Trust in your financial planner

Finance is based on trust. “I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of ten pounds,” writes the chief cashier of the Bank of England on the ten-pound note. In finance, as in life, you certainly know when you trust someone – and losing that is an awful feeling. But how does a financial planner obtain the trust of someone like you?  And, more importantly, how does it help you win?

A slow rise, a sharp fall

Trust matters.

If you Google ‘trust in finance’ you get hit after hit on trusts … the legal structure that enables you to manage assets effectively.

Care to guess how many hits on the idea of trust, as in “I trust you”? It’s not many.

Does finance have a trust issue?f

Experts at the big consultancy Edelman suggest it may.

Their annual trust barometer places financial services amongst the least trusted of business sectors globally. Only fashion (think sweatshops) and social media (need we say more?) are less trusted by consumers around the world. You can see for yourself on p.47 of their latest report.

We all know bad news travels fast and far. The collapse of Tesla sales in Europe or the perception of oil companies after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster are just two examples.

Trust rises slowly; it falls sharply.

In the finance world, building and maintaining this is everything. It helps financial planners and their clients operate effectively – and it helps you succeed.

Trust me … I’m a Viking

The word ‘trust’ came over here on a Viking longship. In Old Norse, ‘traust’ means strong, confidence, security, shelter or a safe space.

Not many safe spaces from Viking raiders we presume, but we’ve clearly inherited a word that inspires assurance and confidence. After all, trust is something to ‘win’ (or lose).

“I trust you,” is a meaningful statement in anyone’s book. You might say it rarely. But you might rarely say it without meaning it.

On the other hand, “trust me,” hits slightly differently. As Keanu Reeves says in Point Break, “you gotta earn trust.”

And this is what we do.

A relationship built on trust

Client feedback is telling. In reality, it’s about the only metric that matters.

After all, you essentially say to your financial adviser, “Here is my and my family’s fortune. I’ve worked tremendously hard for it. Please take the utmost care.”

That’s a pretty big ask. You’re basically saying, “I trust you.”

And what we tend to do is respond with three things.

Firstly, we say that we’ve plenty of experience working with individuals and families just like yours. It’s true. We’ve been going for 17 years and have supported thousands of clients towards successful outcomes.

Then we talk about how we do that. We follow something called evidence-based investing. This uses decades of academic research and about a hundred years of market data. For example, the overwhelming evidence is that smaller companies tend to outperform larger ones. We apply all this empiricism to your money. And at no point do we deviate from the facts.

Lastly, we listen, actively. Anyone can hear. It’s much harder to listen – especially when you’re in this line of work and you desperately want to help. The more we listen, the more we can help.

We just keep repeating this until you get to where you need to go.

A bumpy road?

There’ll be problems along the way: markets fall, projects don’t take off, illness strikes. But we help you solve those problems sensibly and rationally.

Does this sound like a relationship based on trust to you?

It’s not really for me to say. But some of our clients talk about it here. I find their perspectives on our relationships fascinating and heartwarming. It really is the only metric that matters.

If it’s something you’d like to talk about as well why not give us a call on 020 7467 2700 or email at hello@firstwealth.co.uk or call.

This document is marketing material for a retail audience and does not constitute advice or recommendations. Past performance is not a guide to future performance and may not be repeated. The value of investments and the income from them may go down as well as up and investors may not get back the amount originally invested.