Happy New Year and New World.
As I share the excitement and trepidation that comes with a New Year in the new Covid world, we wanted to update you on past and future news.
2021.
At Brooks Wealth we were pleased to welcome new employees and clients alike across the last year with a bumper compliment of both.
I will list the staff below and let everyone introduce themselves as they call or email you in 2022 but for now, we have a lot more qualified Staff ready to help advise you all and a lot of staff starting or continuing their studies. We believe that staff training is not a nice to have but a must have and we will continue with this theme in 2022.
Looking back at the last year the only real challenges we have faced is trying to deal in a world where there is disruption either real or used as an excuse, created by Covid and the very real challenge of getting to see all our clients face to face, or zoom to face, or voice to voice or at least creating a distance review that makes sure they are in the right place financially.
Looking forward, in 2022
We have a lot more staff and a plan to catch up with you all more often and to be even more engaged with you than we have managed in Covid world thus far. We will of course continue with our newsletters but if you have the technology, please follow us on Facebook to get updates and blogs from us as well as topical information. We feel quietly excited by the prospects we see of coming to grips with a different world and finding out what our clients need, want and hope for in the future. As always, we are here to serve you.
Costs
As we held our accounts and finance meetings, I am amazed that in the face of costs increasing exponentially and more and more frequent legislative challenges we are still the right side of the profit line and prospering as a business. The board are all adapt at looking for savings and being quite careful to only spend where it adds value to our clients and staff.
Office
Cowgate received a makeover in the bathroom and kitchen which we are all pleased with, and the staff are returning in part. We have expanded to fill the office across our car park, and we are busy buying new chairs etc for staff to use at home or the office. You will notice that we are still working at home for around half the time to keep social distancing possible and the routine of say two or three days in and the rest working from home feels like a long-term solution now. This seems to suit the business and the staff, and we have not seen a reduction in work rate at all so a big thank you to my staff for being so dedicated and flexible.
Charity
This year at Brooks Wealth we have donated to good causes in all manner of ways.
We were delighted to be able to contribute some prizes to help The Village Play Group in Werrington raise much needed funds. We held a Pyjama Week to raise money for Safer on the Streets Peterborough and we participated in the annual Christmas jumper day to raise money for Save the Children.
WLI Portfolios
We now have a two-year history for the WLI portfolios which are run by LGT Vestra and Blackrock. These were launched via the WLI Wrap Platform and are now also available via the abrdn (Standard Life) Wrap Platform. These portfolios which are highly diversified and intensively managed have provided exceptional returns well above expectations and at low volatility levels. At under 0.8% total cost they are a bit of a bargain cost wise as well.
Future developments
We are constantly looking to technologies and new ideas to aid the business to serve you as efficiently as possible. For now, and across the time I have been in the industry, a faithful way to let you have valuations without mistakes, glitches or in some cases total failures as we had recently, has eluded me. So that is on the wish list. The Wraps let us log in but do not let us have a wholistic view of all we have (yet). We also want to look at some of the new Client Relationship Management systems and alternative Platforms, portals and wraps to see if we can drive costs savings for us and you; by selecting further partnerships and cooperating to work with other market leading companies to gain advantage. Nothing concrete to announce just yet, but I am expecting to be able to share news at some point in 2022.
That’s it from me for now, but before I go can I ask that if you have any suggestions, ideas or thoughts for how we can help you more, please drop us an email on info@brookswealth.co.uk. We will love to hear from you and any feedback as always is very much appreciated.
As well as Facebook you can also see what we are up to via LinkedIn and through our website www.brookswealth.co.uk
Happy New Year
Andy
Our Brooks Wealth and Wealthline team Jan 2022
- Andy Brooks MD Brooks Wealth and Wealthline
- Miles Green Operations and Compliance Director Brooks Wealth and Wealthline
- Eamonn Dorling Adviser Brooks Wealth
- Ian Cunningham Adviser Brooks Wealth
- Debbie Edis Adviser Brooks Wealth
- Michal Zin Adviser Brooks Wealth
- Zhane Gloster Trainee Adviser Brooks Wealth / Financial Executive
- Lisa Bagley Senior Financial Executive Brooks Wealth
- Jennie Bourne Financial Executive Brooks Wealth
- Becky Langley Trainee Financial Executive Brooks Wealth
- Tiffanne Collins Business Administrator Brooks Wealth
- Chris Rowley Adviser Wealthline
- Louise Meadows Adviser Wealthline
- Chris Wills Adviser Wealthline
- Phil Reagan Mortgage and Protection Adviser Wealthline