A Year In Review – Life at boosst in 2023 - Financial Planning Insights and Guides

A Year in Review: Life at boosst in 2023

We’re starting our year by taking a moment to reflect on all that happened in 2023…

January:

Keith kicked off 2023 by delivering a well received educational webinar for clients on the topic of Estate Planning. It’s a crucial topic, as death sadly affects 1 in 1 of us! Although nobody wants to be taxed again on funds they’ve previously earned (and paid tax on) – the irony is that with sound financial planning, inheritance tax is effectively optional. Keith covered the key allowances and rules – before talking through some real life scenarios where we have significantly reduced families inheritance tax liabilities. The recording is available to boosst clients, just message your lead planner.

Our first team social of the year was at Planet Ice to support MK Lightning. Fortunately for us the match was a top-of-the-table clash, which raised the stakes that little bit higher. The atmosphere was electric and the game started at full speed! The score was close throughout the whole game, until the opposition sneaked the puck around the MK Lightning keeper.

February:

Our small but mighty profession came together in London to raise funds for family’s in Ukraine impacted by the ongoing conflict. ‘Rock for Ukraine’ was held at Stationers Hall and there was plenty of amazing live music, some questionable dancing and an auction with some very desirable lots. On top of an unforgettable evening the event raised over £50,000! The band were all individual financial planners who had come together for ‘one night only’ to play the charity gig.

March:

Jennie, Josh and Keith were invited to attend the Accredited Financial Planning Firms conference in a snowy London. This offers us the opportunity to socialise with senior team members from top firms around the UK, and with financial planning being a relatively small profession, we love taking every opportunity we get. Highlights included a neuroscientist who helped explain how communications are transmitted and received differently, with brilliant examples of how to make our communications clearer and easier to understand. We hope you’ve noticed!?

Later that month, Nick was invited to collect his award for the ‘UK’s best grade’ in the tricky Certified Financial Planner qualification. This is already a challenging qualification… but we were even more proud to know that Nick achieved the best grade across all UK applicants. He then enjoyed the privilege of being invited to our professional bodies ‘President’s Day’ to feed in ideas from boosst that he hopes will continue raising the standards across UK financial planning.

April:

Local student James joined us for a week in Easter from Bedford Modern School on work experience. He is studying Business, Maths and Film Studies, with a view to leaving school to join a degree apprenticeship programme in investment banking. Having just completed his first year of A-Levels, he wanted to come and gain some work experience. He got involved in a few little projects with us and spent time with the team learning about what we do. He thoroughly enjoyed his time with us and one of his feedback comments was ‘boosst is a great example of how to build a highly motivated workforce that look out for each other’.

May:

Our runners started the month by completing the Milton Keynes Marathon Relay once more. With four team members each running around 10km, the event offers a good balance between a physical challenge while still being enjoyable!

Later in the month we had a team social to go and watch the Northampton Steelbacks take on Durham in the Vitality T20 Blast. Sadly it was all over quite quickly when Durham came firing out of the blocks with the bat before bowling out Northampton with a paltry score. Still, the sun was shining and we all enjoyed the occasion!

In May we also published two more of our Uncommon Sense essays, with the total number of essays reaching 19 by the end of 2023. We added topics like ‘exchanging habits’, ‘understanding your financial levers’, ‘good investing should be boring’ and ‘regret minimisation as a decision-making tool’. Clients can access our latest and historic essays through our newsletters, which we send every other month.

June:

Jeny & Sathuna, both in their last year at Manchester Met University studying Banking & Finance had previously completed work experience in banking and auditing…. but found it all a bit dull so wanted to learn about financial planning instead! They met Keith at an event a few years ago and remembered his offer to come and see what we do at boosst. They had an enjoyable week with the team and were blown away by some of the ways in which we help clients plan for their ideal future. We definitely changed their view on pensions!

The very next week we were opening our doors once more to welcome our group of local professionals. We maintain this important network so that we can always connect our clients with external professionals as and when required. At the summer event we ran educational presentations on the recent changes to pension legislation (as exciting as it sounds!) and the various routes for successful business owners to extract capital from their business. We finished with a demonstration of how we use non-industry technology to solve ‘industry problems’ and hopefully there was plenty of ideas for them to take back to their own businesses.

We hosted our professionals again just before Christmas, this time at The Woburn Hotel. We presented on the recent changes announced in the Autumn Statement before going into some detail on investment performance and how boosst portfolios have outperformed peers. We closed with a summary of the best things we’ve learnt in 2024, from conference speakers, courses, client experiences and books we’ve read.

July:

Josh & Gabby tied the knot on July 15th, surrounded by family, friends, and the boosst team – here at St Nicholas in Hulcote. The Church is a beautiful old quaint building which we can all see from the office, as it sits between the office and Josh’s family home where Keith & Linda still live.

It was a special day… and despite the windy weather trying to cause a little bit of havoc, everyone dodged the rain and the day ran perfectly to plan. The day was full of special little touches, from custom wine labels in memory of late family members, to the handwritten notecards they wrote for every guest. Funny that… who would have thought two financial planners would have been incredibly organised and well planned for their big day!

Some guests said the music was the highlight (including The Hamptons and beatboxers ‘DUKE’ – yes – really!), others said it was the family feel of the whole day. Our highlight as a team was coming together to see two of our own begin their next adventure together.

I’ve added some photos below… but if you want more, you can access an album of 300 or so by clicking HERE & they wrote a fantastic diary with photos from their trip to Tanzania and Zanzibar, which you can read HERE.

