Team Days

Our last team day was held at the Calcot Manor Hotel in Gloucestershire and was chaired by Sean Seccombe, one of our Senior Financial Planners. The theme of the conference was ‘Back to Basics’.

Sean introduced the conference with a letter that he had received from a female client some years ago. The writer apologised for the fact that she had not returned some financial information requested, but then went on to list some significant life events that had effectively got in the way of her focussing on investment administration matters.

This was a helpful reminder, at the start of the day, that, ultimately, helping our clients focus on ‘the important’ things in life – their family, their hobbies, their relationships - is what marks Paradigm Norton out as being different, and is the reason why many of our clients have worked with us for over 20 years.

Interestingly, feedback from our client audit and team days, showed us that what most of our clients value is ongoing evaluation as to whether or not they are on track to meet their life goals. Some clients commented that spending ‘time out’ reflecting on what is important to them is considered a key priority, because, with their lives being so busy, these important discussions can often be neglected.

The remainder of the day was spent in groups considering how we might deliver to our clients:

an even more efficient and streamlined financial planning service
a more efficient investment process

We invited two guest speakers to join us for the day. The first was Jasper Berens, the author of ‘Surviving the Storm’, an excellent report on the future of IFA businesses in the UK. Jasper’s presentation was well received, and confirmed to us that Paradigm Norton already satisfies the main criteria, identified in Jasper’s report, as being key success factors for a financial planning practice.

Jasper’s report recommends a team approach to planning, and outsourcing services that no longer remain key; namely mortgage broking. We are now focussed on our five core services: comprehensive financial planning, investment portfolio management, tax and estate planning, philanthropy planning, and financial planning for the family.

The afternoon session opened with a presentation from Frontier Capital Management, a company that offers a unique investment service that mirrors the structure of the US “Super Endowments” which are run by the Universities of Yale and Harvard.

At the end of the day Richard Child provided us with an update of the activities of the Paradigm Norton Trust and announced the new members of the Trust’s Governing Council.