Politicians are often criticised for being “out of touch with the real world”. But what do we mean by the real world? We each see it through our own experiences, and those experiences can change more quickly than we expect.
From the age of 19 until I was 40, I was employed and had never been out of work. Then, in 2009, my role ended. I remember walking into the benefits office and learning that Jobseeker’s Allowance was all I could claim. It was an unfamiliar experience, and one that has stayed with me.
After four months of searching, I found a short contract that turned into two years of work. When that ended, I spent another six weeks looking before finding a job I loved: helping to build a financial planning firm. I had the freedom to develop ideas and help shape the business.
That chapter ended on 31 October 2023. Since then, I have run my own consultancy. I still pinch myself sometimes. It is rewarding work, although, like any job, it has its difficult days.
My route into financial services was not especially conventional. I left school with five O-levels, later gained a BTEC in Business and Finance, and worked towards a CII diploma. Much of what has shaped how I work, though, has come from life outside a classroom. We have had a mortgage for more than 30 years and lived through periods of fluctuating income. I know what uncertainty can feel like.
I would not change that journey. It has made me think carefully about what it means to understand the person sitting across from you.
Financial planners meet people whose lives may be very different from their own. A client may have assets to invest and still worry about supporting their children, losing their job or whether their money will last. Another may find it hard to trust someone who seems never to have faced those pressures. We cannot assume we understand a person’s life because we know their financial position.
That matters in the work I do on propositions and retirement planning. Technical knowledge is essential, but I also listen to friends, family and people outside financial services. What are they hoping for? What worries them? What does a good retirement actually look like to them? Their answers do not always fit neatly into an illustration or a process.
I think many people choose a financial planner because they feel they can talk openly to them. Fees and services matter, of course. So does the sense that someone is listening and taking their circumstances seriously. Different people will want different kinds of relationships, which is why it pays to ask rather than assume.
The same applies when firms think about the next generation. I recently suggested involving younger team members in conversations with clients’ children and grandchildren. Helping someone think through budgeting, university or an apprenticeship, or their first home might have little immediate commercial return. It could, however, be valuable to that person now and help build a relationship for the future.
None of us can have lived every experience. I have completed running my fourth money management course, and I am open about the fact that, despite the financial challenges we have faced, I have not experienced serious debt beyond a mortgage and car finance. I cannot claim to know exactly how that feels. I can listen, avoid judging and learn from the people who do.
Perhaps that is the question for all of us working in financial planning: are we curious enough about the life behind the numbers?
We will not always relate through shared experience. But we can be honest about what we do not know, ask better questions and take the time to understand. That is a skill we can keep developing, and it may be one of the most valuable things we bring to a client relationship.
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