Natalie Malone on the Financial Services Career That Puts YOU In Front of Entire Workforces

Almost nobody in financial services can explain what an employee benefits consultant actually does all day, which is strange for a specialism that sits inside most of the big advice firms in the UK.Sam Oakes is joined by Natalie Malone, who leads the Risk and Reward team within Titan Wealth's corporate division. Natalie has spent almost 17 years in this part of the profession, starting in junior support roles and working her way up to running a specialist team of healthcare and group risk consultants.Her clients are businesses rather than individuals, so the people she advises are HR directors, finance directors and, in smaller firms, the CEO. The job is to build a wellbeing strategy that keeps staff healthy, engaged and at work, then justify every pound of it with data the business can see for itself.Rising private medical premiums, group income protection, salary exchange, early intervention on long term absence, menopause awareness, neurodiversity support: all of it sits alongside corporate pensions and individual advice, and all of it is regularly bought, filed and forgotten by the businesses paying for it.Key takeaways:●Why an employer's greatest asset is the exact thing most benefits packages fail to protect properly●The difference between risk and reward, and why confusing them costs businesses money●How claims data turns a nervous employer into a convinced one●What early intervention really means, and why the target is the people who are struggling but not yet signed off●Why Natalie will not call herself a broker● What she looks for when hiring, and the one thing she says cannot be taughtFinancial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill AdvanceWhether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.✅ Trusted by top UK firms👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fplBe sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Reach out to [email protected] out to [email protected] in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production. 

Financial planners are sitting on a confidence problem: a 70% opportunity gap when it comes to closing, and it is costing them business they should be winning.Chris Larkin, founder of training consultancy BigRock, returns to the podcast alongside Mark Rockliffe, CEO of Pembroke Financial Planning, to unpack what is really behind that number and what Pembroke has done differently over the past 12 months, growing from around 80 to 170 people along the way.BigRock's Advisor Advantage diagnostic tool, completed by hundreds of Financial Planner Life listeners, found this audience scoring 48% higher than the industry average on protecting time before and after client meetings, one of several results Chris and Mark break down in this episode.For financial planners, advisers and business owners in financial services who want to close more consultatively, not more aggressively.Key takeaways:●Why "are you happy to go ahead?" is the only closing line advisers need● The acronym BigRock uses to turn a client's own words into the reason they act●What a 137% gap in structured objection handling is really telling the industry●Why only 9% of UK adults take financial planning advice●How Pembroke grew from 80 to 170 people without changing what “selling” means to its advisersFinancial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill AdvanceWhether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.✅ Trusted by top UK firms👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fplBe sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Reach out to [email protected] out to [email protected] in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production. 

Jeanne Mpondo asked a room full of women in London whether anybody there was investing in anything. Not one hand went up. She then asked who owned their home or held a pension, and hands went up all over the room.Jeanne Mpondo is a St. James's Place partner running her own practice in London, and a former senior data analyst at S&P Global. She came into financial planning by accident, after helping her uncle raise the funding for long term care.She talks to Sam Oakes about coming through the St. James's Place Academy with three children at home, choosing to build her own practice from nothing rather than inherit a client bank, and specialising in women who are independent business owners and senior executives in the city. Running underneath it all is a language problem: the profession keeps describing money in words that do not match how a lot of clients experience their own.Around 56% of the world's wealth is expected to be in the hands of women from 2027. Jeanne is candid about what she has learned about actually reaching that client, from the 37 to 45 age window she works in to the reason her clients book that first meeting on their own.Key Takeaways:• The question that emptied a room of raised hands, and what it revealed about how clients hear the word investing• Why her female clients come to the first meeting alone, and what changes when the spouse finally joins• The asset most women overlook in a divorce until the negotiation has already moved past it• What a career break quietly costs a pension by 60, and the window to make it back• Why she tells anyone eyeing the partner route to bank two to three years of resources first• The half of the qualification nobody warns you about, and it is not the examsFinancial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill AdvanceWhether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.✅ Trusted by top UK firms👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fplBe sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Reach out to [email protected] out to [email protected] in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production. 

