Financial Planner Life Podcast

Romany Youell, Founder of The Finance Woman, qualified as the UK's youngest ever financial adviser at 18 after dropping out of college at 16. By 24 she had built a £10 million financial planning business. But the journey between those two moments nearly broke her.
In this episode of Financial Planner Life, Sam Oakes sits down with Romany to hear the full story. How she grew up going to client meetings with her dad from the age of 11. How she dropped out of college at 16 and qualified as a mortgage adviser before most of her peers had finished their A-levels. How Quilter Financial Adviser School made a one-year exception to let her in early. And how, after becoming the UK's youngest financial adviser, she spent two to three years being told she would never succeed because she was a woman and nearly walked away from the profession entirely.
The turning point came at a women in business networking event she almost cancelled. Six women around a table. One conversation. And the moment she realised it was not just her who did not fit into the industry. There was a whole community of people being left out of it. She went home that night and set up The Finance Woman.
This is an episode for anyone early in their financial planning career who feels like they do not belong. For anyone who has been told they are not what the industry is looking for. And for anyone who wants to understand what it actually takes to build a financial planning business from scratch.
The episode's key takeaways:
How Romany dropped out of college at 16 and qualified as the UK's youngest financial adviser at 18
What it was like growing up watching her dad build a mortgage business from his bedroom
Why Quilter Financial Adviser School made a one-year exception to let her in early
The comments she received from other advisers about being a woman in financial planning
Why trying to change her accent, wardrobe and language to fit in made things worse
The networking event she nearly cancelled that changed the direction of everything
How one conversation with six women led to The Finance Woman being born
How she built a £10 million financial planning business before the age of 24
If you are building a financial planning career and feeling like you do not fit in, this is the episode to listen to.
If you would like to find out more about Romany's work or get in touch, visit www.thefinancewoman.co.uk

Financial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill Advance
Whether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.
✅ Trusted by top UK firms
👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fpl

Be sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. 
Reach out to sam@financialplannerlife.com in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production. 
Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Drop Sam a message.

Aycan Richards, Chartered Financial Planner at Titan Wealth, spent 13 years building a financial planning career across Qatar and Dubai before making the decision to sell her business and hand her clients over to Titan Wealth.
In this episode of Financial Planner Life, Sam Oakes sits down with Aycan to find out what that journey actually looked like. How she moved to Qatar in 2013 with a seven-year-old daughter and no existing client base. How she built trust from scratch using a referral-first approach that eventually became the foundation of a business worth selling. What it meant to be one of the few female chartered financial planners working in the international expat space. And what the emotional and practical reality of exiting a financial planning business actually looks like.
Aycan also speaks openly about the misconceptions most people have about working and living in the Middle East as a woman, and why almost every concern she had before she moved turned out to be wrong. She talks about the "One Titan" philosophy and why Titan Wealth's presence across multiple countries was a key factor in her decision to sell her book to them rather than anyone else.
This is an episode for women thinking about taking their financial planning career international, for advisers in the expat space wondering how to exit their business on their own terms, and for anyone who wants to understand what a long, respected international financial planning career actually looks like.
The episode's key takeaways:
What it was really like to move to Qatar in 2013 as a female financial planner with a young family
How Aycan built a client base from scratch with no existing relationships in a new market
Why almost every preconception about working and living in the Middle East as a woman turned out to be wrong
What it means to be a female adviser in a profession where only 16% of UK advisers are women
Why Aycan chose Titan Wealth to take over her clients and what the transition process looks like
What the "One Titan" philosophy means in practice for clients moving between countries
The emotional reality of exiting a business you have spent years building
Why women considering international financial planning should reach out to Aycan directly on LinkedIn

If you are a financial adviser thinking about going international or planning your exit, this is the episode to listen to.
Learn more about Titan Wealth at www.titanwealthinternational.com

Financial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill Advance
Whether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.
✅ Trusted by top UK firms
👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fpl

Be sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. 
Reach out to sam@financialplannerlife.com in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production. 
Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Drop Sam a message.

