Welcome to the inaugural In Safe Hands blog.
I am going to write this blog over the coming year, maybe two years, so you can understand what my plans are for Lucent Financial Planning.
As a business owner of a regulated company, I need to ensure that when I retire / collapse / die that the finances of the individuals we take care of (yours!) are not affected.
Most commonly, a business owner of a financial advice firm will either:
- Work until they drop – no offence but I spend my days telling you all when you can retire and to go live a great life. I want to too!
- Sell to a ‘consolidator’ – they use private equity to hoover up small advice firms, then make ‘synergies of cost (i.e. sack most of the staff, cut fringe service offerings and make the whole client experience less personal - and frankly, dull as ditchwater - put everyone into their own investment platform / investment portfolios so they can make more profit.)
- Management buyouts – senior staff buy the owner out. Then they do the same to their successor. Or… sell to a consolidator.
This is pretty much everything I have deliberately gone against for my whole career. And being a hypocrite isn’t in my locker.
I love my people:
Lucent Colleagues – they are committed, passionate and deeply bought into what we do and how we do it. Most importantly they are clever little feckers.
Lucent Clients – you are lovely, intelligent people too! And I want to ensure that what you signed up and supported us for is available, as far as possible, for forever!
What we are planning is that from the 1st of September 2027 Lucent Financial Planning will be majority owned (eventually 100% owned) by an Employee Ownership Trust.
This is like the John Lewis model where every employee is a partner in the business.
What this means for you:
The service you get from Lucent Financial planning stays exactly the same, long-term.
There will not be new owners of the business so the people you deal with will be the same (unless they decide to leave!)
I hope that this will create an enduring, if not perpetual, business that you can all rely on.
I am not leaving! Not for years. I’m not sure when I will. It will be a very slow transition.
I expect that most of you are unaware of the level of responsibilities others in the business already have and what I do. And the former do a lot more than me!
There are significant advantages in this form of ownership for the clients of that business:
- Long-term thinking – less pressure to sell the business or maximise short-term returns.
- Greater continuity – the people looking after customers are more likely to remain part of the business.
- People care more – employees have a genuine stake in the success and reputation of the company.
- Better service culture – good customer outcomes contribute directly to the success employees share in.
- More empowered employees – people are encouraged to take ownership rather than just “do their job”.
- Profits can be reinvested – into people, technology and improving the customer experience.
- Values can be protected – ownership helps preserve the culture that attracted customers in the first place.
- Greater independence – decisions can be based around customers rather than the demands of an external shareholder.
- Succession without disruption – founders can step back without necessarily selling to a competitor or consolidator.
- Customers and employees prosper together – when the business succeeds through looking after customers well, employees benefit too
In the coming months I will:
Introduce the people that will be taking more responsibility that already have been working with us a long time.
Lay out the framework under which the business will run and be owned.
Explain how the transition will work, but also how little change you will actually experience in your day to day dealings with us (zilch!).
I welcome questions, comments and ideas on this to be shared with me - please get in touch.
We will put on an in-person event for clients in 2027 to come to hear all of this at once - if you are interested in it, come along!
For now... enjoy yourselves, it's later than you think.
Disclaimer: This article does not constitute financial advice. We recommend that you speak to a qualified financial planner for advice tailored to your individual circumstances and goals. Financial markets may go up or down, and you are not guaranteed a return on your investment. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance. Financial details including benefits to the treatment of tax will depend on your individual circumstances and, while checked at the time of publication, may be subject to change in future.
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