Sam Patterson, head of proposition at Equilibrium Financial Planning, discussed the challenge the profession faces in attracting HENRYs, high earners, not rich yet, into professional advice.

Mr Patterson explained this segment of high earners haven’t built up significant assets because of spending on holidays, rising mortgage costs, the cost of living and family needs.

“Even high earners often don’t have much in the way of assets. But a stage can be reached where a parent or grandparent passes away and suddenly leaves a large lump sum, prompting the question of what on earth to do with it.

“In practice, that’s often an emotional burden rather than pure excitement, since it was mum and dad’s money, and there’s real uncertainty about what to do with it now it’s theirs.

“As a profession, there’s a need to engage with the next generation sooner rather than later.”

He revealed that more than a fifth of clients at Equilibrium are on a streamlined service originally designed for elderly clients needing a lighter touch, which has since been aimed at younger people too.

It was created recognising that not all clients are retired and able to come into the office Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm; many are time-poor and working during those hours.

He said: “It led to designing a service that, in some cases, is online only, with shorter meetings, no postal reviews, and a mobile app instead, meeting the needs of those clients while also working commercially, since it’s less resource-intensive and keeps costs down.”

Mr Patterson’s background isn’t in traditional financial advice; it began in paraplanning. Equilibrium runs an unusual model for the sector: out of a hundred staff, only around half deal directly with clients, and fewer than 10% are advisers, with the rest working as paraplanners and client managers so that clients always have two points of contact rather than one, supporting stronger engagement and continuity.

“Having sat in on hundreds of meetings, and noticing that eight out of ten were often very similar, the shift moved towards designing the service and operations side of the business instead,” he said.

“It’s easy in this profession to get caught up in complexity and lose sight of who’s actually being served and what they need. It comes back to the basic idea, similar to ‘sell me this pen’, where the right response isn’t to sell but to ask whether the person is even in the market for a pen, asking what the client actually needs and designing something around that.

“That’s essentially the role now, as head of proposition: thinking about who the business serves, then building everything around serving them properly.”