Ben Lancaster believes in the merits of pro-bono work. "What goes around comes around," says the 31-year-old adviser, who says he has gained some of his best clients through doing pro-bono work for others.
Lancaster works for Manchester-based Depledge Strategic Wealth Management, which has four advisers, of which Lancaster is the second most senior.
Whilst he young adviser is kept busy by his fee-paying clients – his client bank is the second largest in the firm – he nevertheless helps where he can.
"Where opportunities come up to help people as a gesture of goodwill, without compromising existing pieces of work for existing clients and service for existing fee-paying clients, I will look to help as much as I possibly can," he says.
"Because frankly, I think there's been a perception of financial advisers – that is slowly going but I think it's still there – that they're only in it to make money.
"That couldn't be further from the truth with me."
He estimates he has the capacity to help about three to five people a year on a pro-bono basis, but says he strives to "absolutely find time to help" people who come along and need help.
Lancaster regards the role of a financial adviser as one of taking clients from a "place of current uncertainty and current anxiety to certainty, reassurance and optimism about going off to live your best life."
But ultimately he feels people who are in trouble and cannot afford advice might get the most value out of it of all.
He explains: "The clients I work with on a day-to-day basis, they've worked really hard for their wealth and we add significant value with our tax planning, financial planning, investment management and portfolio management.
"But without us in many cases they'd probably still be okay. What we're doing is we're optimising and we're helping them to live their very best lifestyles going forward. It wouldn't be catastrophic if we weren't around.
"And I think actually people like [my] client's sister are probably the people who need the support most and get the most value from it."
He tells of a client who in a catch-up call mentioned that her sister was going through a tough time. She had worked in the NHS for years and wanted to retire but had no idea about the pension available to her and how to manage the transition from employment to retirement.
She also had some credit card debt her sister was concerned about.
Lancaster agreed to see her. He says: "We've now arranged for letters of authority to be sent out for this client's sister's pension schemes so that we can get all of the information back and once I've got that I'll review it and I'll arrange to go and have a cup of tea with her just to talk through what she's got, talk through what her hopes and goals and aspirations are and whether they may or may not be achievable.
