As a small firm, we welcome outside perspectives on what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. That’s why we embrace the recertification process for both British Standard (technically BS 8577, the framework for the provision of financial advice and planning services) and the Institute for Financial Wellbeing.

Both organisations apply rigorous assessments of our processes, results and the way we treat both our clients and ourselves.

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve passed both audits for another year. The IFW report confirms that we provided clear evidence of fulfilling all individual criteria within the three areas: Know your client; Training and competence; and Employee wellbeing.

Our British Standard review highlighted several areas of excellence that stood out during the assessment, including:

‘I really like the brochure How does investing responsibly make the world a better place?, looking at the work Sarasin did on the client’s behalf during 2022. I found this extremely informative and helps position the importance of responsible living and investing.’

‘I really like the sustainability journey (animation and infographic) documented on the website.’

It’s always an interesting and useful exercise, talking someone else through our setup and through the process we often identify small changes or developments we’d like to implement for the year ahead. With all the work we’ve put in place this year when preparing for consumer duty to come into effect in July, we’re confident in the solidity of our processes and the organisation of things behind the scenes. Something we would like to work on though is introducing conversations around financial wellbeing earlier when talking with new clients. These conversations have been invaluable with existing clients and so we want to maximise their impact in the future.

So, a quick pat on the back to ourselves for passing with flying colours for another year and now back to making sure we continue to uphold these standards in everything we do.