Episode 26: Tina Weeks
Tina Weeks CFP™
Managing Director &
Financial Life Planner, Serenity Financial Planning
You can also listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts & Spotify.
In this episode:
Tina has an eye-opening discussion with Abraham, filling him in on:
How she got into the industry and what sparked her passion for life planning
Where Serenity Financial Planning is today - team, clients, AUM etc.
How Tina managed the business while going through chemotherapy
Unpacking the details on helping to maximise outcomes and performance when it comes to advising clients
Tina’s approach to saving for retirement
Guest profile
Tina Weeks is Founder of Serenity Financial Planning, a company that aims to deliver Financial Life Planning to as many people as possible in the UK.
She has been a financial adviser for over 24 years. Tina believes strongly in the relationship-based approach to financial planning, and runs training programmes to help other financial planners work in this way.
Tina lives in North London and loves spending time with her two teenage children; she finds they are the best test of her coaching skills! She was born in London, but her parents are both Greek. She is fully bilingual and extremely proud of her Greek heritage.
Twitter: @TheFinanceCoach
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Abraham:
Welcome to this episode of Retirementals. and I am really delighted to introduce my guest, today. Is known too many of you, is one of the one of those leaders and stalwarts of our profession. Tina Weeks of Serenity Financial Planning. Hi Tina, welcome to Retirementals.
Tina Weeks:
Hi, Abraham, thanks so much for having me. Lovely to speak to you today.
Abraham:
It's great to have you on the podcast. You know, you're a big advocate of life planning and you're a cancer survivor, so I am really, really grateful for your time to unpack the journey that you've been on over the last couple of years. But for anyone who might have been living under the rock, as I say, do you want to give us a little bit of an introduction to how you got into the industry or the profession? And give us a sense of the journey you've been on.
Tina Weeks:
Absolutely, and so I'm Tina Weeks. I run Serenity Financial Planning, where a firm of what we like to call financial life planners and our vision is to bring financial life planning to as many people as possible so they can live a life of freedom without worrying about money and. That's certainly a big part of the way we work for many, many years now, I realize that working with clients in a relational way, building really strong relationships, taking them through a life planning or coaching and process. And although it's not that rigid, it's purely about building relationships. But taking them through that allowed people to see a different way of living, a different way of being with their money and really opened up possibilities for them. And that word freedom becomes so much. More importantly, you have those sorts of conversations. So, Serenity has been working in that way for many years now, and we're really proud of that. We have no nothing against different ways of working in our profession. Absolutely not. But for us, this has really worked. It fires us up. It's all about our purpose. And to see the difference in people is just amazing. I've always said it's contagious, actually. When you work with people and you can see them shifting, you can see them seeing things they couldn't see before you see them living in a different way. It really is contagious. It changes you as well. And I love it.
Abraham:
So I don't know if you remember this. I think my very first interaction with you was you must be, you know, seven years ago or so. And you were holding these events. At UBS with George. And the idea at time was to spread, you know, life planning more broadly within financial services. And I can remember sort of sitting thereand thinking to myself, what? What is the alternative? What is the other way of doing financial planning if it's not led by what people are trying to to accomplish? So are you able to just give, you know, a sense of how the way you operate, what you do is different than the traditional advisor would work with?
Tina Weeks:
It absolutely is about what people are trying to accomplish. It just doesn't have such a strong focus on money being the driver of those conversations. And whilst money is certainly a protagonist in many of the conversations, we approach those conversations around money in a different way. We talk about people's relationship with money, what money means to them, how it affects their decision making and actually people's relationship with money affects their relationship with so many aspects of their lives. What we don't do is spend look at it from a traditional way where we either look to ensure that clients have any missing products put in place for them, or even spend a lot of time analyzing and dissecting portfolios, components of folios returns, those sorts of conversations. Very few people find interesting and whilst important, we limit those conversations. We bring them in as required. But they're certainly not the focus. The focus is always the relationship, the relationship we have with our clients and how we can help them move forward positively. A lot of what we do is helping them see what's possible for them. Sometimes they can't see that with a little bit of guidance, and that's where we come in.
Abraham:
So do you want to give us a sense of where Serenity is today, the team clients? Give us a sense of the business today?
