Five minutes with Thomas and Thomas Wealth Management

They provide a full range of financial advice and solutions to their clients.  

Formed in 2006 and based in Pembrokeshire, they have won a host of awards including ‘Top 100’ Financial Planning firm by Citywire and ‘Leading Adviser Practice’ at the UK Platform Awards. 

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

How long has your firm been Chartered? 

13 years. 

Why is Chartered status important to your business? 

For us, this was the ultimate accolade. I remember all the weekends and evenings taking those extra exams to help us get over the line. We wanted to stand out within our profession as a firm that offered the premium standard in financial planning.  

In our world, we rely upon referrals from Lawyers and Accountants as well as existing clients. We found that Chartered status was important to fellow professionals - instilling confidence and respect through its certification. 

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

Around 50% of our client portfolios are purely ethical investments. We have spent two decades working on our Ethical Investment Process and Discovery Journey for our clients.  

We hold an annual beach clean every May for our clients which is a wonderful fun time to deal with something serious.  

In addition, we bring interested people together every summer for our 'Masterclass' where we share our screening findings and impact stories.  

Our 'Pro-Ethical' quarterly portfolio reviews also contain 'good news stories' which link back to our annual Ethical Client questionnaires. This all enables us to move forward as a client community in the way we collectively wish to invest.   

We have won many awards for our comprehensive service. 

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

We provide every employee with a full paid day every week to study, prepare for and sit a CII exam of their choice.  

We pay for all the exams, study material and courses. I also spend a lot of time training them myself on the aspects that underpin their knowledge for these exams. 

How have you implemented the CII Code of Ethics into your business? 

We have always recruited the person who is best for the job - regardless of their past, physical health or family situation. This hasn't always been profitable for us as a corporate business - but it has been extremely rewarding. 

All our employees are aware of the CII Code of Ethics.  

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

Don't take the challenge lightly - but ask yourself why wouldn't you want this?