38 | Tees Business
THE STYLE OF THE PAST,
THE TOOLS OF THE FUTURE
O
ctober this year will mark 30 years
in business for Vintage Chartered
Financial Planners, meaning the
Stockton-based firm has been offering
financial advice to clients throughout
Teesside for the past three decades.
Many have relied on the expertise of
Vintage staff to guide decisions on pensions,
investments, mortgages and insurance to
build and manage their wealth.
Despite this impressive heritage, Vintage
is committed to innovation, using the
latest technology, wherever possible, to
compliment the advice given, but never
replacing the values which contributed to
success in the first place - integrity, quality,
leadership and professionalism. It is this
ethos which has allowed the firm to stay
relevant over its extensive lifespan.
While the client remains at their heart,
the vision of the business is to be bold and
proactive, moving ahead of the times to
ensure the best possible service, creating a
happy place to work and one that benefits
the wider community too.
The year ahead is an exciting one for
Vintage. Never afraid to do things differently,
they recently commissioned successful local
artist Abby Taylor to create a one-off work
of art, depicting much-loved local landmark
Roseberry Topping, a piece which takes
inspiration from vintage travel posters of the
past but also represents the bright future
ahead.
The artwork is symbolic of the firm. First
and foremost, capturing a place close to the
hearts of many Teessiders and the place
Vintage call home, in a way which merges
both the old and the new - the style of the
past using the tools of the future.
The image has now become the
showpiece of the firm’s new branding,
extending across the recently developed
website and client-facing literature.
The new look isn’t the only area in
which innovation is rife. Both clients and
staff benefit from the use of the latest
technology across a number of areas, from
viewing accounts online to the way the
advice is formulated.
Vintage will shortly release their updated
client portal, named Vintage View. While
clients have had access to an online
system for a number of years, the updated
system has enhanced functionality and will
give users a more holistic picture of their
financial assets, including integration with
bank accounts and the ability to track and
categorise spending.
The firm also makes use of cash-flow
software which allows financial planners to
model and test numerous scenarios. This
enables a planner to see how someone’s
spending power or wealth might change
throughout their lifetime, thus enabling
more informed recommendations. The
outputs from the software are shown
in meetings to demonstrate the options
available to the client.
The next innovation, currently being
trialled by Vintage, is a new generation of
tablets which replace the need for paper
notebooks often used in meetings. While
Vintage has had an iPad available in reception
for some time, the new devices recreate
the experience of pen and paper in a digital
format, creating both a clear audit trail and
contributing to the firm’s mission to reduce
waste wherever it can.
Other innovations include the use of
optical recognition software and QR codes
allowing the firm to effectively scan incoming
and outgoing post, automatically storing it in
the right place without the need for human
intervention. This goes above and beyond the
recently introduced General Data Protection
Regulations, meaning that data is kept more
secure than ever before and only seen by
those who absolutely need it.
Despite all this, Vintage isn’t just investing
in the future. They also invest heavily in