You may have noticed over recent weeks, months and years that both Huw and Russ have been expanding their brains and adding additional qualifications and experience to their CV’s.

Huw is now a Registered Life Planner® and a qualified coach, specialising in money coaching and helping business owners to overcome imposter syndrome.

Russ has been awarded the Advanced Certificate in Family Business Advising from the Family Firms Institute in the US and is currently undertaking the same financial life planner training that Huw holds. He has been working with The Family Business Consultancy to deliver consultancy to family owned businesses.

Huw and Russ are both avid learners and now hold a truly unique combination of qualifications, skills and experience that no other financial planning firm is able to offer. We are extremely proud of this and want to tell you a little more about it.

Huw has set up Cubic Coaching to separate his life planning and coaching services from the regulated financial advice that he will continue to deliver to new and existing clients through Proposito Financial Planning. Russ has joined The Family Business Consultancy, one of the UK’s largest independent family business consultancies, as a Director. He will also continue in his role with Proposito Financial Planning and, just like Huw, will continue to look after new and existing clients in delivering regulated financial planning advice through Proposito Financial Planning.

We are really excited about these developments and what it will mean for you and our new clients. We understand that it seems like a change so we have put together some Q&A’s to answer any questions you may have. If you have one that we haven’t answered, please get in touch we are happy to discuss with you.

Are you leaving Proposito?

No, the services that we are able to offer through the new businesses are entirely complementary to the services we are able to deliver within Proposito.

It is likely that some clients will benefit from the services of Cubic Coaching, The Family Business Consultancy and Proposito Financial Planning, but it is also important that this is not seen as a mandatory element of any of our services.

Why not just offer coaching and consultancy through Proposito?

Good question.

For simplicity it makes sense to deliver non-regulated work through non-regulated businesses and direct all regulated work through Proposito Financial Planning.

Proposito Financial Planning is a regulated firm. This means that we are required to satisfy the requirements of The Financial Conduct Authority for each and every client that we work with. We must cover off all aspects of giving regulated financial advice and provide clients with all the necessary documents and paperwork to support this advice. This is only right and proper. It delivers the protection of UK financial services regulation and provides our clients with the peace of mind that comes from engaging a regulated financial planning firm.

If however, somebody wanted us to help with a succession plan within their family business or they wanted personal coaching to improve a particular area of their life we would need to work with them as if they would end that process with regulated financial advice.

As much as we love pensions and investments, they are rarely the answer to issues around succession in a family business or improving personal growth. Having separate organisations to deliver these services, not constrained by the framework of regulation, makes perfect sense.

If it is relevant to discuss the regulated element of what we are able to offer, we will do so at the earliest opportunity through Proposito Financial Planning. But if we don’t, there is no need to confuse matters by discussing our related terms of business when we are acting in a coaching or consultancy capacity.

There is complete transparency and collaboration between all of the businesses.

Will I be forced to use these new services?

No. We are telling you about these changes because we think it is important that you know about them, if you feel you would benefit from any of the new services we are able to offer we would be delighted to help you, however we will not be trying to ‘upsell’ anything.

What is Life Planning?

Life planning is nothing more than an in-depth conversation about what’s really important. We follow a structured process that helps to identify a priority order, so you can focus your time and energy on doing first things first.

Who is it for?

Life planning is right for anyone who wants to make sure they get all the important stuff done in the time they’ve got left. Right money at the right time for all the things you want to achieve. Live your one life without regrets.

Who is it not for?

Life planning won’t be as effective for someone who is not prepared to look within themselves and identify what is truly important.

What is Money Coaching?

We all have partial and incomplete truths about money that were formed from our earliest memories about money. They can often lead to self-sabotaging money habits. Identifying destructive behaviours around money is the first step in making lasting changes that will lead to financial freedom.

Money coaching will help you to understand your relationship with money and develop positive behaviours that will lead lasting changes to your financial life.

Who is it for?

Money coaching is right for anyone who wants to change their existing relationship with money to deliver lasting change to their behaviour around money and improve their financial life.

Who is it not for?

Money coaching won’t work with anyone who doesn’t really (and I mean really) want to change their relationship with their money.

What is Family Business Consultancy?

Being in business with your family is complex. There are three separate ‘systems’ at play within the business, these being the ownership system, the management system (i.e. day to day running of the business) and the family system. Family businesses are collectively unique in having the family system within the business.

This can be a fantastic asset to the family business; however it can also encourage conflict, resulting in difficulty in transitioning the business from one generation to the other and provide challenges that other professional advisers struggle to understand and assist with.

A Family Business Consultant works with the family ‘system’ to help the family to become better at being in business together. This can often be through times of transition or to help resolve particular challenges or conflicts that might exist within the business.

You can find out more about The Family Business Consultancy here.

Who is it for?

The Family Business Consultancy will typically work with family owned businesses that are transitioning ownership or management from one generation to the other. There is a saying in the family business world that is ‘shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves’ in three generations.

Traditionally the transition from the second generation to the third and beyond can be tricky and so the majority of our work is focused here.

In addition we have particular expertise in integrating non-family senior management teams into the family business. This can be a huge change for the business and the family as it grows and possibly for the first time, non-family members are in positions of influence. We help businesses to avoid the ‘us and them’ atmosphere that can arise during these times.

Who is it not for?

Basically, we only work with family owned businesses, this is where our knowledge and expertise lie. If you are experiencing challenges within the business and it is not family owned, we think there are more appropriate advisers out there for you. If this is the case, please do get in touch and we will point you in the right direction.