 Towards the end of her ten years in law, Imogen worked out that fifteen hour days for three and a half months would get her to the billable hours she needed for her bonus. She did it, hit the number, and then handed in her notice. Sam Oakes speaks to Imogen Winfield, Paraplanner and soon to be qualified financial planner at City Gate Financial Planning, about the five month career break that became a complete change of profession. Imogen spent a decade at a US law firm, qualifying into litigation and working on commercial disputes and investigations with a financial services focus. Her clients were institutional investors, hedge funds and ultra high net worth individuals. What she did not have was control over her own time, and partnership, the destination everyone else was working towards, was the part that appealed least. She took an 84% pay cut to join City Gate, the largest pay cut that Sam has come across from anyone entering the profession. She started as operations manager, moved into paraplanning within four months, and is now close to being signed off as a competent adviser. Key takeaways: • Why partnership does not mean taking your foot off the gas, from someone who watched it up close • The billable hours maths that produced fifteen hour days for three and a half months • The single question that made financial planning click, and it had nothing to do with returns • Why lawyers on six figures need advice years before they think they do • What an operations role teaches a career changer that an admin role never will • The cashflow assumption almost every adviser gets wrong about high earning lawyers  Financial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill AdvanceWhether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.✅ Trusted by top UK firms👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fplBe sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Reach out to [email protected] out to [email protected] in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production. 

Rebecca Ellis became a Chartered Fellow in her early twenties, but becoming a financial adviser wasn’t her immediate next step.Today, she is Head of Advice at Titan Wealth International in Dubai, with experience spanning technical financial planning, paraplanning, international advice, operations and leadership.In this episode of the Financial Planner Life Podcast, in partnership with Titan Wealth, Sam Oakes speaks with Rebecca about her career journey and the range of opportunities available within financial planning.Rebecca initially studied accounting and finance at university before switching to a financial planning degree. The course provided exemptions towards her professional qualifications and helped her progress towards Chartered and Fellow status.However, qualifications didn’t automatically make her feel ready to advise clients. Instead, Rebecca built experience through administration, paraplanning and technical financial planning. They discuss the difference between technical knowledge and real-world confidence, the value of developing depth early in a career and whether young professionals feel pressure to progress too quickly.Rebecca also reflects on the importance of female role models. Working alongside a successful female adviser who had progressed through administration and paraplanning helped her see what was possible in a profession where women remain underrepresented.After moving from the UK to Dubai, Rebecca developed a career in international and cross-border financial planning. She explains the complexities of working with internationally mobile clients who may live in one country, hold assets in another and eventually return to the UK, as well as the importance of technical expertise and collaboration across jurisdictions.The conversation also explores Rebecca’s role at Titan Wealth International. Her responsibilities now extend beyond technical advice and supporting financial planners to include operations, business integration, acquisitions and wider group initiatives.Rebecca has participated in Titan Wealth’s Next Generation Leaders programme, and completing an MBA has strengthened her interest in business strategy and leadership.This episode challenges the idea that becoming a financial adviser is the only career destination in financial planning. Opportunities also exist in paraplanning, technical advice, operations, proposition development, leadership, strategy and international planning.In this episode we discuss:• Financial planning degrees and apprenticeships• Becoming Chartered early in your career• Qualifications versus real-world experience• Administration, paraplanning and technical planning careers• Women and female leadership in financial planning• Moving from the UK to Dubai• International and cross-border financial planning• Working with internationally mobile clients• Careers at Titan Wealth International• Titan Wealth’s Next Generation Leaders programme• Moving into business strategy• Career opportunities beyond becoming a financial adviser Financial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill AdvanceWhether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.✅ Trusted by top UK firms👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fplBe sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Reach out to [email protected] out to [email protected] in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production. 

