Rhiannon Gogh, director at PlanIt Future Financial, tells FT Adviser about how being open with clients about her autistic child helped improve the advice process.
Gogh, who advises parents and carers of children with disabilities, stated that her own experience with having a child with autism has facilitated greater communication with her clients.
“If you don't have that experience, they can feel you don’t know what it’s like to care for a disabled child,” she explained.
“You can be very kind and very empathetic, but unless you’ve actually been there, it’s very difficult, although not impossible, to connect fully.”
This advice comes from personal experience as Gogh remembered she was not always so candid with her clients.
“The ironic thing is I used to hide from my clients, never telling them why I was leaving early, or why I didn’t want them to drop things off at my house.”
However, the moment she told her clients about her son they were very receptive.
“They took it in their stride and just thought ‘she’s a real person’,” she said.
Gogh detailed the impact this level of familiarity can have on her clients, identifying a level of expertise and a lack of fear about being judged.
“I can go to a client’s house and I’ll see a visual timetable, which I recognise, I’ll see countdowns, first and boards and, while this might not mean a lot to many people, these are commonplace in the world of autism.
“That is how I communicate with my son and, when I go to my client’s house I’ll see that.
“As a result, parents understand that I get them.
“If someone bursts into the room and has a meltdown, it doesn’t matter, if someone’s throwing things out the window, it doesn’t matter, I’ve seen it all before and they are cognisant of that.”
Career journey
Gogh started in financial services because of her son, having moved away from the corporate world because she couldn’t do her role and care for him at the same time.
However, when she first started her financial advice business, she "didn’t have any clients”.
“I decided to try to get out and meet people, but because of my son, I didn’t have a huge social circle so I decided to get out to networking events,” she explained.
“I went to a networking event in Bournemouth and the person that was speaking was talking about disabled persons trusts and about children that didn’t have capacity to receive money.
“I was sitting there thinking ‘this is about my son’ and, from there, thought ‘if I’m an adviser and I don’t understand this and I’ve actually got a son with special needs, then chances are other financial advisers don’t know this, and other parents certainly don’t’.
