Count on peace of mind with good financial advice

Having launched their financial planning company, Spectrum Wealth Group, in the teeth of the UK’s nationwide Covid lockdown, Paul McFadyen and Nadeen Watson are now celebrating two years of strong growth. As a result, with effect from March 8th, the company is moving to larger offices at its present address in Turnberry House, West George Street. 

“Paul and I anticipated a difficult start when we first opened our doors in March 2021,” says Watson.

“The whole country was in the grip of the pandemic and a year later it was clear that the UK was going to be facing levels of inflation that had not been seen for 40 years or more,” she says.

However, McFadyen and Watson’s determination to help clients keep calm through the rough times while providing them with sound investment and long-term savings advice, proved to be a winning approach. The firm has grown spectacularly over the two years and its present move to a larger suite of offices will provide much-needed space for further growth. 

“When we set up the office back in March 2021 we had every confidence that we could make a positive difference for our clients, but we had no way of knowing how quickly business would grow,” McFadyen recalls. In fact, the firm’s approach resonated strongly with its clients and the firm grew rapidly through word of mouth. 

“We had invested heavily in making our original space comfortable and welcoming for clients and staff. However, two years later, we have simply outgrown our office. Our new home will enable us to continue growing as our team continues to expand,” Watson notes.

The firm has now reached the point where Watson and McFadyen are actively looking to take on a third, experienced financial planner. “This is an absolutely key step for us to grow the business and the service we provide to our clients. Nadeen and I have a tremendous work relationship. 

“We worked together in our previous positions before we founded Spectrum, so we recognise that it will be something of a challenge to find someone who can slot in comfortably with our team. However, the level of client demand we are experiencing makes it imperative that we expand the business,” he says. 

The fact that demand has grown to this point speaks strongly to the way McFadyen and Watson have been able to steer the firm’s clients successfully through what has, by any standards, been a very difficult two years for stock markets and investment houses around the world.

“The thing that we emphasise to clients, more than anything else, is that saving for retirement or for any long-term goal, is about understanding that you are investing over a multi-year term,” Watson says. 

The team at Spectrum Wealth Group places enormous importance on getting to know and understand their client’s goals and how to achieve them

“The minimum investment horizon we should be looking at is five years. However, many of our clients still have a decade or more before they are thinking of retirement. Our advice is always to put aside all the doubts and anxieties that can be generated by viewing the morning media headlines. 

“Over the longer term, the fluctuations and minor crises in prices lose their significance. What is important is keeping focused on your long-term goals and knowing where you stand with respect to those goals,” Watson says. 

McFadyen points out that it can be enormously challenging for people to work out for themselves what levels of income they will need to meet their long-term aspirations. This is why the firm places enormous importance on really getting to know and understand their clients’ goals and aspirations. 

Watson adds that it is just as important to keep a close eye on any changes that can impact those goals. “Lifetime cashflow modelling is imperative to a proper financial plan, and a key element of the decision-making process. This is a specialism of our Technical Manager, Ryan Rogan, who builds and presents cashflow projections for each of our clients.  It is not unusual to find that people are actually better placed than they thought they were, when it comes to contemplating early retirement, for example,” she says.

At the same time, society’s expectations regarding retirement are undergoing some profound changes. The traditional approach to retirement, where one walks out of a career on a Friday and leaves the world of work behind forever, is fading into the past. 

“What emerges now when we talk to clients is that more and more people are thinking about some kind of phased retirement. They are very amenable to the idea of cutting back, doing a few days a week rather than every day, for example.

"Employers too, as the war for talent heats up, are now much more willing to work on ways of retaining the services of valued staff and partners. Part-time working options are very much on the table, and that can have a deep impact on the levels of income required for a comfortable older age,” McFadyen comments. 

Another thing that makes it very difficult for clients to work out exactly how they stand with respect to their long-term goals is that many people actually have multiple pension policies.

These tend to be acquired over the years as people move jobs as their careers develop. Working out how best to use these, and when, requires careful planning.

“These arrangements can often provide a vital bridge, covering the gap between when a client retires and when the State Pension kicks in for them,” Watson says. The state pension age keeps rising and will undoubtedly go to 70 and beyond in the years to come. For anyone planning to retire or to cut back on their working life earlier than their state pension age, having a proper plan in place is crucial.

www.spectrumwealthgroup.com

• A pension is a long-term investment and the value is not guaranteed. Any advice or considerations are personal to each individual’s circumstances

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A wealth of expertise clients can bank upon 

FROM the outset, the directors of Spectrum Wealth Group have emphasised the importance of developing strong long-term relationships with the firm’s clients. 

One half of this is the regular review and planning meetings that Paul McFadyen and Nadeen Watson hold with their clients. 

The other half is the support provided to clients by the firm’s support team, Angela Vickers and Alisha Wright, along with the firm’s Technical Manager Ryan Rogan.
McFadyen points out that as the firm expands, it is already in the process of training up a third relationship manager. 

The professionals at Spectrum Wealth Group have achieved huge success over the past two years

“Claire McGill has been with us for a year as our Business Assistant but has progressed to the point where we are now promoting her to be a Client Relationship Manager. So we’ll also be looking for someone to take Claire’s place as our business assistant.
Watson adds that the firm is just as passionate about building a great relationship with its staff, as it is about building long-term client partnerships. 

“Our people are absolutely vital to our business. 

“We are very much a team here and everyone has a crucial role to play in delivering an exemplary service to our clients,” she says.

To help clients get to know the team, as soon as lockdown ended in the UK McFadyen and Watson held a number of informal, cheese and wine evenings in their office. 

“It was great for everyone to be able to meet the whole team. We have evolved to supplement these evenings with short formal presentations on topical investment themes,” Watson says. 

“This year, we are initiating a series of more in-depth presentations. We’re inviting fund managers from our panel and whose experience and expertise we value, to present to our clients. 

“The informal meetings went extremely well and moving to a more formal seminar approach will enable us to provide education and insights into investment decision-making and what actually happens behind the scenes.” 

Watson and McFadyen are very proud of the fact that Spectrum recently completed an intense two-year business development course leading to the firm achieving British Standard BS 8577. 

“The aim of BS 8577 is to establish standards of excellence for advisory firms engaged in financial planning. It requires that the firm has an operational framework that enables consistency across policies and procedures. This impacts everything from risk management to staff recruitment and the firm’s approach to clients. 

“We are really proud to be able to demonstrate this endorsement of excellence” Watson says.