The beauty of simplicity

26 November 2009

Martin Bamford IFA View

I really like this time of year. It’s not the rubbish weather, although that does provide a great excuse to throw another log on the fire and read a good book. It’s not even the prospect of the Christmas season with all its joy and merriment. It’s the simple fact that one year is drawing to a close and another is about to begin.

I have never really embraced New Year resolutions. The thought of waiting until a specific time in the year before embarking on a new set of goals seems counterintuitive to me. If there is something you really want to do, then waiting until a certain date on the calendar is plain weird.
Holding fire and then giving it your all in January might work for some but, for most, I suspect it results in wasted energy and failed resolutions.

ust think of all of those lapsed gym memberships in February, the very reason gyms tie members into 12-month contracts.

Yet the final weeks of the year offer a great opportunity to plan for a prosperous year ahead.

If I have one theme for 2010, it will be simplicity. We all operate within a complex regulatory environment, yet opportunities for simplicity exist at every turn. Simplicity is a thing of beauty. It makes it easier and more satisfying to complete work that needs to be done. It certainly makes it easier to explain to others, including prospective clients, what it is we do and why it is valuable, and therefore worth the cost of our fees.

Achieving simplicity often comes down to the decisions we make about how we allocate our finite resources. As someone running a growing business, it is easy to become over-whelmed by the multitude of options available to fill each day.

Like every person reading, I receive a flurry of invites to seminars, workshops and meetings each and every day. There is a perverse satisfaction in just saying no.

Of course, an invitation will occasionally land on my desk that is too good to refuse, but the vast majority of what fills my inbox and post-tray adds no value to my clients, my business or my sense of wellbeing. It used to feel rude saying no to so much. It doesn’t any more.

I will always turn down invites to introductory meetings with new account managers and invitations to physical seminars also go straight to the trash folder. Life is just too short to spend time getting to a venue, only to hear a sales pitch from a product provider or the same recycled arguments from industry commentators.

The world of retail financial services appears to be catching up with my personal philosophy on all of this. I must comp- liment Invesco Perpetual on its Investment Intelligence webcasts. No more sitting in traffic or drinking cups of tea with other advisers - online presentations cut to the chase with questions answered by its experts. Other providers need to learn from this, and quickly.

Martin Bamford is managing director of Informed Choice

 

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