Advertising Feature
BpH Wealth Celebrates 40 Years
BpH Wealth provides Lifestyle Wealth Management, helping their clients achieve a better balance between their money and their life. Michael Freedman, founder, and Simon Brown, partner, both share their reflections as the business turns 40 this year. 4. To not rely on banks for funding. I had found they provide an umbrella when it is sunny but withdraw it when it rains. 5. To treat any employees with respect. With no preconceptions of how to build a new business, I hit the ground running. I simply applied my principles and lot of hard work. I soon began to make new friends and colleagues through the wonderful flock of clients that accepted me as their adviser.
A Very Different Time
Michael - The history of BpH Wealth In 1984, I found myself at a crossroad of life. I was a Chartered Accountant (ACA) and had a high-level of experience running a clothing factory, employing over 300 staff. The 80s were not easy for manufacturer-exporters like us; the value of the Pound Sterling doubled overnight as interest rates reached 18% to “squeeze inflation out of the economy”. The sheet was clean, so I could apply my guiding values to wherever I went next. With my experience running a comprehensive trading company and my professional qualification, I set myself up to give advice on group pensions. This was a much-neglected area; half of employees were not provided for, relying solely on the meagre State Pension.
A Fresh Start My rules were, briefly: 1. To do something which relied on my brainwork, not the performance of many employees. 2 To maintain the high ethical standards I had developed through my accountancy studies. 3. To always put the client first. Simply, to only give advice I would be happy to give to my family.
The financial services sector, now arguably one of the most heavily regulated in the UK, was more like the Wild West back then. There was no regulator and no defined qualifications to be able to give advice. The old mantra in ‘The City’, “my word is my bond” gave a green light to many, self-appointed “experts”. In 1987 the first financial regulator, FIMBRA, came on to the scene amid howls of protest from the cowboys. However, as a Chartered Accountant, I thought a regulator was long overdue.
Growing
A Firm of Firsts Qualifications were initially not available, but these emerged from the Chartered Insurance Institute in the 90s. I had long wanted to demonstrate my skills extended from accounting to my present occupation. I rather naively applied to take a set of four exams in one week. I set to work in my evenings, much as I had done many years earlier for my ACA. This time though, I was well-versed in the subjects and was delighted to find that what the industry wanted was what I had been doing all along. Again, hard work paid off and I passed all my exams. A few years later, chartered status was granted to individuals who met the required standards. I was invited to the very first graduation ceremony, held with much pomp and pride at the Guild Hall. This was a high point for me and enabled me to set a standard for the other advisers to follow. Since then, the firm has sponsored ten chartered advisers and a good number are on the way, of which I am rather proud. In 2008, when firms
By the end of my first year, I had made some fine clients, many of whom I still help today, and employed a secretary. After four years, I asked Simon Brown if he would like to work with me, an opportunity he jumped at in 1988, he was 21. He worked for Sun Life and replied to me, that of the 400 companies he helped, mine was the only one with which he would like to be associated. We clicked. The week Simon joined me, we upped roots from my home office and moved into Oddstones House, our present home. Our client base continued to grow apace. Although I initially assisted companies, many staff and executives asked for my help. The individual side of advising came into being, forming the basis of our present practice.
www.artemis.uk.com • inspire@artemis.uk.com • 020 3931 6100
12 Inspire 63