“There’s a whole generation of people growing up who are getting all their life advice on TikTok. People are turning increasingly online for information.”
Despite receiving a majority of new enquiries thanks to Meaningful Money, Matthew says he has counter-intuitively built a reputation for telling people that they do not need to seek financial advice.
“The clients I deal with are entirely competent to manage stuff themselves. What they come to us for is because they’re too busy, so actually they don’t want to, they have no interest in it, or they just want an external second opinion.
“I think if you create content with the intention of it driving business, that will be so transparent that it won’t give you any business. If you’re going to do social media and online content, it’s got to be relentlessly helpful.
“People need to be able to learn, and take action based on what they’ve learned. If it’s, ‘I’m just going to give you this much but not quite enough, so that what you have to do is pick up the phone’ – people will not be interested.
“If it comes across as sales in any way, people just won’t watch. I don’t hold anything back. I teach people how we would build a portfolio, what sort of funds we would choose, how we think about that. I teach it all and yet we still get a shed load of business out of it.”
Larger financial planning businesses are also recognising the importance of financial education, with Fairstone, for example, having launched a junior finance academy for clients’ children.
“Financial wellbeing is important, and we need to start the education process early to equip people with the knowledge and skills needed to manage their money effectively in the future,” says Harry Sims, independent financial planner at Fairstone.
“Often young adults don’t sit down and discuss financial plans, such as providing for their retirement, early enough. They might look for advice on obtaining a mortgage, but that is where their financial planning priorities seem to stop.
“Without education around the importance of financial planning and goals, they could become a generation that can’t afford to retire. Many individuals are often put off financial planning as they find it complicated and feel uneducated, which makes them anxious to approach the process. Education will help to build financial confidence among consumers.”
