<b>Rockwealth Leeds was founded in November 2022 by BRANDON LAMAM. Brandon left a secure job with a well-known firm to take up the challenge. There are thousands of other regulated advice firms he could have joined, so why rockwealth?</b>
<b><i>Brandon, your last job was with a much larger financial advice firm. What was it that attracted you to rockwealth?</i></b>
There’s a certain sense of security that comes with working for a very large firm. But I thought about it carefully, and the more I thought, the more comfortable I became about making the move. <b>rock</b>wealth is a firm that has built its reputation on delivering very high quality advice, and on putting clients at the centre of everything it does. That's something that is talked about a great deal, but it rarely happens in practice.
I’m really excited about <b>rock</b>wealth and the progress it’s making all around the country. I also like the fact that it’s growing organically rather than by simply acquiring other advice businesses.
<b><i>When you say rockwealth puts clients at the centre of everything it does, what do you mean?</i></b>
There are various aspects to it. I'm used to big advice firms that charge clients a percentage of their assets. In some cases those fees can be very large. That’s how many advice firms work. Often the products come first, and the clients just get given whatever those products are. I started to ask myself, Is this what I should be doing? Is this what's right for the client? That’s really what led me to <b>rock</b>wealth.
The one thing that really appealed to me was the fixed-fee model that <b>rock</b>wealth has. It’s a much fairer and more transparent way of charging. Every client is different; and every client has different levels of complexity. Where I’ve worked in the past I’ve seen clients with relatively straightforward needs who were nevertheless paying a lot of money, simply because they had a large portfolio. I just didn’t feel that was right.
Over time, clients paying fixed fees rather than percentage fees can make substantial savings, and that means higher returns and better value for money.
<b><i>Rockwealth has an evidence-based investment philosophy. Why did that appeal to you?</i></b>
More and more data are coming out to support evidence-based investing — in other words, global diversification combined with lower fund management fees and a long time horizon. And it’s growing massively. Investors are starting to become more sophisticated. Increasingly they’re realising that the chances of outperforming the market are very, very slim.
The beauty of evidence-based investing for me is that it takes the ego out of investing. EBI makes people more aware of what they <i>don’t</i> know, and helps them to focus on things they actually have some control over.
I think we’ll start to see the shift away from active fund management accelerate even more, and perhaps that will finally persuade active fund managers to reduce their fees in order to compete with low-cost funds.
<b><i>Another important part of rockwealth’s value proposition is its expertise in sustainable investing. What are your thoughts on that?</i></b>
For me, sustainable, or ESG, investing has always been very important, and now it's becoming more and more mainstream. That inevitably has led people to question it, and that’s a good thing, because it will improve the ESG ratings system and make company boards more accountable. That in turn will allow investors to have a bigger impact.
In my experience, most people want to make a positive difference in terms of the environment and society at large. At <b>rock</b>wealth, our aim is to combine a good financial plan with a good investment solution. That means solutions that are ethical but which aren’t detrimental to clients’ financial returns. That’s a proposition that clients are massively favouring these days.
<i>Next time: Brandon explains how he became a financial planner and what he believes the qualities of a truly excellent planner are.</i>
<h5><b><i>CONTACT BRANDON LAMAM</i></b></h5> <b><i>If you live in Yorkshire and would like to find out more about the benefits of evidence-based-financial planning, why not</i></b><a href="/contact/"> <b><i>get in touch</i></b></a><b><i> with Brandon? If he can’t help you, he will try to put you in contact with someone who can.</i></b>