Tina Weeks:
Well, we're still relatively a relatively small firm. There are about ten people in the business. We still have locations in, various geographical locations. Client wise, we were moving more and more to clients that are owned by the business. Whilst I appreciate the clients can never be owned, of course, but clients of the business rather than a group of self-employed advisors, which is actually how we started off. And now really, we're looking at it from a business point of view and how, as a team we look after and provide world class service to those clients. So, yeah, it's OK, it's all going well, and it's been a really interesting year, whilst, we've been in lockdown for certain, but we feel really lucky that it hasn't really impacted us and a lot of firms where the clients and the relationship with those clients is, is at the core haven't really felt the effect I had. And what's happened over the last couple of years, our business doesn't rely on trying to bring in initial fees all the time. And once you work away from that model and actually what you have is a group of clients that you like, you want to help, you want to work with long term and that is the focus changes that that we've seen over the last year don't really affect us.
SPONSOR:
Now a word from our sponsor, Nicki Hinton-Jones. is the managing director
and chief investment officer at Betafolio. The high tech, low cost. discretionary model portfolio manager. Typical model portfolio service costs about that That's in addition to the funds, the platform, you know, they advise fees. Tell us a bit about Betafolio view and approach on fees.
Nicki:
Well, I don't think anyone that knows they're already Abraham would be surprised to hear me say that. In a nutshell, MPS fees are too high. And if you include the fund charges and the platform fee that you already talked about, we get close to 1%, I think on average for a lot of retail clients, and that's before they start paying. for the financial plan, which is the part of the service that will ultimately have the most value for them in their advisor relationship. and experience. So, I mean, my view on fees and Betafolio's view on fees is that they have a real impact on client outcomes that needs attention. And that's why we're building a scalable solution with technology that would allow us to keep costs low. And I think we also should consider the impactsof these fees on advisor businesses too, advisors need to to make a profit, from their work, they need to have a viable business and their cost have been rising because of regulation and the more costs they have to pass through to their clients. The overcomplicated services in turn, puts pressure on the advisor's own fees and, and ultimately makes it not possible for them to, to run a good business so.Fees are really crucial, and I'm really happy that we're in a position to be having a positive influence on the trends in the market.
Thank you, Nicki.
SPONSOR END
Abraham:
So, so give us an idea of why and how you pivoted the business away from, you know, the self-employed advisor model into, you know, a model where you know the business, as you say own the client and everybody is pulling together to serve those clients. Know, I think it's really natural.
Tina Weeks:
I think it's been a bit of a natural progression, actually, Abraham when I started and I didn't have any clients or any, you know, any possibility really to grow at that time, apart from my own efforts. I knew that if I could bring people in to work with me, it would be great. But because I couldn't bring in advisors on an employee basis at that time because I couldn't offer them a client bank to work with, the only alternative at that point was the self-employed model, which worked really well for me. But the trick I found was to find people where we shared values and beliefs when we were lined in that way. So that actually we all worked in the same way. We still have two self-employed advisors, and they're really the stalwarts of the company that they're here, hopefully forever. But at the time, it was an opportunity for me to increase cash flow to create, create that team working environment to create systems and processes that could be replicable regardless of the situation the advisor within self-employed or employed. And actually, it really helped me set the foundation for how I wanted to grow the business. And then as we grew, what I found was that the more and more clients the business obtained for itself, and we did that mainly through organic growth referrals from clients, social media, et cetera, and acquisition rather than relationships with professional introduces, which I was never very good at. But as we found that the business grew in that way, we found that we needed more advisors to come in and help. And that's when we were able to introduce the employee advisor model. Yeah, it's so far, it's gone really well.
Abraham:
Brilliant, brilliant. So I am very. What’s the word conscious of this, so this is totally, totally down to you? Are you are you? You said to me that you're prepared to talk about your, your battle against this horrible illness cancer. So I'm just going to set it up and shut up. Tell us a little bit about it.
