A TOP Wrexham finance firm has recruited an Edinburgh-based advisor as part of ambitious expansion plans which reach in to Scotland.
Natalie Ferguson, 27, originally from Cumbernauld and now living in Edinburgh, has been recruited by Hadlow Edwards Wealth Management, to run the company’s new operation in Scotland’s capital city which is the UK’s second largest financial services centre after London.
The move is part of ambitious expansion plans launched by the financial advice specialists last year which have already included the opening of a new London Mayfair office and the takeover of the Oswestry-based Ellett Wealth Management.
The firm, based in Regent Street, is a Practice within the FTSE 100 Company St. James’s Place Wealth Management, which is one of the UK’s largest wealth management organisations and looks after client funds amounting to £79.8 bn.
Natalie was specially selected for and has now finished her studies with the St. James’s Place Academy which trains the cream of tomorrow’s financial services advisers.
“It’s a marvellous scheme but lots of hard work,” said Natalie. “The interview stage alone took three months and then I spent another six months training with the academy, which has just finished.”
She is now looking forward to her new role with Hadlow Edwards and helping them to grow their business in Scotland.
She said: “It’s really important to have a base in the city, which is the financial hub of Scotland and a very important location for the firm. From there I can easily reach places across the country like Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness.
“I’ve just started my new job and I’m already loving it. I think that because I’m still relatively young to be a financial adviser it will also give me the chance to provide many years of care for my clients and their families.”
Hadlow Edwards was formed in 2000 by joint directors Warren Hadlow and Medwyn Edwards and now has a 22-strong team with eight specialist financial advisers. It offers high quality personal advice on many aspects of wealth management, to both individuals and businesses from all different backgrounds and ages with varied financial requirements.
Hadlow Edwards Operations Director, Dominic Richmond, said: “We already have some clients in Scotland and having Natalie there will allow us to be able to visit them more easily and be on hand to help them in person quickly.
“Natalie will be growing her own network of contacts which will in turn help us to develop our client base in Scotland which is important to the long-term expansion plans of the company.
“Last year we opened an office in London’s Mayfair and now having Natalie’s input from Edinburgh, a key financial district for the UK, means we have a strong presence from the north to the south of the country.
“We are delighted to welcome her to the team, not least because she has achieved very highly within her training at the St. James’s Place Academy and it is vital to the long-term success of the company that we continue to nurture young talent in the industry such as Natalie.”
After leaving high school in her home town of Cumbernauld just outside Glasgow at the age of 17, Natalie spent four years at North Glasgow College studying for the kind of qualifications to set her up for a life in the fashion business.
But midway through her four-year fashion design with marketing HND course, the 2008 financial crash took hold.
She said: “I’d intended to be a fashion designer or buyer in London but then came the crisis of 2008 and it looked like that wasn’t going to be a viable proposition after all.
“I decided to go into the financial services sector and first got a job with part of a major life insurance group in Edinburgh. I started on the admin side and then moved up to the accountancy department, becoming a relationship manager looking after platinum clients.
“After a couple of years there I joined another major financial group as a retirement relationship manager based in Sterling, helping to design the best pension solutions for meet people’s needs.
“By my mid-twenties I’d moved to another job in Sterling, this time with IFDS, working on behalf of St. James’s Place Wealth Management as service support manager for the Liverpool area.
“Although I was based in Scotland I’d go down to Liverpool about once a month to see clients.”
When’s she not hard at work Natalie falls back on her artistic background as an enthusiastic amateur painter.
She added: “I specialise in portraits of my family and friends and am often asked to do them as presents for friends who are getting married.”
For more information about Hadlow Edwards go to www.hadlowedwards.co.uk
