Ch...Ch...Ch...Changes
My introduction to financial services was with the long-defunct Sun Alliance where my training consisted of a three-day course from which we were sent home early on the last day as too many were suffering from hangovers from the previous night’s premature celebrations. Course completed, I was let loose to ‘advise’ an unsuspecting public. That I had little idea what I was talking about didn’t seem to be too much of a impediment and a month or so in I was doing well enough to be noticed by Norwich Union who asked me to work with them – I’d been headhunted!
Initial training at Norwich Union was even more sparse; due to my immense industry experience (by then nearly two months) I was fast-tracked through a two day conversion course before again being released to hawk Norwich Union’s investment products. Fortunately, I realised it was sort of useful to know what you’re talking about and I spent the next three years hunting down people at Head Office who could train me properly. By the time I left I was one of their top producers, thanks mainly to my newly acquired knowledge rather than any innate sales ability.
Things have changed dramatically over those thirty-odd years (or, indeed, thirty odd years) but my appreciation of the power of knowledge has remained. Learning and curiosity now sit firmly at the heart of our firm – our mantra is ‘if you’re working with us, you’re learning’.
My continued studying included an MBA where I learned the benefit of focusing on building value in a business, rather then being drawn by those siren calls of profit and cash. Importantly, I came to realise the role a strong management team has in creating value. It’s a lesson I’ve tried to follow here at Chadwicks.
Lenin famously observed ‘there are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks where decades happen’. It feels a little like that here at the moment. While I wouldn’t claim we’re going through a revolution, many of the elements of the evolution we’ve been steadily stewarding over much of the last decade have combined to create what feels like a pivotal moment. I’d claim it was planned this way but in truth serendipity also had a hand!
Angela and Lee both joined us in 2020 and it is great to see them achieve important professional milestones at around the same time. Angela has passed her Level 6 Marketing Manager Degree Apprenticeship with a Distinction and is now an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Marketing while Lee has completed his exams with the Chartered Insurance Institute to become a Chartered Financial Planner. I know how many sunny weekends both have sacrificed to prepare for these qualifications, how many evenings they have spent poring over text books and journals, how much stress they endured when it came to exam day and I couldn’t be more chuffed with them.
I am proud that everyone in the company now has a degree, or degree equivalent, qualification and that we have supported all but our most recent hires to achieve at least one of those.
We’re continuing to evolve in other ways. We are now of a size where the management structure needs to be less focused on a single key decision-maker and instead move further towards a more collegiate approach. With this in mind we are bolstering the senior management team. Angela becomes an Associate Director, as does my son James. They will join me in the senior management team alongside Radi and James Bacon.
We are delighted that Clare Montgomery and Andrew Hatcher will also be joining our merry band.
Clare is coming on board as Chief Transformation Officer. She holds an MBA from UEA and brings a wealth of experience in strategic transformation, digital innovation, and growth leadership to her role. With a career spanning both corporate and entrepreneurial settings, she specialises in empowering individuals and teams to embrace emerging technologies, and adopt AI in ways that are practical, impactful, and human-centred. She will be responsible for putting in place and overseeing the adoption of our systems and working practices to support us in the next stage of our development.
We have worked with Andrew over the years after we first crossed paths on the Cambridge University Judge Business School Scale-up Programme where he was an entrepreneur in residence. Andrew will be coming in as non-executive Chair as we transition to a more active board structure and his experience and guidance will be invaluable in helping us create an effective forum for strategic discussion.
We operate in a sector which is increasingly dominated by a small number of private equity backed consolidators who are ‘standardising’ financial advice. While we appreciate our approach isn’t for everyone, we firmly believe we do things differently in a way that is better for our clients and for the people working with us. We feel the changes we are making will set us up to continue our development as a strong, independent firm well into the future.
And as for me? I find I’ve created a firm I love working in so I’m afraid I’ll be around for some time yet!
Richard Ross May 2025