‘We have a strict rule…’ A Q&A with Wellington Wealth’s Nicola Ellis
Nicola, when a prospective client walks into your office for the first time – how do you explain Wellington Wealth?
We’re ultimately a boutique financial planning firm. But we’re fully holistic. We do the planning; we run our own investment portfolios; and, of course, we do the implementation of the planning.
We tend to do things a little differently: we handcraft every plan for every client that we work with.
What sets Wellington Wealth apart?
We’re ‘people people’ who genuinely care about client outcomes.
I set up the firm with my sister Jenny, and we’re two women in an industry that has, traditionally, been quite male dominated. We’re pretty unique in that we have a family literally at the heart of the business, something I think helps us attract family businesses. I’d say we have a particular niche for those who want to maintain succession within a family.
Unlike some, we’ve never had to advertise. The vast majority of our business comes from referrals from existing clients.
Explain how the firm was founded?
My Dad was actually an IFA, but I originally wanted to get into fund management. After I graduated with a degree in economics, I decided to go in a slightly different direction and started as an administrator before becoming a paraplanner, junior adviser and then adviser.
Jenny started out in the oil industry before joining Dad’s business. He sold the firm to Close Brothers, and the two of them came and joined the firm I was at. Dad ran the investment proposition, Jenny focused on back-office operations and I worked as the adviser. We then stepped out on our own in 2016 and Wellington Wealth was born.
Who is a typical Wellington Wealth client?
We have quite a strict rule: we only work with nice, interesting, colourful or entertaining people. And that means that all our clients are unique.
We have no requirement for minimum investible assets, although if you had to put a figure to our typical client portfolio, it’s approximately £400,000.
But at the end of the day, we ask whether we can add value for clients.
You’re based in Glasgow, is that where the majority of your clients are based too?
We have a lot of clients in Glasgow, and in fact several have just sold businesses for substantial sums of money. But, ultimately, our clients are based all over the UK.
In terms of your approach, where do you sit on the active vs passive argument?
We’re not in either camp: we believe in a blend of the two approaches.
We’re very cost conscious and so where we can use a passive fund to bring down cost alongside a reasonable level of performance, we will. But on the other side we’re also focused on growth stocks.
In reality, you don’t know when that market rotation will come. So we believe in a blended approach and it’s served us and our clients well so far.
And diversification?
Geographically, we’ve been pretty overweight in the US for the past three years, which has been quite beneficial. We’re also overweight in technology.
We’re boring in what we do; it’s really nothing fancy. Our clients want consistency and they want to sleep well at night.
What’s the biggest current challenge for Wellington Wealth?
I’d say one of our biggest headaches is actually providers. Specifically, their administration side. We’re at the coal face – we sit in front of the clients and if, for example, a client doesn’t receive their income then they come to us and we have to fix it!
I’d also say the media has been a bit of a challenge thanks to the scaremongering that we’ve been seeing over the past year or so. There’s a lot of doom and gloom out there and we have to help clients understand what they have alongside their future options.
The truth is we don’t know what the markets are going to do, nor do we know how high inflation will go. We can only help our clients focus on the things they can control.
Right now, a big focus for the profession is consumer duty, what’s your view?
We’ve always been a really client-focused business. During lockdown we took a look at some of our processes, and what we implemented is actually now part of the new regulations.
And overall, for clients, the Consumer Duty is a really good thing.
At the end of the day, the client needs the advisers, the providers and fund managers to work together in their best interest. Sometimes it feels like the client can get lost, particularly by those that don’t have direct interaction with them. And it is those providers and fund managers that are likely to have a harder time with the new rules.
Finally, you recently refurbished your offices…
We did! We had a vision to make our office a space where clients could feel comfortable and relaxed, because they often come to see an adviser when there’s been a difficult life event.
So we created a space that doesn’t look like an office, we’ve got paintings up and comfortable furniture. We’ve had delivery drivers asking whether we run an art gallery!