After 13 years inside a financial advice network, Wayne Griffith and One Financial Solutions have become directly authorised by the FCA.But what does it really take to become a directly authorised financial advice firm? How long does FCA authorisation take, what are the risks, and when is the right time to leave a network?Wayne joins Sam Oakes on the Financial Planner Life Podcast to share the full story behind One Financial Solutions becoming directly authorised.The process took around 18 months, including nine months of preparation followed by a demanding nine-month FCA application. Wayne speaks honestly about the interviews, capital adequacy requirements, compliance responsibilities and the steep learning curve that comes with taking full accountability for a financial advice business.He also explains why the FCA was far more supportive than he expected and how compliance consultancy 360 helped prepare the business for direct authorisation.Why did One Financial Solutions become directly authorised?For Wayne, it came down to greater control, accountability and agility. He wanted the freedom to shape the firm’s investment proposition, decide which advisers joined the business, develop future advisers and build a privately owned company capable of creating long-term wealth for its people.This is not an attack on financial advice networks. Wayne explains why networks remain essential, particularly for new advisers and smaller firms that need a “business in a box.” After 13 years of support, One Financial Solutions had simply reached a stage where its ambitions required greater independence.In this episode, we explore:• How to become directly authorised by the FCA• How long the FCA authorisation process can take• The true cost and responsibility of becoming directly authorised• The difference between a directly authorised firm and an appointed representative• Why financial advice networks remain valuable• Capital adequacy, compliance and FCA interviews• Building a centralised investment proposition• Creating generational wealth for financial advisers• One Financial Solutions’ plan to grow to 100 advisers• Training trainee and junior financial planners• Why new advisers should learn marketing and build a niche• Neurodiversity within financial planning firms• How AI could change administration, paraplanning and client serviceShould your financial advice firm become directly authorised?Wayne’s answer is clear: direct authorisation is not automatically better. It depends on the size, experience, resources and long-term ambitions of the business. A network can provide valuable protection and infrastructure. Direct authorisation provides greater control, but also places far more responsibility on the firm and its leadership team.If you are considering leaving a network, applying for FCA authorisation or joining a growing directly authorised financial advice firm, this episode gives you a refreshingly honest view of what lies ahead.CHAPTERS00:00 Wayne Griffith’s big announcement01:10 Why One Financial Solutions became directly authorised02:19 Working with the FCA and 36004:40 Why financial advice networks are valuable06:17 When a network may stop fitting your business07:50 Control, accountability and generational wealth12:00 The reality of the FCA application process14:10 Training the next generation of advisers20:24 Marketing, lead generation and building a niche23:55 Neurodiversity in financial planning30:36 AI, upskilling and serving the mass market34:24 The future of One Financial Solutions42:49 The Hundred Club growth plan48:28 How to contact Wayne GriffithLearn more about One Financial Solutions at www.onefinancialsolutions.co.uk Financial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill AdvanceWhether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.✅ Trusted by top UK firms👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fplBe sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Reach out to [email protected] out to [email protected] in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production. 