Tina Weeks:
Well, yes, I'm definitely happy to talk about it. In fact, I have done quite a bit already, but I am conscious that you just said, you know, you use the words cancer survivor, and I don't feel like that in any way at all. Firstly, because my, my situation is that cancer wasn't the main illness that I was fighting. I have myeloma early stages, my early stage myeloma, but that was never the issue for me. The problem was that my myeloma triggered a very, very, very rare illness called acquired Cutis Laxa. And this illness is a connective tissue disorder. And what it does is it destroys the elastin in your body. And for me, it affected two main areas. That's my skin and hence my parents. But more worryingly, it affected my internal organs with my lungs being the most affected. And actually, we need elastin for so many bodily functions that we don't realize. So when function is. when elastin is removed from your body, it has dire consequences. For me, that led to severe damage of my lungs. So I have emphysema now quite badly. And the problem I have was that doctors just didn't know if this illness. In fact, I'm the first person in the UK to be treated for it. And this time last year, after seeing some really rapid decline of lung function, things were looking pretty bad for me. And with no known treatment, we decided to. Having read some research and I was lucky, I had some amazing doctors who were happy to see them in. Look at all of the research I've put together, and they've done their own as well, which was fantastic. But we agreed that there was some sort of connection between the myeloma, and the acquired Cutis Laxa. And if we treated the myeloma, even though it was early stage myeloma which isn't normally treated, that we would try and halt the damage that this illness was causing to my body. And so I've been on chemo for a year now. I certainly wouldn't say that. I'm out of the woods. I think this is going to be a life long and I hesitate to use the word battle because it's I don't want people that are ill to feel like they have a battle. This is something that your body's going through, and I'm trying to do it in alignment with my body rather than fighting against my body. It upsets me sometimes when people say so and so won their battle with cancer or didn't win their battle with cancer, as though those people that didn't win failed in some way. And it doesn't feel like that to me as well. So I do feel like I have a lifelong relationship with what's going on for me. But luckily, after a year of quite a few ups and downs, a year of being on weekly chemo, which has been exhausting to say the least, let alone all the side effects. Those that have gone through this sort of treatment know that the side effects are horrendous, including fatigue like I had never experienced before. But a year on after weekly and chemo, we've seen some sort of stability, so I'm really happy about that. We're not seeing the rapid decline of lung function we did before, and they've moved the amounts, the chemo every other week. And I'm so pleased about that because I get to have every other week where I'm being. I'm able to function more than the chemo weeks, so I'm really happy about it. But it certainly has been an adventure Abraham, if nothing else, it's taught me so much about, I guess, the things that are really important. And also helped me see the things that aren't important. How much time we waste on the things that really aren't important and really don't make a difference. How much time we will spend worrying about insignificant things and how that worry impacts the quality of our life when actually. All of it, is just the stories we make up in our head about what we think and how we look at what might be going on, not actually what's going on.
Abraham:
So how, how has this changed your perspective in terms of financial planning?
Tina Weeks:
Oh, massively. And mainly, I think, because, you know, financial planning when you look at it isn't just a small piece of the puzzle that focuses on money. I think we're privileged to do this work with clients and actually it encompasses so many areas of people's lives. So when I look at it from my perspective, it helped me look at things differently, not just around financial planning and money, but how financial planning fits into the bigger scheme of things. How actually life is is the big conversation here that we have around financial planning and financial planning is really the, the tool that we use to help people live the best life that they can. But for me, it was really interesting. If I focus just on purely on the money side first, I realized that here I was after many, many years of struggling financially in a really good financial position. And now I'm thinking about how can I pass that wealth on to my children, my beneficiaries and in a way that was effective? And whilst I have absolutely no problem paying my fair share of tax here, I was now trying to look at how can I navigate the inheritance tax that would be due on my estate in a way that allowed my beneficiaries to one, have access to sufficient assets to pay the tax in the first place. But also things like I have a property at the moment with a mortgage, I have to make sure that there is sufficient cash for the mortgage to be paid off if I want my children to carry on living in the property. So lots of things like that and lots of exploration around issues that normally a 51 year old healthy person wouldn't have to think about. When we talk to our clients, that sort of age. Legacy is important, but it's not the primary conversation point in financial planning. So I just started looking at ways to make sure I didn't leave a mess, basically. And as a financial planner, I did walk the walk. I did have wills and LPA's in place. I did have I did utilize the tax resources in the most effective way. But now I was looking at it with fresh eyes, and it was interesting actually from a wills and power of attorney point of view. That if I started looking at it from the executors and the trustees points of view as well as the beneficiaries, there were things that I needed to change, things that I needed to make sure were easier for people to deal with. We all make a will. We quote what we want to happen. But the practicality of that actually happening needs a little bit more thought. When you're when it feels like that, that might happen imminently. And certainly over the last year, there were three or four occasions where we thought that my chemo wasn't working and that I didn't even have the two year period that you would need to consider an AIM portfolio or any other BR investment that would need a two year clock ticking as soon as possible and getting to the end point in time. So have been some hairy moments, and it really made me question everything I know about financial planning and how to practically apply it in a way that I've not really had to do for clients. I've not really had to work with many clients who are seriously ill to the point where we're looking at trying to tidy up and make the best of what they got in a limited time. And of course, there were some obvious things like, you know, making sure that as much as possible was in pensions, we will know that pensions are outside of your estate for inheritance tax purposes, but also starting to look at what I could transfer to my children, at least in an effective way. I didn't have I didn't feel I had access to a seven year time frame for the potentially exempt transfers. So I was looking at transferring as much as I could through and and making payments out of expenditure. And so payments out of excess income rather so that my beneficiaries could take it could have that in in their name without it being an inheritance tax issue. I mean, actually, that's something that I wish so many more people used. you can give as much as you like to as many people as you like and as long as it's payments out of leftover income, so to speak. And it doesn't affect your lifestyle, it doesn't count for inheritance tax purposes. So that was that was something really good that gave me some comfort that I could actually do something. But yeah, it's it's shown me that as practitioners. We have to be really flexible to be able to help clients in a different way if their life changes.
