Each month Financial Planner interviews a leading Financial Planner to ask him or her to share best practice ideas from their business and the story of how they and their colleagues built their company. This issue we talk to Ian O'Connor of Astute Financial Planning in Kent.
Financial Planner: Congratulations on being recognised as the latest Accredited Financial Planning Firm^TM, why did you apply and what do you hope to gain from the accreditation?
IOC: I was encouraged to apply by the very high quality of the Financial Planning firms becoming accredited, many of whom I know very well. The key point being that these firms do 'exactly what it says on the tin' and have done so for many years. I also gain recognition from my peers in the Financial Planning profession that we meet the required standards to become an Accredited Firm and reassurance for existing clients and new ones that the level of advice and the comprehensive nature of the Financial Planning services we offer, meet the stringent requirements demanded by the IFP in providing the accreditation.

FP: How has your company changed since its launch and what's the journey been like? How many clients do you have and how have you and the company developed?
IOC: Astute FP started trading in January 2006 as a sole adviser practice with my wife Sue, who helps me on the accounts side of things and handles the non-client office admin. Jackie Price joined us in September 2010 as my PA and she helps me with client administration, preparing for client meetings and following up afterwards. From day one Astute FP has only offered comprehensive Financial Planning advice and we do not take on any one- off work, or transactional work, of any kind. We now have 35 clients. Every client has a Financial Life Plan in place and we use Prestwood to provide the Lifelong Cash Flow Models.
I qualified as a CFP^CM professional in March 2001 and as a Fellow of the IFP in 2007. In 2008 I carried out a major review of our investment strategy and philosophy following a chat with Mark Taylor CFP^CM during and after the 2007 IFP Conference. Sharing ideas is one of the major benefits of being part of the IFP / CFP^CM professionals community.
He recommended that I researched the passive approach to investing, which he had used for some time and favoured. We now recommend low-cost passive portfolios to our clients and we predominantly use passive funds from Dimensional.
This year Astute FP has enlisted the services of Tim Hale (author of 'Smarter Investing'), to provide expert help, advice and guidance on our passive portfolio construction and our whole investment process and governance.

FP: What type of Financial Planning service do you offer clients and what are your fees?
IOC: We have adapted the George Kinder Three Questions Lifestyle Planning process and have built that into our initial and ongoing discussions with clients, to help them describe and achieve their goals in life.
We only offer comprehensive Financial Planning using cashflow modelling. In line with the six stage process, after first building our clients' Financial Life Plans; we will liaise with their other advisers (solicitors and accountants), put in place any catastrophe planning arrangements and so on, advise on and arrange investments and pension plans and provide the usual advisory services.
Regarding our fees, we charge on a different basis to most other Financial Planners or firms that I speak to. We charge our fees based on a formula of £2,500 per annum plus 0.25 per cent per annum of all investments, including cash savings but excluding property lived in. This reflects the fact that we provide a comprehensive Financial Planning service; looking at every area of our clients' financial affairs, not just their investment portfolio.

FP: What have been your best ways to source new clients? Please give examples of what works most effectively?
IOC: We started six years ago with around 30 clients and we now have 35. In that time we have taken on around 10 new clients. Around five clients have either sadly passed away, or their financial futures have been secured and their circumstances changed such that it would not make sense for them to retain our annual Financial Planning service.
We do not actively market ourselves for new clients at the moment or since I started the business; although that will change in around three months to six months time, when we will look to gradually increase the number of our clients up to around 50 in total. The new clients who have joined us have been referred by our existing clients and by a very good solicitor I have known for many years.

FP: What software applications do you use and what sort of internal processes do you run in brief to ensure everything runs smoothly?
IOC: We use Prestwood Software for our Financial Planning, which we use with our clients during meetings and then follow up afterwards with a written Financial Life Plan and comprehensive meeting notes (using our standard templates).
We also use Prestwood Software for our back office; and so we only have to key the information once. We personally find Prestwood easy to use; it is very reliable, the staff are helpful and knowledgeable; and one of the least talked about aspects of the software is the Client Contact History (which includes a scanning facility), where we can find documents and information within seconds literally. We now predominantly use the AJ Bell SIPP Centre / AJ Bell Securities platform to hold pension assets and investments and we import real time investment data into Prestwood, using Investment Portfolio templates we have set up within Prestwood, to report on asset allocation and carry out rebalancing for our clients.

