Watson Wood Financial Planning in Inverness moves from strength to strength
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It has been six years since Watson Wood Financial Planning last appeared in the Executive magazine. From three staff in one small office, they now employ 15 staff, including five financial planners, across offices in Inverness and Elgin.
This year has already seen them recruit a further two staff and move to larger premises in Elgin, with a move to bigger offices in Inverness planned in the coming months. Watson Wood are an independent financial planning firm providing unbiased, expert advice to private individuals, business owners, families and trusts, across the Highlands, Moray and Aberdeenshire. They specialise in advice on pensions, retirement planning, estate planning and long-term investment strategies.
We spoke to their three founding directors, chartered financial planners Kevin Wood and Kirsty Watson, and operations director Allan Sillars, to find out more on how they achieved this success and what the future holds.
“Our growth is built on giving the highest standards of independent financial advice to our clients”, Kevin said.
“We are one of only a small number of firms in the UK who hold both Chartered and Accredited Firm status through our professional bodies, the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) & Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (CISI), making us the most qualified firm based in the north of Scotland.
“We are also one of only eight firms in Scotland who have been listed in the Top 100 Financial Planning Firms in the UK by Citywire NMA. These awards recognise that we work in an ethical manner that places our clients’ interests at the heart of the advice we give. We like to think that we are a small firm with the mindset of a larger business.”
Allan added: “Our experienced financial planning team are individually some of the most qualified in the UK, holding between them chartered and certified Planner and chartered wealth manager status from the CII & CISI. They use their professional and technical knowledge to analyse each client’s personal circumstances and objectives, then design a bespoke financial plan to meet their individual needs. They also have the required technical expertise to look after more complex client needs.”
A financial planning firm isn’t just about what awards it has received, or how highly qualified their staff are, so what makes Watson Wood different?
Kirsty explained: “Our service is built around a personal face-to-face local service and, to do this, we limit the number of clients per financial planner. Recently, we have seen more clients moving across from other firms, as they have become dissatisfied with the level of service they were receiving.
“This can be for many reasons, including their financial adviser retiring or selling to a bigger national firm and losing the personal touch."
“An important part of our service is the annual review, which we take as an opportunity to revisit a client’s financial plan, using cash flow software to help us determine whether clients continue to be on track to meet their objectives. This is a comprehensive review, which takes in more than just the performance of their investments. This can involve tax planning, estate planning and revising income strategies, where needed. This gives our clients peace of mind that they know how they are progressing against their objectives and aims.
“We are often in contact with our clients multiple times throughout the year, if there are any actions that need to be taken quickly, before their next annual review. The feedback we get from clients is that we are far more proactive than their previous adviser. This gives them confidence that we will be in touch, if there is anything needing done throughout the year.”
In December 2021 Watson Wood took over a well-established Inverness based firm, Maclean Financial Planning. The two owners also joined the firm, Craig Maclean as a chartered financial planner and Linda Ross taking on the role as compliance officer.
“We were honoured when Craig and Linda first approached us to look after their clients”, commented Kevin.
“We had known them for many years and had built up a really good relationship, sharing best practice and how to improve each other’s business. It has been around sixteen months since they came on board, and Craig and Linda are really pleased with how well they have integrated into the team. What has made this easier, is that Craig’s clients are happy with the move to Watson Wood. Our approach is so similar to Craig’s, it didn’t feel like a change to them.”
You can also see how much Watson Wood want to develop and encourage their staff to reach their potential. Over the last 18 months there have been a number of exam achievements and internal promotions across their team.
• Kirsty Watson and Jayne Duthie both completed an honours degree in business management with financial services through the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.
•Martyn Percival achieved chartered financial planner status with the Chartered Insurance Institute.
•Kirsty Innes attained her diploma in regulated financial planning through the Chartered Institute of Insurance.
•Dawn Arnold passed the last of her exams to achieve the diploma in financial planning and advice through the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments.
•Christina Robinson who joined the firm in 2018 from Inverness College UHI, has been promoted to office manager for Inverness and Elgin.
•Jayne Duthie and Kirsty Innes have been promoted from administrators to paraplanners.
Kirsty Watson explained: “We hope these fantastic achievements by our staff were helped in a little way by a supportive working environment. As a firm, we take our core value of “encourage our staff to achieve the highest academic and professional qualifications” very seriously.”
What does the future hold for Watson Wood Financial Planning?
Kevin concluded: “We want to continue to help more people with their financial planning needs across the Highlands, Moray and Aberdeenshire. We will continue to recruit more good people to ensure we meet our high service standards.
“We’ve already grown the team and business significantly in the last six years, moved to larger offices twice in both Inverness and Elgin and taken over another firm. I think I can say for all of us, that we’re excited about what the future holds.”
Contact details:
Inverness office: 1st Floor, Lyle House, Fairways Business Park, Inverness IV2 6AA
T: 01463 832020
Elgin office: Park House, South Street, Elgin IV30 1BD T: 01343 553979
E: office@watsonwoodfp.co.uk
Watson Wood Financial Planning is the trading name of Watson Wood & Sillars Ltd which is authorised andregulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Watson Wood & Sillars Ltd is entered on the Financial Services Register (www.fca.org.uk/ register) under reference 806354. Limited Company Registered in Scotland SC555435. Registered Office: Elm House, Cradlehall Business Park, Inverness IV25GH.