Trevor Greetham, Head of Multi-Asset at Royal London Asset Management, still measures market timing with a clock face borrowed from a 1930s newspaper. The idea dates back to a reference Trevor found from the London Evening Standard, a clock face marking out stages of the economic cycle: recession, recovery, late cycle, slowdown, each paired with the assets that historically perform well there. The problem, he explains, is that confirming exactly where you sit on that clock in real time is nearly impossible. Recessions are usually only confirmed months after they start, by which point markets have already moved on without you.Rather than guessing, Trevor's team at Royal London reads growth and inflation directly to estimate the current position. Falling inflation paired with strengthening growth points to recovery, favouring stocks. A slowdown paired with rising inflation points to stagflation, favouring commodities. This year, that reading has pointed to stagflation, with tensions in the Middle East cited as the driver, and it feeds directly into the team's daily tactical positioning.The conversation also brings in Robin Ellis, Director of Portfolio Management at St. James's Place, who talks through how Saint James's Place selects and vets the fund managers advisers ultimately rely on. He's candid about a trap he fell into earlier in his career, mistaking a confident conference speaker for a genuinely strong investment process, and why SJP now runs a weekly adviser podcast and curates its annual investment conference specifically to avoid that mistake. Trevor also explains why the phrase "passive multi-asset" doesn't really make sense to him, since clients rarely come to an adviser asking for a specific asset class, they come with a savings goal and a risk appetite that needs blending into a portfolio, not a label.Key takeaways from this episode:How the investment clock framework has been used to read markets since the 1930sWhy knowing exactly where you are in the economic cycle in real time is nearly impossibleHow Trevor's team uses growth and inflation indicators instead of guessworkWhy this year's read has pointed to stagflation, and what that means for portfolio positioningWhy Trevor believes "passive multi-asset" is a phrase that doesn't really hold upWhy a great conference speaker isn't always a sign of a great investment teamHow St. James's Place vets and curates the fund managers advisers ultimately rely onWhy SJP runs a weekly adviser podcast alongside its annual investment conferenceThis episode is for financial advisers who want a clearer framework for reading market cycles, and for anyone curious about how professional portfolio managers actually separate a good pitch from a genuinely good process.Learn more about Royal London Asset Management at royallondon.com , and about St. James's Place at sjp.co.uk. Financial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill AdvanceWhether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.✅ Trusted by top UK firms👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fplBe sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Reach out to [email protected] out to [email protected] in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production. 

Think about it like Netflix, but for CPD. That's how David Tait, of Redmill Advance, describes the platform he's built for financial advisers, back on this week’s episode to talk through it. Rather than static articles followed by a handful of multiple-choice questions, the platform's content is genuinely interactive: cards to flip, embedded videos you have to engage with, and many tests to work through along the way, specifically so advisers actually retain what they've studied rather than just logging hours.Firms can also automate the rollout of mandatory training across the year, spreading modules like AML, TCF, and whistleblowing training out on a schedule rather than leaving it to individual advisers to remember, a separate but equally practical piece of what the platform handles.Most advisers treat their annual CPD hours as a box to tick, something to squeeze in whenever there's time, often right before the deadline. David Tait sees that as backwards. His actual advice is to commit to three or four hours a month, every month, aiming each session at whatever gap in your knowledge is most relevant to the clients you're currently working with, rather than treating all 35 hours as one undifferentiated pile to clear at the last minute.David also talks through who actually uses the platform, a genuinely wide range, from four or five person practices right through to some of the largest financial services organisations in the UK, including SJP, Quilter, and Openwork. Larger firms tend to take the fully white-labelled version, everything branded in their own name, while smaller firms typically use the Redmill-branded platform instead, with the same content and reporting tools underneath either way.Key takeaways from this episode:Why David compares his platform to Netflix, and what that actually means in practiceWhy Redmill Advance's content is built to be interactive rather than a standard read-and-answer formatHow firms can automate the rollout of mandatory training like AML and TCF across the yearWhy David tells advisers never to cram their CPD hours at the end of the yearWhat a good monthly CPD strategy actually looks likeWhy the true purpose of CPD is staying sharp for clients, not just hitting a number of hoursWhat size firms actually use the Redmill Advance platform, from small practices to major UK namesThe difference between the white-labelled and Redmill-branded versions of the platformThis episode is for financial advisers who treat CPD as an annual scramble, and for firm owners and compliance leads evaluating whether their current training setup is actually working.Learn more about Redmill Advance at redmilladvance.com. Financial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill AdvanceWhether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.✅ Trusted by top UK firms👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fplBe sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Reach out to [email protected] out to [email protected] in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production. 

