“Being meticulous allows me to make sure that everyone is happy”

6.30am: Start the day

Most days, I wake up at 6.30 and get myself ready, along with my girls Mali and Nel.  My husband’s working away from home at the moment, so it’s just the four of us (not forgetting our British bull dog, Jac, she’s just like having a third child at the best of times!), and that means that I have to be on form immediately, making sure we’re out of the house and in the car on time to start our days.

Balancing family life with two young girls and a full time job that often requires me to be away from home on either a client visit or work event isn’t easy.  I manage by being meticulous – it allows me to make sure that everyone is happy.  I hate organised chaos, but if I plan, plan and plan again, we’re sorted.

8.00am: School run

We get to the girls’ school for 8am.  Once I drop them off at school and into nursery, I check my emails.  Because I’m regularly out visiting clients, whether that’s a lawyer or a lay client, I spend a lot of time in the car and I am used to it being another office.

This morning, the Business Development team has sent over a new enquiry from a law firm in Leeds.  One of the solicitors in the Personal Injury team has a client whose case has just settled and they are in need of financial advice.  I make an initial call to the client directly and we set a date for a more in-depth meeting next week to discuss options, including the setting up of a Personal Injury Trust, as the client advised that they are on benefits and this will ensure their benefits entitlement is protected.  I then let my colleagues in the office know, so they can keep paperwork up to date.

9.00am: Set off for Reading

Welcome to life on the road!  Working in the car until now has meant that I’ve missed the worst of the rush hour traffic as I make the drive from my home in Cardiff to Reading for meetings.  This morning, I’m sitting down with a Deputy to review some client files together before we go and meet with a new client.

I’ll stop on the way to pick up some sandwiches as we both know time is precious and we want to power through our work.

11.00am: Meet with Deputy and working lunch

Today the Deputy and I are looking at four clients’ files before meeting with a new client.  Each of the four clients we’re talking about today have sustained catastrophic injuries as the result of various accidents, and they all have different circumstances and needs.  Together we’re evaluating their current financial needs and ensuring these needs are still being met by their financial plan.

It’s so vital that a good financial adviser is one who makes sure their clients’ money is always working for them and that as a client’s needs change over time, the advice provided takes that into account.  For example, one of the clients we’re discussing today is a young boy whose money will need to provide a solid income and in time we may need to consider investing in a property for him, however this would require substantial adaptations in order to meet his needs.  Another is a lady in her mid-60s whose home was fully paid off before her accident.  The differences are stark and it’s satisfying to be providing that unbiased advice that is designed around my clients’ needs.

1.30pm: New client visit with Deputy 

Our new client lives in Reading, so the office is nearby and we make our way over to the client’s home for 1.30.  Our client is a gentleman in his 30s, who has parents with him and I have been engaged by the family in order to support this gentleman’s financial needs following a successful Beauty Parade.  At a first meeting like this, the goals are for my client and their family to start to get to know me and for me to learn what the client needs.  It’s the start of a new relationship and I want them to view me as joining their team.  I will be working to tailor my support to exactly what is needed so this meeting is vital for all of us.

I take copious notes, which I’ll take home with me to create finalised financial advice.  I’ll then speak with the Deputy further, complete the advice and share it so that we can get this long-term relationship off to a great start.  I’ve recently celebrated my 10-year anniversary with Frenkel Topping and some of my clients have been with me almost from day one.  I highlight this to my new client, so I can emphasise how successful we can all be if we work together as a team.

3.30pm: Services pit stop

After saying goodbye to the family and Deputy, I stop at a nearby services to check my phone and triage my emails.  I can see that a solicitor I’ve sent a PPO report through to last night has received it and has commented on how useful he’s found it, and another solicitor I’ve worked with over a number of years has been in touch with me to let me know a case of his I provided a Loss of Earnings report for is going to an approval hearing, and he needs a settlement approval report.  I make a quick phone call to him, assuring him I can turn the report round in a shorter timescale than usual as counsel’s diary is tight and so they need to take an available space that will only leave me with two weeks to complete the report.

After making a few notes on the fly and blocking time in my diary to write this report, I get back on the road home to Cardiff.

6.00pm: Get home to pick the girls up 

Luckily I manage to get home in time to get the girls without having to make any frantic phone calls to see if someone can collect them because a meeting’s overran or a client call has taken a little longer or I’ve been stuck in traffic.  I work very hard to create a sense of continuity for them; that’s what my sister and I grew up with and it’s been of huge benefit to both of us.  My Mother went out to work and ran a business when I was younger and growing up so I’ve been used to seeing that nothing comes without hard work and that you can be whatever you want to be.  It’s important to me that my girls grow up with the same ethic I did and know that they can choose their own path.

Spending this time with them is so important to me and I love to hear about their days whilst I’m having dinner with them.  I get them ready for bed, which does not go smoothly because they both want to stay up late, but we manage in the end.

8.00pm: Final push of the day

The girls are now in bed, their fruit boxes and bags are organised for tomorrow, along with their uniforms lay out, so that we avoid any unnecessary panics in the morning, so I’ve cracked open my laptop to send a few final emails and finish some tasks off before I wind down for the night.  It’s a cliché to say no two days are the same in our job role; we can be fully out on the road with clients, at home powering through reports and more often than not, a mix of the above.  This week however, I’m on the road quite a lot; I need to prepare for an overnight stay in Manchester tomorrow in order to attend our Deputy Day the following day, and I’m then going to London to meet a couple of clients at the back end of the week, so taking time to get on top of things now will serve me well for the rest of the week.