We understand
We set up Chancery Lane as baby boomers ourselves because we saw that our boomer peer group was being ignored by the ‘industry’, and that the current cohort of advisers had neither the experience nor understanding to work with boomers to create best in breed solutions.
Imagine you call your local GP surgery for your 85 year old parent who is both unwell and, being elderly, anxious. There are two GPs on call: one who graduated from Oxbridge three years ago with a 1st, the other being Mrs GP who looked after you and your kids as you all grew up together — who do you ask for? The ‘unwell’ part of the parent can probably be treated with a drug — the anxiety cannot.
We don’t hire planners on qualifications alone—we don’t believe the ability to score well in examinations is the secret to good advice for income investing for pensions. On the contrary, we believe that empathy with client needs is the primary value that we add. There’s a big difference between listening and hearing.
While planners can learn and research every aspect of perfect investment solutions out of a book or via the interweb, empathy is not a skill — it’s a part of a planner’s personality that is developed, not examined, and is only acquired over time.
Taking two to tango
For our advised clients, your relationship with us is controlled by your adviser, but you also have a dedicated client manager working in the background. The adviser looks after you, the strategy, and our relationship with you. The client manager looks after the details of your account, the daily tasks of research, administration, compliance and making sure you have the right things at the right time (valuations, applications etc).
Our emphasis is on employing and developing advisers who are professionally competent at evaluating all the options for clients on their own – otherwise we wouldn’t hire them. We also apply belt & braces via our standards control of every aspect of our work, and with every client recommendation and account you have the reassurance of the oversight of at least two experienced and qualified team members.
Red Big Bus
Much of the work underpinning our advice is data driven. The tasks involve spreadsheet analysis, algorithm constructions, correlation coefficients etc. We know this part of the work fills many with dread and ennui.
Your planner’s role is to translate the technical into plain English, and to ensure that’s language you are comfortable with; just because the research and advice is correct, if it’s not provided to you in a way that your brain recognises as straightforward and expected then that advice would stumble and not be easily digestible. ‘Big red bus’ is how we expect to hear it. It’s not just language, it’s more than that. We understand.
It’s good to talk
Our advisers are here for you by video, face to face or by phone, and always by email. All video and voice calls are recorded as part of our quality control and all financial communications are sent through our online portal, a UK-based secure vault for all our correspondence with you.
Thanks to our technology, which we’ve been refining for over a decade, you, your adviser and client manager can work together seamlessly—no matter where you are. You both see virtually the same information in real time, so you can make informed decisions about your financial strategy.
