Financial advice is not all about investments, said Dan Brent, who made the leap to set up his own business during the pandemic.
He told FT Adviser’s Coffee Corner series he has never really been interested in investments and describes himself as an advice-only financial planner.
With DFB Wealth, Brent has brought this approach to dozens of clients over the past two years.
What was your first experience of the financial services industry?
Brent explained financial advice was not his first career choice - he was on track to become a fully fledged solicitor when the legal team in the firm he worked for was disbanded due to the financial property crash in 2008. But he said it turned out a good one.
“I’d just found myself being made redundant, I was still in my late 20s and thought, yeah, I'll [accept a job in financial services].
“I actually did a few of the exams when I was there and thought, ‘I don't mind this’.
“It was still talking to clients and helping people.”
He said even the sales support admin role he was in was "pretty hands on" and his next move was to a paraplanning role at a London firm.
After some time spent as a paraplanner Brent became an adviser.
What is your approach to financial advice?
“I really did enjoy my time in the City in my 20s and 30s, but I just thought, this is not the type of financial planning I want to be doing,” he said.
“I didn't want to be bringing in investments and putting them on [a] platform, I wanted to do the financial planning piece.
“Ultimately, the financial planning side was really still led towards bringing money onto a platform.”
After a few years in the city, Brent moved to another firm outside of London.
However, targets were still based on how much investment planners brought into the firm, he said.
It wasn’t until lockdown hit that Brent felt he could change up the way he was interacting with clients.
“I was working from home and I felt I had the freedom then to bring this financial planning piece to my clients,” he said.
“When we’d have our video calls, I just moved away from that investment piece and into 'how are you, how are the family? What are you going through at the moment?'”
Was this when you decided to set up on your own?
Around two years ago Brent made the decision to leave the firm he was with and set up his own business.
He said: “In my mind, I knew what I wanted to do, I knew I wanted to run my own business, be my own boss.
“First I spoke to my wife about it and we both understood that it was going to be potentially two or three years of low income.
