The many different kinds of financial adviser

Russell Hutchinson

Clients are different. They have many different requirements, preferences, and come in all sorts of different packages. From kitchen table, to boardroom table. From traditional nuclear family to thoroughly modern cohabitations. Desktop to digital. Rich and poor. Healthy and not. You name it.

By some measures the industry serves them well. In parts our failings a so large. Advisers try to bridge this gap with unique variations of service. They find their market and specialise until there is literally no one better at that specific segment. This article is to honour that variety.

One of my favourites has followed the path of corporate and high value specialisation. He approaches people involved in the largest and most successful enterprises in the country and works a long game to prove, slowly but surely, the value of professional advice to them – across the specialisations of property insurance as well as life and health. Their service is entirely bespoke, and recommendations finely crafted. To keep his feet on the ground he does pro-bono work for people starting small businesses.

Another star works as a risk director in a mortgages and insurance business and has just started work on a whole lot of process automation. You should have seen how excited they were to be deploying a form of artificial intelligence to handle inquiries. It was awesome.