Your Financial Planning Maestro

In this week's episode we talk to David Burgess CFP™, Financial Planner at Bloomsbury Wealth, about his journey to CFP certification. He shares why he decided to embark on a career in financial services and why he want to seek out a great financial planning firm to work in. We talk in detail about the parts of the CISI L7 assessment process that were the hardest and what he did to overcome tho...

In this week's episode we talk to Steve McBurnie CFP™, paraplanner at Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie LLP, about his journey to become a Certified Financial Planner professional. We explore his approach, what happened along the way and how he achieved a long-held dream. This is a story of determination and hard work! Steven share's lots of tips to help you if you are thinking of embarking...

In this week's episode we talk to Daniel Ryan CFP™ Director and Client Advisor at UBS Wealth Management about his journey to become a CFP professional. Daniel shares is approach, honestly how long it took him and the different thought processes along the way. In this refreshingly honest interview, Daniel shares lots of do's and don'ts to help you avoid the mistakes that he made, the im...

In this week's Your Financial Planning Maestro podcast we talk to Sian Davies Cole CFP™co-owner at Plan Works about her journey to becoming a CFP professional as well as the importance of mentoring and why she helped set up the Paraplanner Club to give paraplanners more support across the profession. Sian's journey wasn't plain sailing, but determination and application of her extensiv...

In the final episode of this series we talk to Chloe Phillips CFP™, Financial Planner at Pura Vida Financial Planning. Chloe shares her journey to gain her CFP certification with lots of tips on how NOT to do things! Chloe is a self-confessed crammer and took quite a different approach to others that we have interviewed on our podcast. During this very honest interview, Chloe explains how she tack...

In this week's episode we talk to Lara Gentles CFP™ a Vice President at Santander Private Banking. Having recently passed her CISI L7 case study assessment and become a CERTIFIED FIANCNIAL PLANNER™, Lara shares her experience of the process as well as loads of tips along the way, including the things she wished that she had done beforehand, how she got ready for the assessment, her approach an...

In this week's episode we talk to Dante De Gori CFP® the newly appointed CEO of Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd. (FPSB). The FPSB is the global standards setting body for the international CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Certification which is licensed in 27 territories around the world and boasts over 213,000 CFP Professionals worldwide. In this episode we talk about the continued growth in n...

In this week's episode we talk to Louise Oliver CFP™ co-founder of Piercefield Oliver, a very successful financial planning business. We cover a wide range of subjects in this enlightening conversation, including: * How you can set up and run a boutique financial planning business, * How to attract more women into the profession and why more should be encouraged to become client facing advisers fo...

In this week's episode we talk to Dr. Moira Somers, a neuropsychologist, family wealth consultant, author and executive coach.  Moira specialises in behavioural economics and the psychology of money.  We talk to Moira about the practical things financial planners can do to improve the questions that they ask clients in order to gain a deeper understanding of their clients' needs. Moira's bio: In h...

In this week's episode we talk to Carly Dunningham CFP™, Director at Pavis Financial Management, about her journey to become a CFP professional. She shares her strategy and approach to the CISI level 7 case study financial plan assessment along with lots of practical tips and advice for those in the middle of the process as well as those contemplating it for 2023. Carly also shares her experiences...

In this week's episode we talk to Robert Lockie CFP™, branch principal at Bloomsbury Wealth, about a phrase that I see written quite a bit in financial plans for clients; I am going to err on the side of caution. Robert is one of the most well respected Certified Financial Planner professionals in the UK.  He has been a long-standing CFP professional and has a reputation for his knowledge and...

In the first episode of the fifth series of this podcast we talk to Jennifer Kay CFP™ who is a financial planner at Arlene Addison. Jennifer shares her journey to become a Certified Financial Planner professional, her views on why there aren't enough female financial planning role models and what benefits becoming a CFP professional has bought her both professionally and personally. Jennifer has a...

