Financial Adviser Article

Damian Stancombe is the head of Corporate Defined Contributions for the Punter Southall Group.

Monday

My Monday really starts on Sunday with a mid-afternoon flight to Scotland.  Thankfully (for me) my eldest kid’s football team crash out at the quarter-final stage so I dash early to Gatwick to catch the plane.  The flight is delayed.

I have breakfast at 6.30am and a presentation north of Edinburgh at 9am.  This is a two hour pitch: the typical scenario of a company debating the future of its DB scheme and what the new pension vehicle should be.  My early breakfast allows me to catch up with the head of our Edinburgh office to talk through our joint tender one final time to ensure we have addressed all of the client’s issues and concerns.

We believe the tender went well but we will not hear until early August, after the results of the next trustee meeting.

My flight back is delayed but I arrive home just in time to put the kids to bed.

Tuesday

I have a meeting in central Cambridge with a new client who has just appointed us to implement their new DC scheme.  This meeting is with the HR and Finance Directors and lasts for two hours.  They currently have no pension scheme in place at all, giving us the pleasure of working with a blank canvas.  This allows innovation in scheme design.  The focus of the meeting is to agree a time scale for implementation and to go through our DC selection questionnaire which allows the employer to be specific about the type of pension scheme and provider they want.  This is used in conjunction with our DC selection tool, which benchmarks the whole of the DC-provider market.

I head south and dash back around the M25 to Farnborough for a 3pm meeting, realising that I have not had lunch.  The place is awash with flying ants.  I pick up a colleague en-route, who has kindly bought me a sandwich.  We are due to talk to a prestigious company who had seen our presentation at our Southern Conference and was impressed with our passion regarding DC.  Whilst this is a large scheme of over 2,000 members, the Company has not engaged with its workforce and therefore are now looking at ideas on how they can take it forward to the next level.

Two days down, 900 miles covered.

Wednesday

Part of my role is promoting Punter Southall’s proposition in the market place.  Needless to say, this involves quite a bit of marketing and work with trade press and journalists.  I meet with three sets of different journalists, one after the other.  It is good to chat through different aspects and concerns. Apparently I have a reputation for speaking my mind.

The meetings go well and I head back to our London office to catch up on the more mundane aspects of my role.  Then it is off out for a few drinks on the River.

Thursday

I am in the Guildford office today - my main place of work.  I have a meeting with the branch manager, Sarah, who has worked with me for six years and recently took over the running of the branch.  This was an assessment of quarter two and another aspect of my role on top of strategy development and new business development: management of the Southern team.

This afternoon I have a staff forum/governance meeting with a large electrical retailer.  I am very proud of the work we have undertaken for this company, including the establishment of the forum which discusses matters such as administration and investment.  It is nice to see familiar faces. This also allows me to observe another consultant in action and tick another box in the compliance process.

Friday

It’s Friday.  I tend to ensure I have at least one day with nothing on, simply to allow myself to catch up on emails and take stock of management figures and personnel.  Today is that day.

I start off with a meeting with Henry, my equivalent in our Private Client division, and then have a brief conversation with John, the head of Health and Risk, to make sure that we are all on the same wavelength.  We tend to meet formally on a monthly basis but it is good when our paths cross and we are able to catch up.

It is lunch time so I take two consultants and a Training and Compliance Officer to the local Sardinian restaurant in Guildford.  I seem to be one of the restaurant’s most valued clients.  I believe this aspect of the job is as important as any other.  The two consultants that are with me have been trained all the way from admin roles through to the jobs they now occupy.  It is important that they know I am grateful for the work they do.  This is not expensed and comes out of my own pocket.

One last thing: a conference call at 4pm.  Yet another large DC scheme that has not engaged with its workforce and is looking to correct this.  Now it is time for home and a trip to the fairground that is now encamped on our local village green, to make up for the previous Sunday.

Note for diary: give the waltzers a wide berth next year...