To Round Up 2022
So here we are again – the end of another year is in sight, and I just can’t believe that it’s already Christmas time! The months really do fly, and with that I thought it was worthwhile to sign off the year by giving the readers of Professional Adviser a brief Interface Financial Planning update.
The Interface Team is Growing!
It’s been another busy month and we’ve got lots of news. I particularly want to highlight new team members, which reflects our commitment to our current clients and allows us to grow and take on new clients. We’ve expanded our team to include three new people who come armed with years and years of exceptional Financial Adviser experience, and I know will prove to be fantastic assets to Interface!
A Three-IFA Business
Ashvin Patel joins Interface with immediate effect from Quilters and that makes Interface a three-adviser business (along with myself and my son Tom). I’m so excited! Altogether we now have 250 regular clients and assets under management of around £25 million – no mean feat.
I’ll give you a little background information on Ashvin who was born in Kenya and moved to the United Kingdom in 1966 (he remembers it well because of course it was the year that England won the World Cup, sadly that wasn’t repeated in 2022!). Ashvin and his wife Ranjani (also joining Interface) live down the road to the Interface office, in Walsall, which is useful because we are very close by.
Mortgage Advice Coming in 2023
Ashvin became a Financial Adviser in 1981 – and we met in 1992 when he joined the DBS network. While Ashvin is a general Financial Adviser and covers every aspect of finance, he is a mortgage specialist, and we are hoping to get our application to the FCA to add mortgage permissions to our services approved shortly. No doubt, Ashvin’s mortgage knowledge will be more than useful for our clients. Actually, that’s a good moment to mention that Tom is hoping to complete his mortgage exams early in 2023 – so we’ll be up and running with mortgage advice soon.
Ashvin’s wife Ranjani also joins us. Ranjani was born in Livingstone, Zambia, she came over to the UK when she was 25 years old and went to work in accounts for Dudley Local Authority. She moved over to Sandwell Local Authority and later on joined Ashvin’s company. Fifteen years later, she has become a full-time of the team and now brings her wealth of financial experience to Interface. I’d like to welcome them both to our team, along with Gemma who has worked for Ashvin and Ranjani for 18 years, starting with them as an apprentice and now she is their administration manager. She’s another very astute team member who will bring plenty to the Interface table. As you can see, we’ve been busy, and my son Tom has helped with onboarding while juggling his client work too.
Estate Planning, Trusts and Inheritance Tax Planning
My daughter Katie has spent a lot of time on training courses with Countrywide Tax and Trusts. She’s also completed a three-day estate planning course, including Trusts and IHT planning along with a course on Probate Administration, she’s hoping to expand her role at Interface in 2023 and who knows, she might even become a full-time team member!
We are chomping at the bit to get started in 2023 and we hope that with our growing team adding even more expertise and experience, we can help you make the most of your finances but more importantly, to live life well. After all, we are a business that focuses on people and that’s another reason why we thought we’d update you on what we’re doing behind the scenes.
All that’s left for me to do is sign off for 2022, wish the readers of Professional Adviser a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year – from everyone here at Interface.