The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire July 2014 Edition | Page 8

FINANCE

THE RISE AND RISE OF
PRESERVING WEALTH

Hear It From The Experts…

When entrepreneur Paul Thompson chose Financial
Planners, Bourlet Consulting, to manage the
proceeds of the sale of his business in 2007 – three
years after they had started up – he was confident in
his decision. Then the global financial crisis hit.

This question was addressed on June 3, in a special 16 page
Business Report by the Daily Telegraph, and they called upon
Watersheds Corporate Finance, for their opinion. It was
interesting to note, that all eight experts on the panel, were in
complete agreement about the timing being critical.

Today, as Corsham-based Bourlet Consulting
celebrates its tenth anniversary, the
markets have come back up again. Thanks
to Bourlet’s advice to ride it out, Paul’s
investments came good.
As Managing Director of a medical
insurance broking business, Paul knew
lots of good financial advisers but, like
many business owners, he was deeply
sceptical about them. He chose Bourlet
Consulting from a strong beauty parade of
other financial planners because ‘they felt
right’. This small firm of five full-time staff
manages around £50 million of investments
for just over 100 clients. Paul knew that he
would always be treated as an individual
and not just ‘another client’.
Bourlet Consulting were up front with
him. ‘We told him that we couldn’t get
the same return on investment as an
entrepreneur,’ says Managing Director Roger
Bourlet. ‘If he wanted that, he should start
another business. But similar to the TV
game the Weakest Link, hosted by Anne
Robinson, where contestants can choose
to ‘bank’ the amount of money earned in
a chain of correct answers, Paul chose to
‘bank’ some of his accumulated wealth by
selling his business.
‘We preserve and shape that wealth to
support the investor for the rest of his life,’
continues Roger. ‘And we’ve proved to this
canny entrepreneur that we can do this,
in spite of what the markets have thrown
at us.’
No one was expecting the crash in 2007
when Paul sold his business for a significant
sum. And no one was expecting the markets
to wobble again in 2010 when Paul decided
to invest a second tranche of money.
‘We don