President's statement
PFS Annual Report 2023
Anthony Ward, Head of Virtual Wealth Management at Barclays Private Bank and Wealth Management, was appointed President of the PFS in March 2023.
In this statement he reflects on his involvement with the PFS; the focus of his presidency; the importance of professional qualifications; the need to attract new and diverse talent to the profession; and the future of personal finance.
Career:
I fell in love with financial planning when I was 21 doing a work placement at a firm of IFAs. When the owner gave me the opportunity to sit in on a client meeting and I saw with my own
eyes the impact the IFA had on the client’s future and the peace of mind and clarity they obtained from the meeting, I was hooked on helping clients achieve their goals through financial planning and I still am.
Having worked as an IFA in several banks and accountancy firms, I joined Barclays Wealth 12 years ago and over this time I’ve held a number of leadership roles including Head of Wealth Planning UK. I now have a scale leadership role leading a large Virtual Wealth Management business.
The PFS and my career:
I first joined the PFS in 2004 when I started studying for the Certificate in Financial Planning as part of my dream to become an IFA. After completing the Certificate, I moved swiftly onto the Diploma and Advanced Diplomas, achieving Chartered Status. Throughout this time, I won local prizes for my exam results whilst benefiting greatly from the support of local PFS and CII Committee Members. These fellow members inspired me to get involved more in the profession and therefore in 2011 I contacted the CII to ask if they needed any face-to-face tutors to support with the implementation of the Retail Distribution Review and the considerable work involved in the profession increasing the minimum qualification from level 3 to level 4. They agreed and my career as a trainer began (in addition to my day job as an IFA). Over the years I got involved in helping to launch new qualifications and I joined the CII Education and Learning Committee where I served for 6 years before successfully becoming a Member of the PFS Board in September 2021.
Presidential focus:
The theme of my Presidency is ‘The Future’. I feel that now is the perfect time for PFS members and Board to ask ourselves what they want the future of our profession to look like. Personally, when I look to the future, I see it through 3 lenses:
- The future for our clients: Through our work at the PFS we must raise professional standards, and encourage the personal finance profession to be ever more client-centric.
- The future for our members: We must continue to provide value to members and attract new and diverse talent into the industry, so we have a profession that thrives and represents all the communities we serve.
- The future relationship with the CII Group: We must work with the CII to achieve our goals and be a force for good partnering on key strategic priorities.
Professional qualifications:
Qualifications are the bedrock of professionalism. They encourage members to learn about and strive for excellence and, in turn, enable quality advice to be delivered. For clients and for the public they are a true sign that the professional they are dealing with has the knowledge required to support them with their financial planning needs.
New and diverse talent:
Diversity, equity and inclusion is a topic that I’m passionate about and I know many members care deeply as well. I have three young daughters and when I first became a dad 12 years ago I started to see clearly for the first time in my life how underlying prejudice and bias exist. I’ve come on a personal journey to realise the huge privileges I have as a white middle-aged man. I’ve become more curious about others and benefited from reverse mentoring from colleagues who are different from me. Through this I have learned a lot about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and in turn this education has helped me become an active ally. I really believe in privilege and allyship and putting this to good use to help others.
As a profession we have more to do to educate on diversity, equity and inclusion and the benefits of each. We all have an opportunity to develop our profession to be more diverse and inclusive.
Developing diverse talent into the profession is arguably the most important work we can do now and if we take the right actions over the next few years we can work towards a thriving profession full of diverse talent that fully represents the communities we serve.
Trends in personal finance:
Digital transformation, the growing demand for advice in the ‘affluent’ segment of the market and competition from new entrants to the market will be key areas over the next 5 years. The pace of change over the next 10 years will be immense and the PFS as the leading professional body for financial services has a valuable role helping members prepare for change and supporting leaders with delivering the change.
As the PFS, we have a huge opportunity to make a positive impact across the UK, the future of our profession is very bright and with highly engaged members I’m sure we will harness all the knowledge, skills and experience we have to grow together.