Abraham:
We've talked a few times about clients. going through various transitions. You know, we thought about divorce, retirement, all those sorts of things, but I don't think personally, I've really thought about the practicalities and what's involved when people might be at the end of their life. And a big, big part of that is the psychological impact. It really does affect the way you think when suddenly you feel you might not be around for much longer. And thank you, Tina, for be being so honest about this. I still have a few questions on this, so please forgive me, I might not be asking the right questions, but I almost feel like that and again, correct me if I'm wrong, I probably am. There are two parts. There's two sides to this, you know, so these sort of things that you know, you know, an individual needs to do right just before a, you know, a major life event like this happens. And part of the problem is that we don't know if we're going to be, you know, we're going to encounter this, this type of event in our lives. So, so you know, so I guess the question there is, what are the things that you did that turned out to be actually a great help when you confronted the illness? So, you know, when you knew you were facing the illness and what are the things that you wish you had done? And then equally on the I know I'm using the wrong term on the other side of it. Now, you know, now that you know where you are, you've talked a little bit about, you know, trying to, change things and plan a different phase of the plan. So do you want to talk about the side of it before you? And what are the things that you did or that you wish you had done? You know, before you, had to face the illness?
Tina Weeks:
Well, the most interesting thing actually is the fact that, you know, financial planning is not prescriptive and often we're dealing with so much uncertainty and unknowns, and we're trying to prepare for all eventualities when we just don't know what's going to happen. And we spend so much time with clients trying to help them live the best life they can now and to prepare for retirement. And if we were looking at the flip side of that, i.e. they didn't have much life and they weren't going to get to retirement, we would have to look at changing so much of their financial planning. But if we did that, and certainly in my case where things you know, you know, I wasn't given a definite terminal diagnosis, it was up and down the whole time the uncertainty of you're going to die, you're not going to did was there constantly for me, but it meant that I was really cautious and quite worried about making decisions based on dying and then not dying or not making decisions that then, you know, then I did die and I hadn't accounted for, you know, for example. Now if you if you start thinking that you want to gift away as much as you can, but then you need that money, you know, you're sort of struggling or I think the closest before you when we talk to clients, we're always looking at, for example, if in later life, they might need long term care that they wish to fund themselves. How do we do that and how do we balance that with the fact that they might want to spend that money in retirement and live their life? We're always looking at that balance of how we can find a way to cover both of those requirements in a way where one doesn't compromise the other. But for me, it really was a dilemma, actually. For example, I thought if I if I am going to be looking at transferring some of my investments to an AIM portfolio and making sure it was a qualifying AIM portfolio. But if I was going to do that, I would have to crystallize my assets and realize a capital gains tax liability, so I had to weigh up. Do I want to pay the tax now to move into a type of investment that didn't match my belief system around investing that didn't, you know, didn't quite fit? It wouldn't be one that I would choose. It isn't how I invest my money or have invested my money not thinking that I had a long life ahead of me. But that's the that's one of the dilemmas that I had. Do I make this decision now knowing that and hoping that touch wood on? Okay. But what I've done is I've compromised myself financially to try and prepare for an eventuality that I wasn't sure would happen. So, yeah, dilemmas like that in. It's a difficult one. You just have to make the best decision you can at the time. And I sort of went for a halfway house. In the end, it didn't actually put the AIM portfolio in place. I focused more on making sure I had as much as I can in my pensions and gifting. So removing from my estate in that way. Yeah, it was really interesting, but for me. I found it fascinating, actually, Abraham, how I was looking at it now with different eyes and what it meant for me in my conversations with clients going forward and being conscious that I don't bring my situation too forcefully into a client conversation. You know, I don't want clients to, to not feel that they've got a life ahead of them and to live their best life whilst at the same time considering what could happen. Because the truth is, none of us know what could happen. None of us know how much time we've got left. And the thing is, we all think we have enough time. We'll sort stuff out a bit later on. We'll look at the way we look at our situations with the perspective that I've just described later down the line. And we won't we don't need to rush it. We got plenty of time. And I think it's made it clearer to me