FOUR years of hard work including 18 exams and hundreds of hours studying has paid off for a Greenfield-based financial planner who is now one of the most qualified in the country.
Jade Taylor, 29, decided to work towards the Fellowship status of the Personal Finance Society – the highest qualification for a financial planner – in 2014.
After sitting her last exam in October 2018, she will officially graduate at a ceremony in London in April.
Out of 26,000 advisers in the UK, only 3,042 individuals hold this level of qualification – with only 260 of those in Jade’s age bracket, and just 57 female.
So it was a daunting task for the former Hulme Grammar School pupil, who graduated from Leeds University and was working at Brooks Macdonald Asset Management, to take on.
But after succeeding with flying colours, Jade, who now works at Landmark Financial Planning in Diggle, is more excited than ever to offer her enhanced services to clients.
She explained: “I am really passionate about the financial services industry and providing the best possible service to our clients.
“In order to do this, I felt strongly that I needed to be at the top of my game in terms of qualifications and technical knowledge.
“In addition, I was really keen to fly the flag for young females in this previously male-orientated industry.
“While I’m really pleased to be one of the few females in the country with this qualification, I’d love to see the numbers of female financial planners increase in the future.
“My mum, Shelagh Taylor, was one of the first female Chartered Financial Planners in the UK and has been a big inspiration to me.
“It was a long hard slog, particularly as I was working full time throughout, but it feels great now that all my hard work has paid off.”
Jade, who is a keen walker and golfer, continued: “The journey doesn’t stop there though as we are always undertaking additional learning to stay top of the changing regulations and economic environment.
“At Landmark we assist clients with all aspects of their financial planning requirements so when choosing my modules I focussed on the areas of advice that would benefit our clients most.
“For example, I undertook all of the relevant exams to obtain ‘Pension Transfer Specialist’ status, which allows me to advise on clients’ complex pension requirements.
“In particular, this enables me to advise on Defined Benefit pension schemes, which is something that has become more in demand in recent years.”
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