It’s been a great few years for financial advice firm The RU Group but what’s the secret of this success and where do they go from here? Helen Lindo, one half of the management team at the firm, reveals the inside story:
As director, co-owner and advisor of a multi-million pound financial advice firm, Helen Lindo is one of Nottingham’s success stories.
Last year, the family-owned wealth management and retirement planning experts recorded continued growth and record turnover, while their community work and reinvestment in the firm has also increased.
“The company has grown year-on-year for a number of years and the majority of our growth has come organically through client referral,” says Helen.
Turnover has increased by almost 10 per cent on the previous year to £5.8 million and profits have grown by 17 per cent.
The previous year the company recorded a 20 per cent rise in turnover to £5.3m.
Helen says the strategy for this increased profitability is simple.
She said: “We place clients and staff at the heart of everything we do.
“It is well-qualified people delivering a service to clients that they value and need and that they are seeing the outcome from and are happy to refer their family and friends to.”
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There has also been effective cost control over the period.
The firm, which can trace its roots back to 1881, has constantly evolved during each of its principals stewardships.
Headquartered in Nottingham’s ng2 Business district, it has additional offices in Derby and Sheffield, employees around 60 people and under The RU Group umbrella is made up of Russell Ulyatt Financial Services, Greenhalgh Financial Services, Hart Shaw Financial Planning and Shevill Parkes Financial Services.
Now aged 52, the high-flying businesswoman started out in the industry straight from school as a trainee advisor.
“I was a child of the profession,” she said. Helen’s father was a former executive director of Norwich Union. “Eric Lindo was my mentor and inspiration,” she added.
She took this inspiration and, having worked for The RU Group early in her career, returned in 2001, was made a director in 2012 and became co-owner in 2018.
“I always knew that I wanted to have an influence in terms of the direction of this business,” she said. “When I joined the firm in 2001 the then owners spotted something in me and gave me that opportunity.”
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Herself a chartered financial planner, Helen said: “There are lots of opportunities for some great career paths in this industry.”
And it seems that Nottingham is the ideal place to start.
“Nottingham punches above its weight in terms of size of town and quality financial firms,” she says.
Helen’s rise through the ranks has made her a great advocate of apprenticeship schemes and recruiting the best people for the job.
Nottingham born and bred Ben Slater, for instance, joined the firm at 18 as an apprentice. Now aged 24, he has become one of the youngest chartered financial planners in the 海角视频.
"It is a great career,” says Helen, “and we are keen to attract more people to the profession.”
New recruit Emma Raine, who left the University of Lincoln’s International Business School with a First Class Honours Degree, has joined the Nottingham office as a full-time client servicing administrator.
Helen added: “We have a culture of learning and that’s not just qualifications but also skills.
"Applying the skills of listening and hearing and really understanding what our clients goals are and what our clients are looking to achieve with their life is key because unless you can understand that you can’t advise how they can achieve that.
"A plan has to have an end goal… financial planning is all about achieving a goal rather than arranging a product.”
So what lies ahead for 2020?
Helen says that there aren’t any plans to open more offices but the firm has invested in excess of £150,000 in a new intelligent office system that will allow clients to engage with their information electronically.
She said the systems will be “rolled out sensitively, client by client, later in the year.
“We will also continue to work with Young Enterprise, a charity focused on improving the employability skills of young people through financial education.
"A venture that we’ve been involved with for about 18 months.
“And we will continue our people development.
"We have achieved Chartered Status for the third consecutive year with over 40 per cent of advisors and paraplanners achieving chartered status.
"We’ll also be exploring sustainable investing, which is a government led initiative.
“Ultimately, we are a people business.
"When you have a business that has been around since the 1880s and you are the latest custodians you have to preserve the heartbeat of the business for future generations and hopefully for another 100 years.”