FP: You've won two IFP Awards, the Jonathon Timms and the Tony Sellon awards, what did you win these for and what impact did they have?
IOC: In the IFP's words: the Jonathon Timms Award is given each year to the individual who has submitted the best response to the Financial Planning case study set for CFP Certification. The IFP's Tony Sellon Memorial Prize is known as the 'good egg' award and is made to the person that has contributed most significantly to the development of Financial Planning in that year. I was really proud to have won the Jonathon Timms Award in 2001; I put 60 hours into preparing my case study and was delighted it was judged to be good enough to win the award that year. By way of giving back I made a conscious effort, after winning the Jonathon Timms Award, to help the IFP promote 'real' Financial Planning and I was awarded the 'good egg' award in 2003.
Both awards certainly helped my career. It also gave my clients the reassurance that they were dealing with a planner who was trying to do the best job for them and who was helping the then emerging profession of Financial Planning.

FP: As well as being a CFP^CM professional, you're also a Fellow of the IFP. Why did you apply for Fellowship and how does it feel to be part of such a select group?
IOC: To become a Fellow you have to take four three-hour exams over two consecutive days! Why would you want to do that?! For me, it was because many of the real Financial Planners I had met and learnt from in the early days of joining the IFP were Fellows of the IFP and they were the ones who had inspired me and whom I looked up to as the thought leaders in the profession. I aspired to be a Fellow of the IFP and, after much encouragement from Robert and Jackie Lockie, I plucked up the courage to give it a go; and I passed the four exams which I took in November 2007. They were the hardest set of exams I have taken but with proper preparation they are do-able!
The good news is that you can spread the exams over two sittings; taking the Personal Financial Planning papers and Planning for the Business Owner papers, separately. I understand that there is also now another route to gaining Fellowship of the IFP via a Level 7 Masters (MSc) Degree in Financial Planning at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Achieving the CFP^CM qualification in 2001 was a proud moment for me and going through the process changed my whole mindset. I had always tried to provide a comprehensive Financial Planning service to our clients; but the CFP certification and all of the knowledge and information provided through the IFP, 11 years ago and since, has helped me improve and refine the tools and processes to deliver a fantastic service to my clients.

FP: What are the requirements for Fellowship and what would you say to those thinking of applying?
IOC: As I have described above; believe in yourself and anything is possible! However, if you stand still; the world passes you by. The IFP Fellows do not think of themselves as some sort of elite club; they are really friendly people, committed to helping others who have gone the extra mile, both in taking the exams and then giving back, for the good of us all. We usually meet twice each year to share ideas and work on things that are most likely to further the profession of Financial Planning.
We have a Fellows' LinkedIn forum which we use to communicate with each other, to share best practice and offer advice and possible solutions to Fellows' technical queries. The CFP certification perhaps could be likened to passing your driving test; it gives you the skills to go out on the road and plan the route for clients. The Fellowship of the IFP is the next natural stage in the development of your career.

FP: Are you ready for the RDR and what effect will have on the industry?
IOC: Yes, mostly ready. I thought I had done all of my RDR gap fill, which was the case on the financial advice and planning side months ago but then I discovered, when applying for my SPS, that if I advise clients occasionally to, for example, sell an individual security, to diversify into a portfolio of passive funds; then I will need to have in place gap fill for 'advising on and arranging securities and/or derivatives.' My flight to Crete this summer will now involve 150 pages of gap fill reading; sad but true. Apart from the gap fill, everything is in place as we have been providing a fee-based comprehensive Financial Planning service for many years now. Our service and advice is open and transparent with our clients' best interests at the heart of everything.
If you subscribe to the principles of the IFP's Code of Ethics (and your own for that matter) then complying with RDR will not present any major problems, because ethics will sit well above FSA compliance. Perhaps the only change required will be in the terminology used to describe our services and client agreements, in the new RDR speak.

FP: If you could change anything about the profession what would you choose?
IOC: If someone wants to call themselves a Financial Planner, that they are required to hold a recognised 'Financial Planning' qualification; and that they do 'exactly what it says on the tin', day in, day out. Additionally, less paper!

FP: What do you like doing outside of work?
IOC: Watching our family grow, mature and develop, having a laugh with family and friends, playing golf and tennis, gardening and walking our cocker spaniel Alfie.