Most financial advisers already know they should be more active on LinkedIn. What they don't know is why what they're doing isn't working.
Free LinkedIn Webinar - book here -  http://www.leadgenfs.co.uk/fpl    
It's not the content. It's not the consistency. It's who they're connected to, what they're saying in messages, and whether they've ever stopped to define exactly who they're trying to reach. Get those three things wrong and LinkedIn produces nothing. Get them right and, as Louis Adkins puts it, consistent inputs get consistent outputs.
In this episode of Financial Planner Life, Sam Oakes sits down with Louis Adkins, Founder of LeadGenFS, who started building his LinkedIn system at 19 during his second year of university. He was studying geography, had no marketing background, and no clients. His first break came through a friend's dad. By his third year he had a waiting list of 27 clients, built entirely from LinkedIn. He graduated and went straight into the business full time.
In the last 12 months alone, LeadGenFS has worked with over 100 financial advisers, helping them generate 3 to 5 qualified appointments a week from LinkedIn. One adviser added £12 million in AUM in 12 months. Another booked 47 calls in 90 days. A third sent 20 messages, went for a shower, came back seven minutes later and had an interested reply waiting.
Louis breaks down the full system in this episode. How to niche down so your message actually lands with the right people. Why automated outreach destroys trust and gets accounts banned. How to build content that speaks to clients rather than other advisers. How to generate ideas consistently from your own conversations. And how to use direct messages to convert your audience into booked appointments without opening with a pitch.
He also covers why referrals, as good as they are, will never give you control over your own growth, and what to build instead as your primary source of new clients.
The episode's key takeaways:
Why referrals are a bonus, not a primary strategy, and what to build alongside them
Why 95% of financial advisers' LinkedIn connections are other advisers, not potential clients
Why automated outreach gets accounts banned and never builds the trust needed to convert
How to niche down so your content and messages cut through to the right people
Why asking for business in the first message is like proposing on a first date
The three legs of the LinkedIn system: connecting, content, and direct messaging
How to generate consistent content ideas from your own client conversations
The three parts of every LinkedIn post: hook, value, and action
The message priority ladder: who to contact first and in what order
Why LinkedIn leads convert at around 30% versus 75% for referrals, and why that still makes LinkedIn the better primary source
If you are a financial adviser who wants to stop relying on referrals and start generating clients consistently, this is the episode to listen to.
Louis has also put together a free resource for Financial Planner Life listeners: five of the best performing post templates from LeadGenFS, available athttp://www.leadgenfs.co.uk/fpl 
Want to build your personal brand and generate better client leads on LinkedIn? Sam Oakes and Louis Adkins are hosting a free webinar. 
Register here 👉 https://038a8hn1lhs.typeform.com/to/NXlbUqAI 

Financial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill Advance
Whether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.
✅ Trusted by top UK firms
👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fpl

Be sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. 
Reach out to sam@financialplannerlife.com in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production. 
Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Drop Sam a message.

Why 30 to 39 Is the Best Age to Become a Financial Adviser 
Is 30 too old to start a career in financial planning?
A lot of people would say yes. The reality is the opposite.
The 30 to 39 age group is the fastest growing cohort entering financial planning right now, up 13% according to fresh FCA data. And the average age of a financial adviser in the UK isn’t 56, like most people assume. It’s 48.
In this episode, Sam sits down with John Somerville, Director of Financial Services at the London Institute of Banking and Finance (LIBF), and David Tait, Founder and Managing Director of Redmill Advance, to dig into why this is the perfect window to start, what the LIBF Level 4 qualification actually involves, and what firms need to do right now to attract the next generation.
They also go deep on the qualification itself. How it works, how it differs from the CII and CISI, why exams can be taken at home with no booking required, and why the case study approach is changing how advisers learn and qualify.
If you’re between 30 and 39 and considering a switch into financial planning, studying for your Level 4, or trying to bring younger talent into your firm, this is the episode for you.
What we cover in this episode:
Why the 30 to 39 age group is the fastest growing cohort entering financial planning, up 13%
Why the average age of a financial adviser is 48, not 56, and what the FCA data actually shows
Why fewer than 150 practicing IFAs in the UK are under the age of 25
How the LIBF Level 4 qualification works and how it differs from the CII and CISI
Why LIBF exams are split into two parts and can be retaken without sitting the whole paper again
How the six-week case study replaces the traditional written exam
What the new LIBF Chartered Member status means and who it is for
Why not starting an academy is a missed opportunity for financial planning firms
What AI means for the future of financial advice and why relationship management is the answer
Financial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill Advance
Whether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.
✅ Trusted by top UK firms
👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fpl

Be sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. 
Reach out to sam@financialplannerlife.com in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production. 
Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Drop Sam a message.

What's the best age to become a financial planner?
Adele Cable changed career at 53, convinced she was nearly on the ‘scrapheap’. Victoria Cable started at 23, convinced nobody would trust someone her age with their finances. Together they've built a practice worth £2.8 million in three years, and Victoria's own business is already valued at £400,000 after just a year and a half.
This week on Financial Planner Life, Sam is joined by an extraordinary mother-and-daughter duo from Advanced Wealth Management at St James's Place to share exactly how they got here, what they've learned, and why the age question that puts so many people off financial planning is completely irrelevant.
From Adele's career in corporate sales at Xerox and HP, to Victoria starting as a bag carrier watching her mum in client meetings, to becoming the top 0.01% of advisers at SJP for protection advice, this is a story about what happens when you back yourself, find the right environment, and build something that genuinely changes people's lives.
This one is for anyone who thinks they're too old, too young, or too inexperienced to make the move into financial planning.
The episode's takeaways 🔥
Why Adele's decades of corporate sales experience turned out to be the perfect preparation for financial planning
What the Saint James's Place Academy actually puts you through and why it's worth every minute
How Victoria went from bag carrier to top 0.01% protection adviser in under two years
Why starting as a professional support specialist is one of the smartest routes into the profession
How Victoria's youngest client is one week old, plus why intergenerational planning is the biggest opportunity in advice
Why protection is the most undervalued entry point for building deep client relationships
How Adele built her own networking event when every existing group turned her away
Why lived experience, divorce, career change, and financial uncertainty make you a better adviser
What a £400,000 business valuation at 24 years old actually looks like in practice
Why the profession needs more women and what Adele and Victoria are doing about it
Whether you're considering a career change into financial planning, already in the profession and looking for inspiration, or simply wondering what it looks like to build a family business that genuinely matters, this episode delivers.

Financial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill Advance
Whether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.
✅ Trusted by top UK firms
👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fpl

Be sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. 
Reach out to sam@financialplannerlife.com in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production. 
Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Drop Sam a message.