterday since we started out and while the technology and everything’s changed I think, at the core, nothing has change because you know, we’re still so wedded to honouring the trust that our clients have placed in us. And I think it’s been a privilege over the years. BW You’re right. It seems just like yesterday we were in the garage and you were making me bacon sandwiches and I was squeezing in to get behind the desk but you’re right, the fundamentals haven’t changed. Clients need exactly the same kind of support and care. IM I remember a few of our competitors used to slate us for working out of the garage but we were so technologically advanced. BW Yes we started with a clean piece of paper but we filled it pretty quickly. I do remember those long trips up to the northeast where we still had dictating tapes as opposed to the sort of the software we have now. IM But that’s made it so much more efficient, dictating into your iPhone and sending it via a link to somebody who can type it or these days even I can type so the world’s moved on and that’s made us so much more efficient. BW I think the dictating software has been massive because we can turn around a response to a meeting within 24 hours easily. IM That’s so important for clients particularly when we’re still trying to lower their costs, that’s how we do it! If we’re more efficient we can pass some of those efficiencies onto clients. I’d still like to get our costs down a bit lower and I think we will achieve that in time because the technology particularly with code is just moving so quickly. BW I think the interesting thing about technology too, it’s actually obviously raised the bar in terms of everybody’s expectations of response levels and times and the technology we’ve got means that we can actually cope with that relatively easily. Do you think technology has been an asset during the recent pandemic? IM I think one of my big worries moving into all of this was ‘can we see new clients in this environment?’ and we are seeing new clients and it’s great to have them on board because that’s how a business grows. Thankfully, we’ve got this young consultancy team as well. We’re a bit grey and old in the tooth these days but the young team, they absolutely know how to use this technology and that’s going to be for the benefit of the clients. 11 “..in a fast-changing world it’s absolutely essential that clients have an adviser that absolutely is up to date in terms of what’s going on.” Bob Woods