Change: definition: To make something different.
Gibson Lamb’s raison d’être is to help people achieve their personal goals and it is only right and proper that the owners and team follow their dreams and aspirations too.
Our business is jointly owned between Clive & myself. Neither of us wants to work forever but the concept of retirement is a more pressing point for Clive than it is for me given our different personal circumstances; Clive’s children are grown up whereas my son is 6 years old.
It is notoriously hard to ‘retire from’ your own small business and, having spent a lot of time talking about our options and trying a few other routes, we concluded that splitting the business in two and actively looking for a firm to ‘take over’ Clive’s half was the best route forward.
Clive is leaving Gibson Lamb
We have therefore agreed to sell Clive’s half of our business to Sacre Associates with effect from 31st March 2017. Sacre are larger than Gibson Lamb but share the same ethos and customer focused attitude which was a prerequisite of any deal. Clive will be an authorised financial adviser at Sacre and will continue to look after ‘his’ clients for at least the next 3 years and quite possible longer.
If you are a client that is used to seeing Clive, then your account will be transferred to Sacre at the end of March. You will receive a formal letter from both ourselves and Sacre confirming the details but, importantly, Clive will still be your adviser, the person you talk to and he will be responsible for ensuring you are completely happy with the changes. Your service proposition and fees will not change, neither will your insurer or your investment strategy.
I am not leaving Gibson Lamb
Those who are used to seeing me, nothing changes. I am retaining the Brand – the business itself is not for sale – and the wonderful administration team comprising of Vicky and Emma too. The phone number is ours, the email addresses are ours, the technology such as our secure document portal and Moneyinfo online valuation website and App are all being retained and none of those things will change.
We have Big Plans for the new, smaller Gibson Lamb version 3. We have already attracted two very highly regarded industry figures to join me on the Board, ensuring we remain at the forefront of best practice. More on them in another blog soon. We are striving for the British Standard for financial planning and administration which will ensure we have the very best processes and practices in place.
In the weeks ahead we will provide more information about our vision for the future but in the meantime if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch.