She is now doing further studies to become chartered through the London Institute of Banking and Finance. "I want to be the best version that I can be as an adviser," she says. Plus clients tend to trust the chartered label.
Inhibiting regulation
Woosey may have been an adviser for only two years, but she has already discovered that regulation can be "inhibiting".
"The cost is quite a lot for someone like me who's getting started, I think it's like £120 a week or something for me to be regulated. It can be an inhibitor.
"But I think, overall, I've not been in long enough to be angry, you just need to get your head around it. But I think it can be quite arduous. Sometimes I do find myself thinking I've got to spend three days a week just reading stuff and being on top of regulation."
Quilter does have a compliance department, which softens the regulatory blow for Alex FS, but Woosey says she still likes to read the papers herself.
What is more, there is still a considerable amount of paperwork with things like suitability reports, which Woosey has evaluated as being ineffective.
"I think sometimes with clients, giving them a massive suitability report isn't what they will read or want. So, now in my business, I try and do the suitability report and then also this beautiful one page plan, like a headline sheet," she says.
The regulator will soon throw another curveball at financial advisers in the form of Sustainability Disclosure Requirements, but Woosey is prepared for this.
She says environmental, social and governance issues are "complicated, but I think it's moving in the right direction. A lot of my clients are in ESG-focused funds and I myself am ESG focused in my own investments."
But Woosey acknowledges greenwashing is an issue and advises to approach ESG investment opportunities "with a pinch of salt".
When it comes to raising ESG with her clients, which all Quilter advisers have to do, she says she prefers to take a softer approach.
"Asking if people want to invest in ethical funds if they're not that bothered about doing it, [can make them] feel awkward saying no.
"But [asking] are there any particular companies that you want to exclude, rather than making an ESG fund, then they'll be like, 'Okay, cool, well, I'd rather not invest in, you know, arms'. That is a bit more of a softer approach."
