The main thing an adviser needs to establish is his or her niche, according to Gareth Cable, principal at Empire Wealth.
Speaking to FTAdviser as part of our Coffee Corner series, Cable said he always liked the idea of becoming a financial adviser as his dad was an actuary and a lot of his dad's friends were advisers.
“When I was younger, I always looked at them and I thought, 'Oh, wow, that's really cool about nice cars, big houses',” he laughed.
How did you first start out?
Cable said when he was about 20, his dad’s friends told him to consider getting some life experience prior to becoming an adviser.
“I joined the police and did that for 10 years, and then after that, they said now's not a bad time to enter advice,” he said.
“I took that advice at 30 and started working for a bank in Australia. I was really lucky, I had a great mentor and he took me under his wing and showed me how to do things right, what things to look out for and what resonated with clients.”
Cable did that for a while and then left that to start his own business as a financial adviser under the name Empire Wealth in Australia.
So how did you end up in the UK?
“My wife had a couple of medical issues and the Australian doctor said, 'I've only seen three cases, and effectively, two of them passed away the other one left Australia', so I thought, 'it's time to pick up the bongos and have a look at the dual citizen'.”
But when he arrived in the UK, his qualifications were not recognised so he had to do the exams again.
What advice would you give to anyone either starting out as an adviser or about relocation?
“I think I'm quite lucky because I've got a niche, and the niche is pretty defined,” he said.
“In Australia, my wife had a lot of gay friends and so my focus happened to be on that and making sure they were looked after.
“There weren't enough people looking after this cohort. I've always tried to find that niche, understand the problems surrounding that niche and then actively say, 'If you're experiencing this, I can help', which again differentiates you and gives you that edge.”
Since moving to the UK, his niche has slightly changed as it focuses more on Australian expats living in the UK and helping them with their finances and taxes.
Cable said: “I'm able to make sure that I understand all of the issues surrounding that and I've got a unique way of being able to deal with it whereas people who are too much of a generalist are going to struggle.
“That’s because you open the door and go, 'I'm a financial adviser,' they go 'great' so it's demonstrating that value.”
He added: “The biggest pitfall a lot of advisers fall into is they think it's all about demonstrating returns, and being able to make people ridiculous money, which is completely out of their control.”