that we do need to consider this sort of eventuality. You know, I've been a big proponent of insurance for many years and making sure that people had the insurance they had in place, but actually looking at how they can change that and their investments and their, their situation in general around not an assumption, but a possibility that they might not be around as long as we hope that everyone will be. And just making sure that they don't leave a mess that was what was important to me. I didn't want the people that were left behind to have to deal with things that they didn't have to, you know dealing with death and dealing with treatment is hard enough without people worrying about how they're going to deal with what you've left behind. For example, I had to look at the paperwork that's involved in the paperwork that executives need to deal with on death. And I looked at the IHT 400 form I don't know if you've looked at it at all. Abraham, it's not that long form, but it asks quite a few questions and you think, Oh, this isn't too bad. But then every question if, you say yes, it spins off into another form. So you could end up with many, many forms that you fill in. And when I was looking at it, I was asking myself where with my executors find the answer to that question, how am I going to make it easy for them to fill in this form? I would strongly recommend that everyone downloads that form and fill it in for themselves, not trying to be morbid. I'm just trying to be realistic, if someone had to fill in that form for you where would they get the answers to all of those questions? Have you made it easy? You know, everyone should have a gift register, even if it says on the gift register no gifts made because it just confirms and makes it easy to answer that question. And if there are gifts made to enter them on the on the gift register and categorize them, this is a gift that would be subject to the seven year rule. This is a gift that came out of excess income so that it's easy for your executors to answer those questions. So I was I've been doing things like that, that I didn't do before that I'd really like to introduce and make part of the financial planning work that we do with clients.
Abraham:
So in all of this, there is obviously clearly a business that has, you know, team members, employees and clients and revenue and you the, owner and manager of this business, how did you. Can you talk a little bit more about? How you managed or what you did with the business or are doing with the business, but especially in the period that you were going through the, you know, the weekly chemo?
Tina Weeks:
Yeah, well, I'm still on chemo, but every other week. But yeah, I was really lucky because I realized quite a few years ago that it was really important that I try and extract myself from the business so that the business worked really well without me, and I'd passed over my clients to another adviser, I created a management team that had quite a lot of responsibility, and it all came in. It all came good in that year where, you know, not only were we dealing with a pandemic and the changes that that brought, but also the fact that I wasn't as available as I normally was. And you know, every Monday, Wednesdays, my chemo day, every Monday I would be in hospital and every Tuesday would be my biggest recovery day. And then some day for the rest of the week come out and not be well, either. But I I felt so privileged and lucky to work with such an amazing team of people. And everybody stepped up. The management team in particular, really did step up. They took on much more responsibility. They took things forward. They drove things forward. And and I felt that I could just take a step back and focus on my treatment. And whilst I worked as much as I could. I didn't feel that pressure that I would have had to feel if the business relied on me, if the business really, really needed me to keep going. And, and that's been such a godsend. Absolutely.
Abraham:
So has this changed any of your views in terms of the, you know, going forward in terms of the ownership structure of the business? What is the word they use? Longevity of the business in terms of, you know, what happens to this business eventually?
Tina Weeks:
Well, that's a that's a really, really good question, Abraham, and I think lots of people in my situation think about it all the time. Without a doubt, this is a business that I want to continue. And whilst I'm not precious about the branding or anything like that, it would be a shame if this amazing work that we're doing with clients doesn't continue in some form or another. I would really like to change the ownership. I'm 100% owner right now to include the amazing team people that I work with. I haven't quite decided the best way of doing that right now, whether it be through direct ownership of equity or something like an employee ownership trust. I'm looking into all of these options and I would like as soon as it's possible to introduce something that really brings everyone in and makes sure that people can see how valued and how important they are and how they can contribute to the longevity of the business. There's only so much one person can do, and whilst a big part of my role is strategy and driving the business forward, it turns out that other people are good at that too. So it's really good that other people can step in and take on those roles. And of course, I want people to be appreciated and compensated for that.
