Five minutes with...BpH Wealth Management LLP

BpH Wealth Management LLP celebrate their 40th anniversary this year, having been established in Harpenden in 1984. They are now a team of 20 and specialise in providing what they call ‘’lifestyle wealth management” – a way of helping clients create a balance between life, money and giving back to society. 

Grab a cuppa and read on to see how they have been living the Chartered Ethos. 

How long has your firm been Chartered?  

I was in the first batch of advisers in the UK to attain the Chartered Financial Planner qualification. It was a natural path for us to become one of the first firm’s to be awarded Chartered status in 2008. 

Why is Chartered status important to your business?  

When I started the business in 1984, the sector had no regulatory authority or professional qualifications to speak of. Unlike many of the self-appointed “experts” of the time, I yearned to see some professionalism introduced into practices of Insurance companies and their salespeople. 

Chartered status helps evidence our beliefs and the importance of having the highest of standards in advice and service we place on the business, and in addition, the adherence to the highest ethical standards, which are embedded within our culture and values. 

Personally, I view us as ‘financial doctors’. Just as you would expect a doctor to be fully qualified when treating you, we believe clients should expect nothing less from our advisers.  

What initiative has the organisation been involved in which has had a social impact/corporate social responsibility focus on?  

We are founding members of the Global Association of Independent Advisers (GAIA) and the first UK members of CEFEX (The Centre for Fiduciary Excellence). These required independent audits to join along annual audits to maintain the CEFEX accreditation.  

One of our advisers is an Associate member with SOLLA and is awaiting on results of achieving the Accredited member status.  

In June 2022, we proudly achieved B Corp Certification. We saw this as a way to demonstrate we were bringing our high ethical standards into the 21st century, and to commit ourselves to improving our impact on people and the planet, as well as our continual increase in high standards for our clients and team.  

Being a B Corp has resulted in many things, not least helping with the impetus to push out sustainable and ESG versions of our core investment portfolios, as well as implementing a salary sacrifice scheme for electric vehicles for all our team.   

Aside from this, we have been working with a group of other B Corp advisers and Worthstone, through an initiative called “Agents for Change.” We are working together to hold Investment Managers to account with their investment and voting decisions in the companies they invest into. 

We have also recently given every team member a volunteering day to use every year and committed to support two local partner charities with our money as well as our time.  

How do you ensure your employees remain at the forefront of their profession?  

All employees are sponsored to a programme of study towards Chartered status with all material provided. We provide employees ample time for study leave and attending appropriate seminars.  

They are all set relevant KPIs to continue their professional development. We share training on helping later life cases and vulnerable individuals. 

How have you implemented the CII (Chartered Insurance Institute) Code of Ethics into your business?  

When forming BpH, I set out to provide the highest standards of service and advice. This has been the bedrock of what we do. Since the very beginning, my guiding principle was to only give advice I would happily give to close family members. This ethos is just as strong today within the business. 

Our Firm vision is “To build a sustainable enduring business which develops wisdom around money and wellbeing, providing “Time for Balance” for our clients and our team.” 

This naturally complements the CII’s Code of Ethics. Everyone is treated as individuals and equals, and most importantly, everyone has a voice. As part of our openness and a desire to hear client’s views, we have been using Elevation/VouchdFor client surveys to seek feedback and ways to improve. Whilst the responses were extremely flattering, we have taken the opportunity to listen, learn and improve how we work with clients.  

Likewise, we recently commissioned Sewells to produce a cultural survey for our staff which the completed anonymously. As with the client surveys, the results were overwhelmingly positive and humbling. However, there were a small number of areas that we could learn and build on. We held workshops on these areas with all the team to learn, grow and implement any improvements.  

What advice would you give a firm who is considering applying to become Chartered?  

Given some of the low standards and poor practices which at one time prevailed, it is essential to clients and prospective clients, to continue driving the financial services profession by being at the forefront of professional education qualifications and standards.  

If you would like to learn more about Corporate Chartered status, visit our dedicated page.