Barry Newbury
Helen Rich
IN PROFILE
Barry Newbury
Managing Partner, Epoch Wealth Management
Barry is managing partner of Epoch Wealth Management, based in Queen Square House, Bath. He’ s been working as a financial planner since 2000, spending the first ten years of his IFA career at national firm Chase de Vere, before establishing Epoch in 2010 with three other partners.
Alongside Jon Rolfe, Gareth Rees and Markas Gilmartin, he has built Epoch into a formidable presence in the financial planning world, accumulating awards and accreditations at the same time as building client numbers from zero to over 500 today. The firm has influence on over £ 500m of client assets and positions itself at the High Net Worth end of the market.
Epoch is recognised as one of the best IFA firms in the country. It is one of four Chartered Financial Planning firms in Bath and one of fewer than 900 in the country. Furthermore, it is the only Accredited Firm in Bath and one of only 76 in the country, which places the firm within the top 1 % of advice firms nationally. It’ s also ranked in the Top 100 IFAs in the country for the last three years.
We met Barry to find out more about the firm and the man at its head.
Why did you set up Epoch?
We were all working for larger firms at the time and knew that they were not providing the best possible client experience. We were constrained within the structures of these larger organisations and felt we could do it better ourselves!
Over time, we began to determine the basis of our business. It was only when we began talks with haysmacintyre, a London based accountancy practice, that we had the impetus to take the plunge.
By recruiting the best staff and surrounding our clients with them, we stay true to the mantra we had when we started that there is“ a better way.” Rather than most staff earning fees, most our staff support the relatively few fee earners we have.
How has the firm evolved?
Having a presence in Bath and London from the outset has been challenging but very rewarding. Many of our clients work in London but live elsewhere and having a base in both cities built our credibility straight away and continues to do so.
We’ ve also grown our employee numbers over the years( now employing 28) and have also appointed an Associate Partner, so we are 33 in total. We retain a ratio of more than 3:1 in favour of support staff versus fee earners to ensure our clients are always well looked after.
We don’ t regularly advertise, preferring to build relationships with other professional services firms. About half our income in 2016 / 17 will be from clients who have been introduced by a third party. We have a successful relationship with a number of firms in the area and further afield but are always willing to build mutually beneficial relationships, so long as that is not to the detriment of our existing relationships.
We never set out to be a big firm and believe we retain the positive ethos of a smaller firm. We don’ t have a mass market offering; we offer a bespoke service to high net worth clients and strive to be the best at what we do.
How does a client set out on a journey with you?
Clients will typically be referred to us by an existing client or a third party. Some contact us directly but they are in the minority. Either way, we’ ll sit down with them and get to know them. We’ ll ask them questions that get to the heart of what makes them tick, what’ s really important to them rather than comparing the relative merits of fund A versus Fund B.
Many of our clients are business owners like us, so we can empathise with them and the pressures they face. We can also draw on many years of advising clients in similar positions- we can impart anecdotal evidence to help reassure them that their needs are understood. We understand that they will hopefully transition from the problem of not having money to the problem of having money; it changes most people in some way.
Finally, we look to move their focus away from the immediate issues they may be facing. Whilst important, the true power comes from knowing the impact of making decisions will have on the future.
What has been your biggest learning in business?
Learning to trust people and hand over responsibility. It’ s been difficult, but since I have it’ s changed the company. It’ s given the team the reigns to get on with it. I’ m very lucky to be working with a bunch of extremely clever and talented people across the board.
What can we expect to see from Epoch in the coming year?
Hopefully more of the same! We’ re never complacent; we always look at ways we can improve the client experience and our business. We hope we can continue to demonstrate our superior offering to prospective clients.
Furthermore, we believe so much in the quality of our financial forecasting tool that we’ ve set up a new business to license the software to the wider market. We think it’ s more valuable as a resource for others to give clients a better chance of success than retaining it internally as a USP.
What do you like to do outside the office?
Aside from the usual exercise, watching and playing sport answer, I’ m also a bit of a bedroom DJ. I love vinyl; music is a great passion.
Next edition we talk to:
Helen Rich
Founder
Taste of Bath
THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2017 35