Client Update
August 9, 2019 - 3 minutes read
Posted by James Spencer
As we all wind down for the Summer Holidays I thought it would be a good time to reflect on some of the external events and also internal events within Xentum in the first half of this year.
Economics and political uncertainty
As I write this from Northumberland whilst my children are on the beach, I was reminded that my late father once told me; “focus on what you can control.”
The simple fact is that the world has not become more uncertain, it is purely the number of ways which we can consume news now that makes it seem like things are more chaotic. We are reminded every minute of negativity within the world without respite. If they focused on the positive it wouldn’t be news.
We may fear a Boris or Corbyn Government and we may have to adapt but until any of the challenges reveal themselves there is simply nothing we can do so we can only focus on what we can control and you cannot control politics.
Try to ignore the speculation about policies and tax as very rarely do they come to fruition when people actually come to power.
Company Update
In the last few months we have welcomed Rachel Ward and Angela Willis to the technical and admin teams and both look like they will be great additions.
We continue to be extremely busy with the demand for financial planning and we are entirely grateful for every client of Xentum. We have invested lots of time and resource to enable us to build our firm around long term relationships.
It has been a challenging 18 months growing and keeping up to date with the ever evolving regulatory environment.
We believe that on the whole most of it is positive however we are aware that sometimes it may seem like compliance overkill.
To this effect, we have taken the decision to go back to being a directly authorised firm with the FCA. We are in the final stages of this and you will be contacted once it is finalised. We believe that this is the right decision for Xentum and it will let us become more dynamic and flexible to adapt to change. We do not see any downside in this process to our clients which was a key driver in our decision.
I am personally excited about this new chapter and we have lots in store that will make it valuable to our clients such as a brand new client portal and also educational sections for the next generation, watch this space!
One of my personal values is to never stand still at Xentum and if there is a better way to do things we will.
Scams and Peer to Peer Lending
There have been a number of high profile cases including London Capital and Finance recently that have seen considerable amounts of money lost. I have had two instances where clients have contacted me about this kind of investment.
As a company, we are negative on peer to peer lending in general but please be aware that there are many adverts out there that are essentially selling ponzi type schemes beyond this.
Please be extra vigilant as this area seems to be increasing.
The FCA have built a useful guide which is a good reference point – https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/protect-yourself-scams
If you want to talk anything through then please do not hesitate to contact us as this is ultimately part of the job.
Some of our client wins #grablife
Finally, we really take pride in seeing our client’s lives evolve.
This year we have seen a client take a redundancy package with confidence and start a new chapter at a technology firm.
We have also helped a few clients sell their business for life changing sums and begin their new lives in financial freedom.
Another hard but rewarding aspect to our role is guiding those that have lost loved ones and we are often the first they call.
Being the Trusted adviser is simply one of the most important jobs in the world and we take it very seriously and always will.
Every story means the world to us and is the reason we come to work.
Thank you for trusting us.
Back now to the beach and the ice cream!