Adviser profile: Mr President

Barry Horner, the IFP’s new president, talks about how he has fine-tuned Paradigm Norton’s client-centred service in the video clip above.

Barry Horner is telling me how earlier this year his BlackBerry went into a frenzy of activity pinging away with new messages. It turned out that one of Paradigm Norton’s clients, John Guy, a fellow of Clare College and author of history books such Tudor England, had sung the firm’s praises in a Sunday Times article.

‘As a result we had 11 prospective clients and a few of them have been fantastic, very much in our space. Others we’ve referred to firms we work with in the locality.’

This little review from Guy now features on Paradigm Norton’s excellent website and it shows how Horner, who this week succeeds Jane Wheeler as president of the Institute of Financial Planning, strives to promote the message about the type of clients Paradigm Norton serves.

Client kudos

Where some advisers shy away from highlighting famous names on their books, Horner cleverly markets the message in a brochure proclaiming ‘our clients speak for themselves’.

When I last interviewed Horner in early 2006 at his old offices in the centre of Bristol, now sub-let but still owned, he showed me an early proof of some of the brochure’s pages prior to publication. Vanessa Branson, who is Richard Branson’s sister, beams out from one page and there is also a picture of her and others on the wall of the meeting room where we are talking. Other clients featured are Nick Park, animator; Baroness Elaine Murphy, who sits in the House of Lords; Ian Meakins, chief executive of Travelex; Tony Robinson, of Black Adder fame; Phoebe Winch OBE, and Victor Tettmar, managing partner of Bond Pearce LLP.

Horner and his wife celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary this year by spending a week at Vanessa Branson’s hotel in Marrakech, Morocco, a venture which Paradigm Norton helped with on the financial planning side.

But nearly three years on a good proportion, around 70, of Paradigm Norton’s 380 strong client list continue to be lawyers who work at half a dozen of the main London law firms and one of the largest private client firms in Bristol where about 10 of the partners are clients.

‘They are very good at legal things and we are good at financial things, and it just seems to work.’

The other market Paradigm Norton focuses on is the management consultant arena, namely top-end McKinsey type partners who in a good year can earn in excess of £500,000.