Abraham:
No, it's really fascinating, and I know we're talking about this, right, in terms of. You know, in terms of this coming up, you know, as a result, or I don't know, as a result, I don't know how to talk about this. You can, you can tell, right? And this is a story. I'm going to digress. This is the question to you.
Tina Weeks:
Before you ask me any more questions? Abraham, can I just ask you, what is it you're feeling uncomfortable about right now? Is it the fact that I was ill or that I was close to death? I Mean, is it death that you're uncomfortable with or illness? What is it?
Abraham:
It's all of you know, I don't know how we should be talking to someone who is going through a major illness in, you know, in their lives. They're obviously, you know, they're obviously, you know, doing the best they can still working. But we know there's an illness there that, you know, I really don't know what to say. I don't know how to have that conversation without sounding. And that's the point without sounding insensitive or or not really appreciating the challenge and the difficulty of what they're facing.
Tina Weeks:
That's such an honest response. Thank you so much Abraham, and I think you're not the only one that struggles, struggles with that. I think as a society, we all struggle with talking about death and illness, even though it's inevitable, certainly death for every one of us. I guess my advice in that situation would be to take the lead of the person that you're talking to, so you can see that I'm very open about it. I'm very happy to talk about any aspect of my experience. I'm also happy to use the word death to talk about what it feels like to have death knocking at your door. I'm comfortable with all of that but, but I appreciate that not everybody is. And so maybe initially, just a question like, you know. Are you comfortable talking about your experience with me? Would cover it for you, and if I said, no, not really, I'm still struggling with it myself, I still find it difficult myself to comprehend and to accept, then you would know to maybe back off. But you know, for people like me who are open, then seeing you feel open as well and feel comfortable asking questions that you want the answers to, then that helps. It helps just for me to be able to help you. Get the answers that you want to these for these questions, and sometimes with people, it's just a case of letting them know that your there, that you can provide support if needed. But, but not that there's this secret taboo thing that should be swept under the carpet and not not talked about. I think certainly as a society, if we could introduce a bit more, a bit more relaxed about those conversations, it would make it so much easier not just to talk about them, but for also for those struggling through them to feel that people understand and that they have that support.
Abraham:
Thank you, that's very, very helpful. So the question I was going to ask you. The point, I was going to make, actually, is that people, you know, we're talking about, succession planning, what happens to the business, right? Eventually, right, in the context of, you know, your illness and how that's changed your perspective. But I feel that this is a conversation that any business owner should be having, right? I was at home yesterday, right? And I was talking to people who are building businesses and financial planning, right? And one of the questions I ask people is, well, what do you do with this thing eventually, right? And I feel that, that you know, this is you know, this regardless of where we are on our journey, you start a business. It's established right? I feel that it has a big impact on the future of the profession, right? You know, one of the reasons why. You know, there are all these consolidators going around buying advice on farms, and, you know, oh, the problems that come with that is because, you know, financial planning businesses don't have, you know, this succession path, as you would have in a, in a professional service business where new partners buy the old ones out. But the legacy of the firm and their professional, their professionalism continues. And you know, it was really heartwarming for me when you said, Well, you'll be great. And I agree for the work that you've done that the. the business, the entity that you've created to continue in some shape or form, he might be part of another entity might be, you know, taken over by the people who own the, you know, the people who work in the business. But I feel really, really strongly about that.
