Shortlists, Not Shopping Lists: Smarter Ways to Choose Professional Partners

By Daren Wallbank, Chartered Financial Planner, Ginkgo Financial

Running a business means making choices every day about who to trust. Lawyers, accountants, IT providers, insurers — the partners you choose can make or break your success. And as we all know, labels don’t always tell the full story.

Biggest isn’t always strongest. Familiar doesn’t always mean right. And in financial advice, “independent” doesn’t always mean what people assume.

One of the first questions people ask us is: Are you independent or restricted? Independent sounds like it must be better — more choice, more freedom. But in reality, the difference is more about process than principle.

Think of it like hiring

When you recruit, there are two common routes.

One option is to handle it yourself. You advertise the role, review CVs, and build a shortlist of candidates you know or like the look of. That’s a bit like how many independent advisers work: they narrow the field themselves, drawing on their knowledge, experience and perhaps a research tool such as Morningstar.

The other option is to use a specialist recruitment agency. They start with the full pool of candidates, apply structured screening and governance, and then present you with a refined shortlist. That’s closer to how Ginkgo Financial’s restricted model works. Through Quilter — one of the UK’s largest wealth managers — every provider and product is researched, tested, and monitored before it even reaches our panel. And if the panel isn’t right for you, we still have the option to go wider. Both approaches can produce strong candidates. The difference lies in who builds the shortlist, and what safeguards and resources sit behind it.

Why this matters for business leaders

The same principle applies in every professional decision. Too much choice can look attractive on paper, but what most business owners really want is quality over quantity — a shortlist they can trust, without wasting time on unsuitable options.

That’s why the process matters. Who is doing the filtering? How robust is their research? How resilient is the organisation behind them? Those questions are just as relevant when choosing an adviser as when appointing a supplier or senior employee.

How this plays out in financial advice

Independent advisers are free to recommend from across the whole financial marketplace. But in practice, no one adviser can realistically research every option for every client. Most create a personal shortlist of platforms and funds they know and trust — which they then use repeatedly.

At Ginkgo Financial, our shortlist is built differently. Quilter starts with the whole market, applies rigorous research and independent oversight, and produces a vetted panel. That gives our clients the reassurance of depth, consistency, and ongoing monitoring. And because we can step outside that panel when necessary, flexibility is never lost.

So both independent and restricted models involve curation. The real question is whether you prefer a list created by one adviser, or one backed by a team of experts with the scale, structure, and governance of a FTSE 250 company.

A final thought

At Ginkgo Financial, we believe restricted doesn’t mean fewer options — it means better ones. For our clients — many of them local business leaders in South East London like you — it’s about having confidence that every recommendation has been properly vetted, while still being tailored to your unique situation.

If you’d like to talk about how our approach works in practice, I’d be glad to explain it in person.

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