Cover Star: Making plans for Nigel Speirs of Buckles

Speirs says the only other thing Buckles has done differently is to continually strengthen the management team. ‘We have seen where other larger IFAs have struggled here,’ he says.

Key members of the team other than Speirs include sales director Chris Kerin, who formerly worked at Norwich Union at national sales level. ‘He is the best man manager I have ever met. He is reasonably eccentric. I liken him to Alex Ferguson,’ says Speirs. Then there is May Robinson, head of operations, and Clare Dyer, finance director.

The main shareholders in Buckles are Speirs, 37.3%; Daborn 28.3%; Kerin 16.1%; Owen-Jones 6.9% and Robinson 4.6%.

Speirs has just appointed the first sales manager from the graduate ranks. ‘We are keen to do succession planning. My goal is to retire from the front line at 55 which is six years from now,’ he says. At that point he’d like to think that he might have a seat on the board with a nicely established renewal income stream with a real value attached to the business from funds under management.

However, Speirs is ever watchful and is far from resting on his laurels. ‘We are at that dangerous stage, we are at 36 advisers and in 12 months we will be up to 48. There are not many making money at our level and making a profit is clearly important.’