'It's important to advisers to meet us face-to-face'

For Billy Brown, the new head of internal sales at Time Investments, that's what the company is keen to avoid, which is why the investment house is building its business development team and continuing to support field agents across the UK. 

Brown, who recently joined Time from Triple Point, tells FT Adviser: "One of my ambitions is to build out the the sales team to help remain present and accessible to advisers when they need it."

The company, which specialises in tax-efficient investment products and solutions, has 11 field-based individuals across the country who meet advisers face-to-face, as well as 16 internal business development managers. 

"We also have a wider sales support function and marketing, so that everything we do can support the advisers through whom we distribute our products."

But it won't stop there. Brown says: "In the next 12 months or so I would like to grow our wider sales team. We've recently had someone join to head up fund distribution and we're always on the lookout for good talent."

Advisers are our focus, so it's important to be able to meet their needs

He outlines Time's internal development process, which starts with a business development associate stage that is generally people who are "fresh into the industry" all the way through to senior business managers. 

"There's kind of a nice conveyor belt of development, and we continue to look at opportunities where we can facilitate it.

"Obviously there is going to be a natural cap on the size of the team at some point in the future, but with interest in inheritance tax solutions growing, I can see this business area becoming bigger over time."

At a time when many of the big banks have been ditching their high street presence and insurers let sales staff go during Covid, Brown said it was crucial to make time to meet advisers face to face as well as virtually, offering help and services to the planning profession, whatever the request.

He says: "It could be from the simplest question of 'What is business relief?' to 'I'm working with professional connections and I could really do with someone from Time to come in and talk about the underlying assets that you guys have within your proposition'.

"We get all sorts of requests and advisers are our focus, so it's important to be able to meet their needs."

That's not to say Time does not do virtual meetings - "They're fantastic for efficiency", says Brown but "the core ethos of Time is the service we give to our advisers.

"One of the standout reasons I wanted to come over and join Time was that I could see how they supported the adviser through the first point of contact, such as asking for an illustration, right through to helping advisers dealing with complicated inheritance tax issues."

Even the managing director of Time sends occasional emails to advisers, asking for feedback and finding out how to put processes in place that can make life easier and better for colleagues and clients. 

Fun into the fund proposition

Another part of Brown's role will be to work with the business development team, helping to raise awareness and drive further growth of Time's tax-efficient products and range of real asset funds among the adviser community, building understanding of the opportunities they offer in the tax planning space and the benefits alternatives can bring to client portfolios.

He says the investment proposition is "very exciting".

"I haven't had a huge direct exposure to these sort of investment solutions personally, so it is fascinating to learn about Time's range. 

"We have the full spectrum of offering income-generating funds in the infrastructure and UK property space, as well as IHT-efficient solutions."

For example, Time offers asset-backed business-relief qualifying services for individuals and business owners looking to reduce an IHT liability, as well as a full IHT planning service that invests in a managed portfolio of BR-qualifying AIM companies.

Regardless of the election furore around backing British companies, Brown says the remit behind Time's investment funds does "provide that backbone I suppose you'd call it, in terms of what drives growth within the UK".

He said the range covers everything from energy infrastructure, which will benefit from the UK's drive towards net zero, through to commercial real estate and real assets and infrastructure.

"Whatever colour of government, we need development and better housing and clean energy solutions, so I think our fund range has great potential positivity for Britain as well as providing a meaningful return to investors."

The company also has a relatively new fund centre, which the marketing team developed and "put a lot of time and effort behind in order to provide easy access to any of the information that's desired from advisers", Brown says. 

Building on the shoulders of giants

"I can honestly say that Time is in a phenomenal place with an efficient distribution process", Brown says, but he does not want to rest on the company's laurels - it may have received five-star ratings in the past few years at the FT Adviser Financial Adviser Service Awards, but there's always "scope to do better". 

He says: "I have learned over two decades that you need to have a sounding board in place to make sure you are doing the right thing for the right people, for the right reason. 

"That's why we need to support our BDMs in order to support the advisers. That's absolutely clear."

Referring to his work at the Just Group, where he was before he joined Triple Point in 2019, Brown says: "In the past, I've built investment propositions for long-term care funding, and building a panel of products to use - so I believe I am in a position where I have strong understanding of the adviser's world.

"I've also been lucky enough that, in all the places I have worked, they have encouraged me to sit the same exams as advisers."

He has done all the ROs, as well as the long-term care and equity release exams, and is now en route to becoming chartered.

Brown says it's all part and parcel of understanding what it is like to be a financial adviser in the UK and to meet their needs from a position of knowledge.

Consumer duty 

And it is important to understand where advisers' pressure points are, according to Brown.

This is because it is getting harder for advisers and for companies serving them, given all the regulatory impetus of recent years, such as consumer duty, the Retirement Incomes Review and the Advice/Guidance Boundary review.

"We're constantly evolving, aren't we, in financial services? The first 'big one' I ever dealt with was the Retail Distribution Review", Brown says. 

"Advisers are trying to show that what they are doing is getting the best outcome for the client. But it does potentially constrain advisers in terms of the time it can take.

"Yes, it's it for the greater good, but the process [of meeting all this regulation] can be difficult. To that point, going back to what I said earlier about service, it also includes that educational piece.

"Where we can, we can help provide information to advisers to help them navigate all the regulation that is coming down to them."

The company has now done two iterations now of its Advisers' Guide to Business Relief, has a substantial webinar-based programme and makes sure its own staff are trained.

Whatever we can do to help them make the most efficient use of their time, that's the way forward.

Time also has a panel of advisers - from the "individual who works from her home office through to the largest national" - and regularly asks for feedback to see which initiatives have landed well, and which aspects of service could be better. 

The company is also preparing to create an adviser portal, so users can log in and request valuations and do things digitally, rather than having to send email or make phone calls.

None of this is replacing face-to-face, but he says: "It's down to that point about efficiency. Whatever we can do to help them make the most efficient use of their time, that's the way forward."

Of course, just two months in, Brown says: "I'm still still trying to figure out where things are and how to use the nice espresso machine", but he's going back to studying as well in what passes for his spare time. 

"My main objectives are to support the distribution teams on the tax and fund side, build out a pathway to support the team's personal development, making it really structured", he says.

Brown pauses. "When you're not actually advising, even if you do the exams to get the theoretical knowledge, the adviser does it day to day and has a much deeper practical knowledge.

"So I think it's important that we have a more holistic oversight of what advisers really do day to day, so that we can support the advisers on a much deeper level."