August:

Mid-August we hosted a client event here at the boosst office. Our primary objective for the Illuminate event was to enable great conversations among clients and to bring couples together from all stages of life to share their unique experiences and stories.

To kick off the night, our host Mike began with a series of thought-provoking questions that set the tone for the rest of the event. The questions included “What is Enough?”, “What is the best piece of advice you ever received?” and “What are you most proud of?”

Then everyone was split into groups where Tom, Keith, Gabby and Josh all presented questions for each group to answer, the topics were; ‘How do you define ‘a life well lived?’ ‘If money were no object…’, ‘phasing into the third act of life’ and ‘what is true wealth?’.

As the group discussions came to a close, we all mingled and socialised. Drinks flowed and the pizza oven was in full swing as we all overindulged and shared stories. It was a fantastic conclusion to the event, with clients of all ages forging connections and sharing stories and advice. A copy of our favourite book ‘Enough?’ was handed out as a reminder of the night’s discussions.

September:

Tom, Keith and Gabby kicked off ‘conference season’ at the Octo Progressive Planners Conference. The event was hosted at The Durham Street Auditorium and Vaults and is aimed towards financial planners who take a modern approach to their work.

There were 8 brilliant speakers all talking about the future of progressive planning, including our very own Keith, who delivered an interactive presentation showcasing how we are striving to be innovative in the financial planning profession. He included examples of what we have been doing and allowed the audience to choose his topics ‘live’.

After the speakers left the stage, our very own Gabby was invited up to collect The Nick Cann Award for Progressive Planning. This award is given out once a year to a financial planner who doesn’t shout about their efforts but demonstrates commitment to the profession and their clients. There were over 50 nominations this year, so it came as a huge surprise for Gabby when she was announced as the winner!

Keith & Josh travelled to Philadelphia & Charlotte with a global study group of 20 financial planners, to share ideas and bring home inspiration from a different market. The American market is more advanced than the UK, with less burdensome regulation and many more technology providers for the larger number of firms. This unique opportunity to meet business leaders and their team members was a valuable exercise, and we came home brimming with ideas.

October:

Early in October we hosted an evening with the excellent Dr Moira Somers, exploring the psychology of money. Dr Moira is a clinical psychologist and family wealth consultant based out of Winnipeg, Canada. She is the global authority on her topic and did a fantastic job at getting people talking and opening up about their own financial journeys – and how money has impacted their feelings and emotions. The video below captures some highlights of the night and you can message your lead planner for a recording of the full event.

We took 6 of the team to the CISI’s national Financial Planning conference and enjoyed a prominent position throughout the event. Keith hosted a stream of sessions and Josh delivered an educational session on the main stage. We make an active effort to be seen at these events as it certainly helps recruitment when it’s time to expand our team.

We were very pleased to have been shortlisted for ‘Financial Planning Firm of the Year’ and Nick was also shortlisted for the ‘Paraplanner of the Year’ award. Although we keep reminding ourselves that we should be incredibly happy to reach that final stage… we are so proud of our team and the service we deliver to clients that only being a runner up somehow feels like failure. Still, we should remind ourselves of the impact we have as a business and that being runner up in two categories, against all UK financial planners, is still an audacious achievement for a family business tucked away in the countryside, like boosst. Onwards!

November:

Early in November Tom, Gabby, Faye, Josh and Keith all headed into London to attend the brilliant Humans Under Management conference. The all-day event included brilliant speakers throughout, culminating in Rory Sutherland delivering another of his epic speeches.

Later in the month the team all headed all travelled into London after work to see The Little Big Things, a musical at Soho Place based upon the real story of Henry Fraser. The show portrays the incredible life journey of Henry, from promising rugby player to quadriplegic mouth artist. Although Henry’s story sounds like one of despair, it is actually one of inspiration. Henry’s incredibly positive outlook and the joy he has for ‘the little big things’ in life is infectious and serves as a reminder that regardless of your physical health, it is your mental strength that decides your fate. His story is very personal for us, as Josh bought his book for Keith when it was released, when Keith was in hospital fighting prostate cancer. The added strength this gave Keith has left a mark and our office is now dotted around with artwork by Henry.

December:

As a business, boosst were included in Citywire’s ‘Top 100 UK Firms‘ shortlist for a sixth consecutive year and we were thrilled to achieve a ‘full house’… with Tom, Gabby & Josh all being included in the ‘Top 35 Next Generation Advisers’ shortlist. This is a list of 35 notable financial planners in the UK aged under 35 – this was Tom’s first appearance, Gabby’s third consecutive appearance and Josh’s seventh.

In December we also received our 50th testimonial for our Wall of Love, after launching it earlier in the year. It’s incredibly rewarding for the team to read your kind words and receive your appreciation for their efforts. You can take a look and make your mark here: Wall of Love.

We always like to divide the final month of the year neatly into two halves. The first half is always devoted to any final client work of the year, followed by time together as a team before closing the office for the festive period. We spend that time together reflecting on the past 12 months and planning for the year ahead. It probably isn’t a surprise to hear that your financial ‘planners’ like to plan ahead for the upcoming year – and this is when we set our projects, goals and milestones for the new year.

We delivered advanced cybersecurity training for the team, all took part in a team building exercise (that wasn’t cringe and awful for everyone involved!) and learnt more about the humble beginnings of boosst – with Keith openly talking about his childhood, upbringing, and the history of our family business over the years. We were also joined by Michelle Hoskin to review processes and workflows to continue optimising our approach in 2024.

We then all enjoyed our Christmas party together as a team at Coombe Abbey before closing the office so that all of the team had the opportunity to take some rest over Christmas with family and loved ones.