Alan celebrates 30 years as financial advisor

Our Managing Director Alan Mellor celebrates a career milestone this month.

It is exactly 30 years since he started out as a financial advisor with Barclays, subsequently becoming the bank’s regional director for financial planning.

For the past 15 years, Alan has been Managing Director of Phillip Bates & Co Financial Services.

Alan says: “The financial services industry has changed beyond all recognition during those 30 years.

“When I started out, it was very much a sales-oriented industry, whereas today it is much more of a service profession in which building long-term, trusted relationships is of key importance.

“For us, it is not just about the relationship of the chartered financial planner with the client. Instead, it is about the whole team. All our staff have a role to play in ensuring our clients’ experience is a great one.

“The way we interact with our clients varies from one to another. While many still enjoy the face-to-face contact, some will now use virtual meeting technology. Technology has also advanced in terms of the software we are able to use to develop a client’s long-term financial plan and predict changing patterns relating to the likes of cashflow along the way.

“Long-term planning is integral to the work we do today on behalf of clients. We want to understand their goals and then build a robust plan that will help them realise their objectives.”

One of Alan’s proudest moments was achieving chartered status for Phillip Bates & Co Financial Services – the benchmark of excellence in the financial services sector.

Alan says: “There are many financial advisors in our industry, but only a relatively small number have chartered status.

“We go a step further than this because we are also part of a Chartered Partnership with our sister company, Phillip Bates & Co chartered accountants.”