As a company, your core values must be inherent in every aspect of your business practices.
From how you interact with your colleagues, create policies and serve your customers, the behaviours that sit behind the core values are what really matter. Everything you do must be aligned to the principles and values that you hold.
At Bigmore Associate our core values are:
Each value we have backs up our mission to provide the best advice and actions for each individual client or company that comes to us. A mission we uphold not only with those who become clients, but with those we might not work with because we can’t add value or their values do not align with ours.
Client/People First
As a financial services firm our role is to provide the best financial advice for you and your circumstances. Whether this is with your pension, mortgage, personal protection, investments, trusts, estate planning, wills, probate, general financial plan, or employee benefits our expertise can guide you to the life you want while working to keep you financially stable.
Sometimes clients come in already having an idea of what they want to do. It might be that there are stocks they want to purchase, or equity they want to release. Maybe it’s pension consolidation or the creation of a trust to protect their beneficiaries from inheritance tax. Sometimes the direction the client wants to go is not in their best interest.
Our advice always considers what you want to do, yes. But sometimes what you want to do can have consequences which will put you in a precarious position financially. If this is the case and you are insistent that you get what you want, we might politely decline your business. This is because our first core value is the put the client first.
We will always look to find a solution which addresses your needs and gives you the best outcome. But if you are steadfast in your resolve to do exactly what you want, and if we feel that the thing you want to do will be bad for you in the long run, we cannot in good conscience do it.
You are not an invoice to us. You are a person with wants, needs, and goals in this life and we want to help you achieve them.
Trust
Operating this way means our clients know that they can trust us to do what is best for them. Trust means that clients can come to us with anything knowing that our advice will be unbiased, well thought out, thorough, and in their best interest.
We recently had a new client come in with a very long list of things they thought they needed to do. Things we could have done. Things which would have had a very nice fee attached to it. But our advice was to not take all the actions on the list. Doing everything at once had too many unknowns, too many moving parts. Yes, this means our fee was less, but it is a more stable decision for the client’s finances. Our ongoing review service means that we will keep their situation under review for if and when the right time comes for them to take the next step.
But how do we build trust with people we turn away? If our services aren’t what they need we guide them to the right place. This can be something simple like giving them information, giving them a contact number, or even help them to find the right form to fill out. We also let them know we are here to help if they need us in the future.
9 out of 10 times a person will come back to us when the time comes because they know the advice we give will be what is right for them. It will be fair, appropriate and worth the cost. They will also recommend us to their friends and family as they trust that we put our clients first.
Empathy
Empathy informs everything we do at Bigmore Associates. No client we have ever worked with has had it all figured out. No client has walked in with the perfect plan, perfect portfolio, or perfect financial mindset. And to be clear, there is no guarantee that they will walk out with one either.
Financial planning is a lifelong process. It can change just as life can change. The “perfect” plan is one that is adaptable. One that reflects your wants and needs and can be adjusted when required. Keeping an empathetic approach to our work allows us to view our clients as more than their finances.
Sometimes money needs to be released from assets for reasons that have a great deal of emotion attached to them. Unexpected medical bills, a final holiday with a loved one, divorce or elder care. When these situations happen, it can put the client in a very vulnerable position and they must be handled with expertise, yes, but it’s the empathy and care we bring to these moments which has a lasting impact.
Showing empathy extends beyond our client base. Whether it’s in how we listen and speak with people, the focus and tone of the content we put out, or the community outreach we undertake. Everyone has financial needs, regardless of a person’s socioeconomic background, and everyone deserve guidance and education in financial matters.
Educate & Empower
As a company we firmly believe financial education should be available to everyone. Since financial management is not covered thoroughly in school, and is often not spoken about in the home, part of our mission is to fill the gap between what people know and what they need to know.
We generate content that offers both practical financial information and a deeper look at what sits behind a person’s financial perspective and decision making. Our Insight page is filled with a variety of topics ranging from pensions to writing a will, financial shame to investment management, guides for first time buyers to the value of employee benefits. We also offer free educational presentations which can be booked by a company or organisation for the benefit of their employees or members.
This content allows us to educate our clients on topics they might not be as familiar with. But it isn’t produced just for the benefit of the people we work with. All of our content is freely available to anyone, not just our clients. We don’t require any data input, no email address or name, to access them. This is because we want to remove all barriers to financial education and for some, inputting any amount of personal information is a barrier.
Innovate & Adapt
Technology never stops evolving. If you don’t keep up to date with it, you might be left behind. Working with the changes in industry technology rather than fighting against them means we are constantly innovating our processes, ensuring efficiency and allowing us to keep our charges at a competitive level. Yet technology is not the basis for financial management.
It can be a brilliant tool when used by someone with the knowledge and expertise to back it up. A combination of useful technology and human understanding leads to strong working relationships.
Just as we adapt to new technology we must also adapt our advice to the changing situation of our clients. This is why we hold regular meetings with our clients to make sure that the advice we have given remains suitable for them and their changing circumstances. All cashflow modelling is reviewed annually as part of the review process to take into account changes to circumstances, personal and financial, changes to taxation, changes to inflation or to the portfolio, all of which can have an impact on keeping your plans on track. This means that we can adapt our recommendations to each individual and can continue to do so throughout the course of our working relationship.
For those we do not work with, it is often a matter of them wanting to self manage their finances. If that is the case, it is often better for them to use technology outside of what we offer as there is no need for them to pay us a management fee since we will not be managing their portfolios or savings products for them.
Living Our Core Values
A company’s values should not just be a poster on the wall or a page on the website. They must be lived. They must be embodied by your people, evident in your procedures and form the basis of the work you do across all areas of your organisaion. By doing this you create a business that is built on ideals, giving your team a purpose and a mission.
Our purpose is to help people. The way we do that is through their finances.
Our holistic advice is bespoke to you and our customer service is second to none. Through our initial, free consultation meeting you will gain the confidence that Bigmore Associates has your best interest at heart.
For financial advice that has you at the centre, contact Bigmore Associates.
Our holistic advice is bespoke to you and our customer service is second to none. Through our initial free consultation meeting you will gain the confidence that Bigmore Associates has your best interest at heart.
