A retirement that has become real
Usually somebody in their fifties who has started asking what the runway actually looks like.
For accountants and professional advisers
The independent financial planner for your clients.
When your client needs financial advice, and you want to know exactly who you are sending them to.
Why this matters
An introduction puts a little of your reputation into somebody else’s hands.
Referring a client to another professional is never a small thing. You have spent years building that relationship.
You can tell them exactly where they stand today, but does your client have complete peace of mind regarding their future financial plans?
For this you want somebody who will treat them the way you would, tell them the truth, and hand them straight back to you.
01A business sold
02A retirement
03An inheritance
04A divorce
05A client left on their own
A different perspective
The questions I ask my clients are ones I have had to answer myself.
As the one in my family who thinks about money for the generation above me and the one below, I have been in my clients’ shoes. My training as a Chartered Accountant did not answer the deeper questions about my own future.
Since I stopped practising as an accountant I have spent years in corporate work, in organisational strategy, and in education as a teacher and a university lecturer. I am now an independent financial planner, and that combination gives me a different perspective on how I work, and why I do it.
Where I start
Most advisers start with the money. I start with the person.
The money question cannot be answered until you know what the money is for. Almost every client approaching retirement or trying to get the best out of their business arrives with the same question: do they have enough to walk away on their own terms?
Nobody can answer it until somebody has worked out what they actually spend in their future life.
Excess wealth & legacy planning
Retirement planning & lifestyle goals
Protection, safety net & debt management
Cash reserve · emergency & contingency fund
You cannot do the work at the top until the bottom is in place. Too many people have been sold something from the middle by somebody who never checked the full picture.
Why introducers work with me
Your client gets a plan rather than a product.
If the right answer is to leave things as they are, that is what they will hear.
I take on a limited number of clients, so nobody ends up as a file that gets opened once a year.
If I do not think I can do good work for someone, I say so and nothing happens.
“Duncan is a skilled and experienced financial advisor who is scrupulously honest and trustworthy… It gives me peace of mind to know that he is our advisor.”
When to refer
When it stops being an accounting question.
You will recognise these better than I will. They are the moments where a client needs somebody with permissions you do not have.
Pensions scattered across old employers
Twelve accounts in five places is not a plan, and nobody fixes it on a wet Sunday afternoon.
A large sum arriving
A sale, a settlement, a maturity, a payment well outside the usual pattern.
A business changing hands
A business being sold, or an owner who has started to change their relationship with it.
An inheritance
One that solves a problem for your client and creates a larger one for the generation below.
A client widowed or divorcing
Making these decisions on their own for the first time.
The useful test is not what they earn. It is whether something has accumulated, and whether there is a decision in front of them they may only get to make once.
A useful test
Three questions you can ask any financial planner.
Nobody should choose a financial planner on the strength of a document. These three work on anybody, me included.
01
Has anyone worked out what my client actually wants to do in the future?
02
Are they clear on what that might cost?
03
Has anyone talked to them about their wider financial peace of mind, beyond simply placing investments?
What you gain
A planner who will never compete with you.
- I am not a tax practitioner and have no ambition to become one.
- A client who comes back to you better informed, and who stays yours.
- A three-way conversation whenever it helps, rather than your client carrying messages between us.
- Someone who will tell your client the truth, including the parts that earn me nothing.
What your clients gain
Clarity, independence, and one person.
- Relief. A clear picture of what risks they are solving, often for the first time.
- A plan, not a product. Advice that can be to spend it or to give it away.
- Independence. I am not tied to anyone’s funds or platform.
- One person. They deal with me, not with somebody they never meet.
“Duncan has a great way of making complex finance jargon easy to understand and is very pragmatic in his approach… an absolute consummate professional and also really fun and enjoyable to work with.”
A simple handover
How introductions work.
1
We meet first, before any client is involved, so you can decide whether I am somebody you would put in front of one.
2
When the moment arrives, you make the introduction by email.
3
I offer your client half an hour, at no cost and with no obligation.
4
If I can help, I explain what that involves and what it costs before anyone commits to anything.
5
If I cannot help, or they are better off doing nothing, I tell them so.
My commitment to you
I will take as much care with your clients as you do, and keep you involved as far as they are comfortable with. You should never have cause to regret putting your name to a suggestion to your client.
Ready-to-use wording
How you can introduce me.
When you introduce a client to me, your relationship with them stays exactly where it is. They come back to you, and so do I.
“That is a financial planning question rather than a tax or accounting one. I’d like to suggest Duncan Butler-Wheelhouse and I would be happy to put the two of you together. He trained as a Chartered Accountant before moving into planning. He helps people in your position and really takes the time to understand your situation. The first conversation is half an hour and there is no charge for it.”
A first conversation. No client involved.
Let’s connect
Get to know me before you send anyone my way.
Every accountant I work with wanted to know me before they sent anyone my way, which seems entirely sensible to me.
So the first step is half an hour with no client involved. Bring a live question you have run into if you want to make it useful, or just see whether the two of us would work well together.
01483 917 311