Financial advice and the Ajax principle

What have football and financial advice got in common?

At first sight, not much – but stay with us.

For several decades now, the Dutch have enjoyed impressive success with their philosophy known as Total Football. AFC Ajax have particularly embodied this spirit with their expressive and attacking style.

This has made lots of other teams look ordinary – and even inadequate.

In our view, something similar is happening to the world of financial planning. We believe that financial advisers will increasingly become more focused, thereby helping their clients take more effective control of their finances.

Sounds fanciful? In fact, it’s already happening – and Welbeck Group are the proof of that. We’ve enjoyed surprisingly rapid growth by offering a new level of personal service tailored to our clients’ needs.

Let’s go a bit further. One of the fundamentals of Total Football is the “TIC” principle – where “TIC” stands for Technique, Insight and Communication.

This exactly sums up our ethos here at Welbeck. We have the technique to assist your financial planning, based on the experience and expertise of our advisers and the technology and other support we can draw on.

We have the insight, based not only on helping many people in similar situations: but more importantly, on an in-depth analysis of your circumstances, needs and goals.

And we have the communication. We go to great lengths to keep you informed at every stage, and to talk to you in straightforward, jargon-free language. When we recommend any financial product, we explain exactly why we’ve selected that one, and why we believe it’s right for you.

Total Football is also about three stages: possession, not being in possession, and transition (that is, going from one of those to the opposite), and formulating a strategy to ensure success. Let’s look at those ideas in terms of financial planning too.

Possession is about being organised, and about taking up the right positions: in other words, about having the right balance. In football, this creates goal-scoring opportunities.

In financial planning, we can help you become more organised. We look at each aspect of your finances and can recommend ways to improve them. This creates wealth-maximising opportunities.

When not in possession, Total Football devises strategies to regain it. Similarly, if you have any vulnerable points in your financial armour, we can spot them and help you strengthen them. Perhaps you have life assurance but no critical illness cover, for example. Or perhaps your pension funding is not currently on course to give you the income you need in retirement. We can address any such issues and devise solutions that work for you.

Lastly, transition in Total Football is about adapting immediately to the new situation. That’s exactly what we do at Welbeck Group. Life is always liable to changes, some of them welcome, others less so; but sound financial planning can protect you against the unforeseen and also ensure that your overall strategy keeps pace with your life. For example, when you get married, your financial priorities will be different from when you’re single. Once you have children, they’ll change again, and so on. We’ll help you ensure that your plans adapt to these changes.

As we said, we think this more thoughtful, strategic and tactical style of financial planning will become much more widespread in the future.

But if you want to take advantage of it, there’s no need to wait. Just contact us today and let’s talk about how we can help you.