Laura Fordham's (Financial Adviser at Titan Wealth) route into financial planning wasn't planned. She spent her first year handling the job entirely alone, while her client bank was still small. She lays out exactly what that year looked like in conversation with Sam Oakes this weekLaura Fordham's route into financial planning wasn't planned. She started out on maternity cover in an admin role at Barclays Wealth, and it was proximity to the financial planning job , printing client packs and greeting people in the office, that first got her curious about the profession. From there she trained through the St. James's Place Academy, deliberately choosing to stay client-facing rather than build a partner practice of her own, and later moved into an independent firm,  before they were eventually acquired by  Titan Wealth.Laura is candid about how tough the early years actually were. Building a client bank from scratch inside a heavily regulated industry took what she describes as an "eat what you kill" mentality: real drive, real setbacks and small wins that made the whole thing worth it. She's just as direct about what came later: leaving St. James's Place for independence, learning how to build professional connections with accountants and solicitors without ever resorting to a hard sell, and the responsibility of inheriting clients through acquisition who never chose her as their adviser in the first place.The conversation closes on a wider industry issue. Only around 16% of financial planners are women, and Laura shares her own view on why more women should consider the career, along with what she's doing within her own client base to encourage more engagement from  the female clients in the couples that she looks after.Key takeaways from this episode:How an admin role at Barclays Wealth led Laura into financial planning, almost by chanceWhat building a client bank from nothing demandsWhy Laura chose to stay client-facing rather than build her own businessHow to build professional referral connections without a hard sellWhat it takes to win over clients who arrive through acquisition rather than their choiceOnly around 16% of financial planners are women and what Laura believes needs to changeLearn more about Titan Wealth at www.titanwealth.com.Financial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill AdvanceWhether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.✅ Trusted by top UK firms👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fplBe sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Reach out to [email protected] out to [email protected] in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production. 

Lewis Prosser has spent years myth-busting what it takes to go chartered. He is joined this week by David Tait of Redmill Advance.Lewis runs the St. James's Place programme supporting advisers from Level 4 through to Chartered status, and one of the most common myths he encounters is the assumption that becoming a Chartered Financial Adviser requires five years of experience, specifically as a financial adviser. Interestingly, Lewis has  never advised a client himself, yet he’s chartered, a fellow across three professional bodies, and holds a master's degree in finance. In this conversation, alongside David, he unpacks the real data behind whether becoming Chartered is worth pursuing at all, including a 2025 market survey showing chartered financial planners earn 31% more income than Level 4 advisers (around £30,000 a year in real terms), and an average 50% increase in business linked to going chartered. Lewis also reveals that he actually found becoming a Fellow easier to achieve than Chartered and thinks that's wrong, arguing the Fellowship should demand more from candidates, not less.Beyond the numbers, Lewis walks through the credit system behind becoming chartered, his own hacks for getting there faster, and why the process requires three years of recorded CPD. He shares how a study text would switch him off after a couple of pages, how he leaned on audio and video learning instead, and how a realistic two-to-three-year plan with mentors got him through it: sacrifices, rugby, and all. David also shares how Redmill Advance is using AI avatars to keep training current and scalable for a growing population of advisers working towards Chartered.Key takeaways from this episode:Why the five-year experience requirement for Chartered doesn't have to be as a financial adviserWhy chartered financial planners earn 31% more income than Level 4 advisers, according to a 2025 market surveyWhy becoming chartered is linked to a 50% increase in business on averageWhat actually changes between Level 4 and Level 6 qualificationsThe credit system behind Chartered, and Lewis's sequencing hacks for getting there fasterWhy Lewis found Fellow easier to achieve than Chartered, and why he thinks that's backwardsHow the SJP and University of Gloucestershire master's programme works for chartered advisersHow Redmill Advance is using AI avatars to help scale training for advisers working towards CharteredThis episode is for financial advisers weighing up whether to pursue Chartered or Fellow status, and for training providers and firms thinking about how to structure long-term professional development.Learn more about St. James's Place at www.sjp.co.uk, and about Redmill Advance at www.redmilladvance.com.Financial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill AdvanceWhether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.✅ Trusted by top UK firms👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fplBe sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Reach out to [email protected] out to [email protected] in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production.