Tina Weeks:
That's such an important question, Abraham and I said before I was ill. My plan was always to build a succession plan from within. And I was on that path. But again, I assumed that I would have time to do that. We all assume that we have enough time to do these things. It's always something that will happen at some point in the future. And the truth is, none of us know how much time we have. And if we want our businesses to be successful without us, we need to start making plans well in advance. I think we all know other financial planner business owners, you know, just recently, quite a few that have either died or suffered severe illness, and that business has been really compromised. And, you know, making plans in advance on the assumption that something might happen and hoping that it doesn't seem to definitely be the best way of looking at it. I first came across this a few years ago when a very good friend of mine, Hannah Foxley, died. We'd been talking about working together. She was an amazing up-and-coming financial planner. She was building a great business. And unfortunately for her, her cancer came back a second time and she was gone within weeks, literally. And whilst we've been talking about working together, we hadn't actually made any serious plans. And what Hannah did was literally write a letter to her clients on her deathbed saying, You know, I'm going to be passing you over to Tina and Tina will be looking after you. The reality was that these clients didn't know who I was. They've not been previously introduced to me. And whilst quite a few of them stayed with me, the majority ended up going elsewhere because they were able to take recommendations from other people that were close to them that they knew. And that's completely understandable. So that taught me a lot And even to this day, some of the time as clients that I look off to say that one of the reasons they were happy to come to me because it wasn't just me, that there were other financial planners in the business. But on a bigger note, if I am the sole owner of this business and I'm not here, what happens to the business? What do I need to do right now to prepare the business to ensure that success is more likely? Even though we know we can touch wood and hope for the best, that that eventuality never arises, what can I do now to make sure that the business still runs without me? And actually, that I have a framework, a structure in place for people to inherit that business and keep growing it and taking it forward. I would urge everybody who thinks that this is something that they don't need to deal with now just to have a think if if the worst happens, what happens to your business, really, what happens to your business tomorrow morning? They wake up and they don't have you? How does the business carry on? I agree it's such an important subject to right that. And one that I feel has a big impact on the future of our profession, that financial planners create some financial planners. Not all, of course, create outstanding businesses and that the business they should have is structure regardless of what's going on with your health and life should have a structure in place that enables. The work to out last, the you know, the founders, or the current owners, you know, that might be, you know, as we see in other professional services, law firms and others where, you know, current new partners come in and they take over from the new one, that sort of thing. But we need that sort of model. Otherwise, we end up with this situation where, you know, in the worst case scenario, the owners of the businesses pass on and huge amounts of value can be destroyed in that process. Wealth can be destroyed in that process or, you know, financial planners selling out to large consolidators and things like that. So, yeah, no, I think is really important.
Abraham:
You're not a woman to rest on your laurels at all, right? And whilst, you're dealing with this illness. You're managing a financial planning business. That's not enough. You've got these, you know, coaching and training for advisors going on. Talk a little bit about that and how that came about.
Tina Weeks:
Well, actually, this is something that really means a lot to me. It's something that fires me up, gets me excited. And people have heard me for years talking about how working you working with your clients in the life planning and coaching way. Is it absolutely the most fulfilling and fun way to work without even taking into account what difference it makes to your clients, the difference it makes to people and how they live their lives? And I've always wanted to deliver my own methodology a training program that allows other financial planners to deliver this to be able to work in this way to get to feel so much of the joy that I have felt working in this way and throughout that time, throughout lockdown, alongside a business partner at the time, we launched know thyself coaching and consulting. And the first cohort of the certificate in Relational Financial Planning started on the third of September 2020. We've run three cohorts since, and whilst. the relationship with my business partner didn't work out, I'm now in the situation with where I've at some point toyed with whether or not do I continue the business? Do I not because I'm now doing this on my own? And is it something that I want to do when I'm really in this situation with my health? And actually, it was my sister that helped me get some clarity around that. She said Whenever, whenever you talk about know thyself, when you share with us the successes, the difference is made to the people that have gone through that training. She says, You light up, you have more energy. You know, we can tell that it means so much to you. And she was right. And that's why I'm going to give myself a little bit more time just to get myself a little bit healthier, but I definitely will be running the courses again in 2022. And so watch this space, everybody. I'm looking forward to welcoming more and more people to the know thyself academy. There's a Facebook group that everyone is welcome to join, but this way of working and being able to help my peers and other financial planners learn this way of working, it jus it just gives me so much joy and so much satisfaction. And it's definitely something I want to carry on doing alongside Serenity.
Abraham:
Fantastic stuff. Tina Weeks. Thank you very much for your honesty, for your time, for your wisdom, for the incredible work that you do in in our profession. And I am really, really keen to see what comes next. I'm really excited about the future. And, you know, I will definitely be shouting and spreading the word about, know thyself. You know, coaching and training when that comes up again. So thank you very much for your time.
Tina Weeks:
Thank you so much, Abraham. I really enjoyed chatting to you. Thank you.