Ex-Virgin boss Rob Clifford launches financial concierge

19 November 2009 5:18 pm | By Leah Milner

The pair describe the service, IfIWereYou.co.uk, as a financial “concierge”. It will offer guidance on unregulated products and put consumers in touch with selected brokers or IFAs for regulated products such as mortgages, pensions and investments.

Clifford and Gratton liken their new venture to a personal finance version of Quintessentially, which helps its members organise anything from booking a cleaner to buying concert tickets.

It will also allow users a forum in which they can give online feedback on products and advisers they have used in order to help others.

There will be a range of payment options for consumers once the service is fully established, including the opportunity for commission rebates or to pay for the service by subscription.

It will initially cover mortgages when it launches on November 23, linking to Gratton’s other business Scottish mortgage brokerage MoneyQuest for mortgage advice. It will will expand to cover pensions and investments early next year.

Clifford left his role as UK managing director of Virgin Money in May, after joining the firm in December 2008 to develop its mortgage proposition. Before joining Virgin, Clifford was chief executive of broker franchise business Mortgageforce.

Paul Gratton is former chief executive of Egg and also set up First Direct for HSBC (then Midland Bank), as well as being one of the backers of Mortgageforce when it was set up in 2000. Hebought Scottish mortgage brokerage MoneyQuest in March 2008.

Gratton says consumers have been left “shell-shocked” by the credit crisis and are just beginning to put their heads out of the “nuclear bunker” to assess the damage and figure out what to do do with their finances. He says the new launch will help to address this state of confusion and bewilderment by guiding consumers to selected advisers and to simple products.

He says that “never has consumer trust in financial services been lower” and therefore there is a consumers feel the need for a reliable source of information and referral to help them manage their money, particularly as more and more risk transfers from the state to the public, for example with the closure of final salary pension schemes.

 

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