In the final episode of this series of podcasts we talk to Charlotte Phillips-Lynn, Senior Operations Analyst at Seccl. There are so many small changes that we can all make to make our workplaces more comfortable for our team members from the LGBTQA+ community.   Some of your team might not be 'out' as part of that community.  They might fear backlash or to be treated differently to othe...

In this week's podcast we are back to talking all things CFP certificate related with Carmen Bacaoanu, Head of Paraplanning at Wealth Matters. We talk about her journey in the financial advice industry, how she was treated, how she found people to support her and how she became a career paraplanner. Carmen also shares why it was important for her to gain her CFP certification and why she believes...

In this week's podcast episode we talk to Michael Yuille CFP™, Founder of Northern Cross Wealth Management about all things Certified Financial Planner.  Michael shares his journey to CFP certification and talks about how mentoring helped him gain his certification and to look at things a little differently. We also talk about the difference that that experience has made to him personally and...

In this week's episode we talk to Michelle Hoskin, founder and director of Standards International, about the work she is doing in the field of financial abuse. During the hard hitting interview we left no stone unturned and we talked about: ✔︎ How to spot clients who could potentially be being abused. ✔︎ How to identify those who are being financially abused. ✔︎ How to approach the conversations...

In this week's podcast episode we talk to Andy Booth, Senior Partner at Nine Wealth. Andy recently gained his CFP certification and talks through his journey to get there as well as offering lots of advice and tips along the way. Andy is using his CFP certification to great effect attracting by changing the way he asks client questions and how he thinks through their options when faced with meetin...

In this episode we talk to Katherine Pautard CFP™ about her journey to become a Certified Financial Planner Professional. Katherine started out her career wanting to be a midwife, but when she found that it wasn't her passion after all, she put her empathy, drive and ambition to use to become a great financial planner. She shares her journey to find her true vocation in life as well as her passion...

In this week's podcast episode we are back talking to Meg and James at the Verve Group and catching up on what they have learned since we lat talked to them. We had a really interesting discussion about the weight of expectations that they put on themselves when studying for exams.  We share their ups and downs and talk openly about how we all fail; some just don't want to admit it! If you ar...

In the first of the series, we talk to Gareth Tregidon CFP™, CEO and Head of Financial Planning at Nugenis Financial Planning Ltd. Gareth was a CFP assessor for the Institute of Financial Planning L6 and Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment L7 financial plan case study assessor for many years and has assessed 600 financial plan assessments! We talk all things assessment related includ...

In the final episode of this series, we talk to Andy Bounds, one of the best communicators I know! We waste many hours each week cc'ing people into needless emails, covering your backside and preparing to blame your manager when they don't instantly recall said email and swoop in to fix mistakes. We are swamped with so many emails that we miss the critical ones, we can't make decisions quickly. An...

In this week's episode we talk to Brett Davidson, FP Advance, about how to attract and communicate with clients. When trying to attract new clients, it's tempting to try to appeal to a wide audience, but that's not how things work when it comes to attracting clients. Growth doesn't come from comfortably blending in and in this episode we take a deep dive into: - Focus on what makes you unique - Ow...

In this week's episode we talk to Ian McKenna, Director of the Financial Technology Research Centre about all things technology in the financial planning profession. Find out what new tools are coming on to the market and where you can achieve more efficiencies in your business. We also talk about how the FCA is changing the face of tech and what are the likely changes on the horizon for advisers...

In this week's episode we talk to Jonathan Gibson CFP™ about how his journey to build his own financial planning firm and how he's so passionate about attracting new talent, that he's doing things differently. We talk about the biggest influencers in his life, the successes and failures along the way and what he's doing to attract new talent to the profession. Jonathan's firm has the Lockie Consul...

Better client questions leads to better information, better outcomes for clients and ultimately happier clients!  Do you think you ask great questions?  Think again! In this week's episode we talk to Brendan Frazier, the founder of Wired Planning in the US.  He has a refreshing way of improving the quality of the questions you ask your clients.  We discuss the content of questi...