The adviser Top 100: Wales' fab four
In the second part in New Model Adviser's top 100 we shine a light on the four advisers who impressed the team on its visit to Wales.
Saran Allott-Davey
Heron House Financial Management
Saran Allott-Davey’s career has spanned more than 20 years. In that time, she has served as the chair of the South Wales branch for the IFP and received many awards. Newport-based Allott-Davey is a champion of philanthropy and supports local charities through Heron House. The IFP has awarded Heron House with accredited status.
Darren Lloyd-Thomas
Thomas and Thomas Finance
Darren Lloyd Thomas is known for his personable demeanour and cheeky sense of humour. Together with wife Lisa, he has developed a small but impressive business in Haverfordwest and a good lifestyle based around the couple’s smallholding and involvement with the local choir. Lloyd Thomas has 15 years of qualified experience in financial services. He is a regular commentator in the media and believes passionately in bringing the status of the independent adviser up to that of the specialist lawyer or accountant. His short-term ambitions are to gain chartered status for the firm, possibly IFP accredited firm status, and grow it safely to £25 million under advice.
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Julie Lord
Bluefin Personal Consulting
Julie Lord set up one of the first fee-based financial planning businesses in the UK, Cavendish Financial Management, in Cardiff in 1991. She sold it to Bluefin, then called Thinc, in 2007. She was one of the first certified and first chartered financial planners in the UK, and was the first woman to be chair and president of the IFP and has had 15 years on the IFP board. She was a member of the FSA education group, and twice a winner of the New Model Adviser® award for Wales. She is a fellow of Manchester Metropolitan University, providing assistance with its financial planning degree course and currently works on the leadership team at Bluefin. ‘I still look after the same clients I have had for nearly 20 years and love seeing them realise their lives, passions and dreams,’ says Lord.
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Marlene Shalton
Guardian Wealth Management
Marlene Shalton is the current IFP president. She established her financial planning practice, Chambers Morgan James Financial Management, in 1991 and in 2007 sold the business to Bluefin, then called Thinc. In 2009, with then-colleague Julie Lord, she won the New Model Adviser® award for Wales. Cardiff-based Shalton is passionate about financial planning and voices this regularly to the media.
She mentors other planners and has supported the Money Advice Service by delivering its ‘Making the most of your money’ seminars in the workplace. In June, she left Bluefin to become managing director of financial planning practice at Guardian Wealth Management, where she will be responsible for converting the firm’s advisers across the world to financial planning.
For more top advisers from around the country click here.
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