I have worked for 20 years in financial advice firms, 10 years at the regulator and have now set up my own training and consultancy firm.
In my time at the regulator I became increasingly influential in the way the FCA thought about, and supervised advisers; for example:
- I designed the FCA’s approach to assessing the suitability of investment advice, including creating the assessment tool, training and quality assurance procedures.
- During 8 years of thematic supervision, my main roles included thought leadership, quality assurance and communication of findings. This means I played a leading role in interpreting what the rules meant in practice and led on designing the process for assessing firms.
- I became one of the FCA’s most prolific presenters speaking at around 50 events per year.
- As the department’s sole technical specialist, I was the go-to person for other areas – particularly Policy – wanting to understand how regulation would impact the financial advice sector.
I was significantly involved in identifying and prioritising risks. Around half of the thematic projects in the financial advice sector were put on the agenda by me.
Prior to joining the regulator, I worked in financial advisory firms mainly in compliance, training and technical support roles. I completed the Chartered Financial Planner exams with 460 CII credits.