Day in the life

Paul Sutton, chief executive of the Trusted Advisor Group, talks to Vincent Ryan about his working day

MORNING

I spend at least three days a week travelling around the country meeting with independent advisory firms that have expressed an interest in joining the group. We currently have a good nationwide presence, with member firms from Letterkenny to Cork and Galway to Dublin. We are a specialist business resource centre for select independent financial advisory firms and the group is already on track to become the largest independent broker distribution group in Ireland, with a planned membership of 117 professional advisors in the group over a period of three years.

The financial services sector, like many others, is under significant pressure at the moment due to economic conditions and difficult investment markets. Potential members of Trusted Advisor Group are invariably looking for support in a number of key areas — business planning, sales and marketing strategy, specialist technical and compliance resources, and technology. They are also often looking for access to exclusive product offerings. As chief executive my role is to ensure that independent financial advisors are aware of the business- enhancing benefits of joining the group.

Once a week I try and have a breakfast meeting with the sales director from one of the life assurance companies. This allows me to keep abreast of any developments across the industry, gives me the opportunity to discuss activity within Trusted Advisor Group and identify any exclusive or specialist support that could benefit our members.

AFTERNOON

My afternoon is often spent either at meetings or on the phone to existing members, helping them develop and plan appropriate strategies for their own business which will allow them to provide better value and service to their clients. We invariably analyse sales activities and performance figures, sales trends, key performance indicators and examine any specific marketing opportunities that members could engage in.

While many of our actions are focused on the short-term, our processes enable members to develop a succession plan for their business and an exit strategy for themselves, resulting in a more sustainable entity and a realistic value for their business.

EVENING

I try not to work in the evenings and instead spend time with my family. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way as the financial services sector has a tendency to be quite technical and demanding. As a result of this, we decided to introduce our own group of experienced industry experts that our members could readily access when required. My evenings often involve interfacing with our resource team to discuss the current agenda and get updates on the various support projects being run by this group as well as planning and organising future member events and workshops.