As we close up the year that was 2023, I thought I would share with you some news from the team at Investment Quorum, following what has been an incredibly volatile period.
After much searching, we are delighted that we are fully staffed. Although some are still gaining experience, everyone brings their own talents. Finding the right people has been quite a challenge – selecting those who will uphold our family culture and ethos which we think is quite unique. One of our key strategic endeavours is to inspire our staff to stay with us for the long term – investing in the right people for our clients. Needless to say, we also have a very experienced senior team from whom they are learning!
As Director of Private Clients, Nick Rolf has five advisers working on our clients, all chartered or working towards that leading qualification. We will be very pleased to welcome back Melissa from maternity in the latter part of 2024, after the birth of her baby girl.
Peter Lowman has promoted Nick Harrington and Holly West to investment analysts so that they can continue supporting him and the investment committee. They have worked incredibly hard and gained lots of valuable experience over the past few years, especially during these very tough economic times. I am confident that they will continue to excel in their roles.
The team are here to serve you and our number one operating principle at IQ is to put our clients first.
We continue to invest heavily in the development of leading technology with the overarching aim of improving the client experience. Using cutting-edge technology maximises our productivity – freeing up time to spend on our clients. Nearly 70% of our clients have started using the IQ Wealth App to communicate with us and are making use of the document vault. The App plays a crucial role in ensuring that we maintain the highest level of security in our communications with you, given the increasing issues with cybercrime and fraud in our online world.
This year brought one of the biggest and most impactful pieces of regulation from the Financial Conduct Authority – The Consumer Duty. The Duty means consumers should get communications they can understand, products and services that meet their needs and offer fair value, and they get the customer support they need, when they need it. We aim to excel in all these areas.
As part of this new Duty - we conducted a client survey and initiated a more comprehensive feedback process on our services and suggestions for improvement. Your feedback is invaluable to us as it helps us to serve you better. In 2024 we expect you to see more structure to your review meetings and keep you ever better informed that you are on track to meet your own goals.
This year, I am exceptionally proud of our philanthropic endeavours. But in particular, our "12 Days of Christmas" appeal which supported numerous charities. Our company culture is not only to serve our clients but also to give back to the community, especially in these testing conditions.
Once again we remember those clients we lost this year and we remember them dearly. We have also endeavoured to support those facing tough challenges – whether that be the pain of a divorce, the suffering of a serious illness or the loss of a loved one. We trust we have been with you every step of the way through those difficult times.
The behemoths in financial services get ever bigger and we continue to see reductions in investment fees, especially whilst investment returns have been wildly erratic. But low cost also means a real loss of customer service and service is what IQ prides itself on. We are here to answer your questions, fix problems, and lend you our considered opinion, advice and experience in a huge variety of financial matters.
We believe that this is what makes us such a successful business – endorsed by the continual referrals that grow our company. And we must thank you all very much for that ringing endorsement. Rest assured that our award-winning marketing activities will support our future growth without compromising our very high standards.
The IQ board believe in remaining independent, being there to serve you as an owner-managed business – ensuring our interests are fully aligned with yours.
It just remains for me, on behalf of the whole of the IQ team, to wish you a peaceful time this holiday period and trust that 2024 brings the world a little more peace and stability. Never forget, that we are always here to walk alongside you.
Petronella West
Chief Executive Officer
