…AND HOW YOU CAN BE PART OF IT

I would like to start by thanking all of my LinkedIn connections that wished me congratulations last month on my 21st work anniversary at Chase Financial Services (CFS)/Financial Options.

Yes, that’s right, it has been 21 years! My first thought when I received those messages was, has it really been that long? How old am I? It has certainly crept up on me and time has definitely flown whilst we have been building our business and helping our clients achieve their financial goals. A rough calculation shows that I have personally assisted well over 4,000 clients, be it through buying or re-mortgaging their homes, managing their finances and investments or protecting their families.

The fact that I have been working for this company for just under half my life is clear testament to what this company stands for; True family values, excellent customer service, honesty and doing our very best for our clients. It also shows what we have achieved during that period and perhaps even more excitingly what great things we are going to accomplish next.

As a company we have grown and developed over the 23 years CFS has been established (I joined my father when the company was 2). We have transformed from what was originally a one man band attached to an estate agent, to becoming not only the foremost Mortgage Adviser but also an exceptional Investment, Pension and Financial Planning Team that offer the widest range of services of any IFA on the island. We are so proud of what we have achieved and it is no secret how we have done it. It is through truly organic growth, working with clever and talented people, many of which we have trained and who have become qualified while working for us and overall treating our clients with complete respect.

We now have a team of 26 highly qualified and professional advisers and support staff. We have stuck to our true family values of honesty, decency and transparency in all we do and we continue to provide and innovate the very best solutions for our clients (rather than what benefits us the most) and we have fun doing it as a team! We do not always get everything right, but we try very hard. We have exceptional and talented individuals working for us who love to advise our clients and help them to achieve their financial and life goals and we are good at it.

SO WHAT DOES THE NEXT 23 YEARS HOLD FOR THE CFS TEAM?

We have made a few developments lately and have been looking at what we really want to provide to our clients outside of the everyday financial service offerings. Our ambition as a company can be summarised as helping our clients to live a better life; to achieve their life goals such as buying the bigger house or a boat or retiring earlier; to be able to spend more time with their loved ones and to not worry about what happens, when the worst things in life do happen. This cannot be achieved simply by selling financial products but rather through comprehensive holistic financial planning and building a relationship with our clients for life. We are of course focused on preserving the high levels of service that we offer and we must also encompass our ambition to help our clients realise their dreams. To achieve that we are constantly expanding and developing and growing.

There is nothing more rewarding than receiving a referral from one of our existing clients asking us to help someone they know. It shows we have added value, have gained their trust and that they are willing to put their name alongside ours. I would like to give a big THANK YOU to all of those people, both existing clients and our professional contacts, that refer new clients to us, it is really appreciated. We have recently seen a large increase of new clients telling us they are looking for a better service or a different way of looking at things and we are ready, willing and very pleased to help.

Having gained the trust of existing clients and received their referrals we must continue to look after our clients, new and old. To achieve that successfully we need to attract talented, passionate and qualified people to join our team and that is what we are currently looking to do. We have no fewer than 5 newly created job roles available at the moment (told you we were expanding!) which include:

• FINANCIAL PLANNER
• PARAPLANNER
• INVESTMENT ADMINISTRATOR
• MORTGAGE ADVISER
• MORTGAGE ADMINISTRATOR

If you are looking for a new opportunity, either now or in the future and you think your own personal values, passion and ambition would complement and enhance ours, then please do get in touch with us. We are always delighted to meet with like-minded professionals that have a passion for our industry and are interested in achieving the best possible outcomes for their clients. At CFS you can make a real impact and have the opportunity to have your voice heard and to shape how we develop and grow as a business over the next 23 years and have fun doing it! Even if you are not thinking of changing jobs anytime soon, come and meet with us and find out what we are all about.

And as for me, when I look back after another 21 years, I know I will continue to be as proud of this organisation and what it has achieved as I am right now after the first 21, a true family business that puts its clients first.