We're delighted to welcome Karan Trikha, Director and Financial Adviser at Savile Row Financial Services, to our Adviser Spotlight interviews. In our fifth in the series, we explore the impact of changing regulations, the challenges facing investors, the role of tech in our financial futures, and how Flagstone supports both IFAs and clients.
“We’re bound by the responsibility to provide clients and their families with a secure financial future. By building close working relationships, we can ensure we support them through every aspect of their financial lives.”
A warm welcome to Flagstone, Karan. Tell us all about your work and Savile Row Financial Services.
My wife, Swati Mahajan, and I run Savile Row Financial Services together. We’re based in London with a wide range of clients across the UK, spanning business owners, professionals, portfolio landlords, retired individuals, and families. We specialise in inter-generational wealth management, retirement planning, inheritance planning, and mortgage and insurance advice.
Our aim is to pave the way for a more secure financial future for our clients and their families through every phase of their financial lives.
We’ve all seen plenty of change recently – market volatility and updated FCA regulations, for example. Has it impacted your approach, and how do you make sure you’re fully informed?
I am an eternal optimist. In fact, the volatile market and FCA updates have presented me with ideal opportunities to have inspired discussions with my clients around creative investment strategies focused around their short, medium and long-term financial goals. When I’m talking about short-term investments particularly, I include Flagstone’s services around maximising the interest income offered by rising interest rates.
Staying on top of everything is crucial, of course. We keep abreast of the latest financial news through a variety of publications and other source materials, like Flagstone’s regular email updates.
What about your clients? What big challenges are they currently dealing with?
The biggest challenge right now is the uncertain economic conditions. Lots of market volatility and the cost of living crisis have made people risk-averse, thereby delaying their financial decisions such as to invest, buy properties, etc.
How could a cash deposit platform help investors regain confidence?
Cash has frequently been the forgotten or idle part of a client’s investment strategy. Business owners and portfolio landlords often have business accounts or corporate bank accounts where they earn hardly anything on their savings. Flagstone gives them a wide variety of ways to grow their money in terms of very competitive interest rates while offering FSCS protection. The same is true for my other client groups with personal savings. They can enjoy the same access to savings accounts offering greater interest than the high street and the same protection provided by the FSCS.
What do you think the financial adviser’s role is when it comes to your clients' investment portfolios?
One of our main roles is helping clients identify their short-term, medium-term and long-term financial goals and align these to their risk appetite. As financial advisers, we’re bound by the responsibility to provide them and their families with a more secure financial future. By building close working relationships, we can ensure we support them through every aspect of their financial lives.
How do you include cash into these conversations?
We believe cash should always form a major part of our clients’ savings and investments. Introducing cash is key to their overall financial planning, particularly when we’re looking to cover their short-term financial goals of less than five years, and making sure there’s a handy cash pot to dip into in case of emergencies, etc.
What sort of mistakes do investors make when managing their cash savings?
The most common mistake is mainly to do with the ‘law of inertia’, which means the majority of clients stay with one or two banks for most of their lives. By not focusing on the opportunities provided by savings accounts with high interest rates on platforms like Flagstone, they’re missing out.
They’re also often unaware that the FSCS only protects up to £85,000, so many end up breaching the limits with no idea that any savings above this threshold are at risk.
And finally, what do you think about technology’s role in the future of financial advice?
Technology is already playing a huge role, and this will accelerate in the future. This became very evident during the pandemic when financial advisers moved the majority of their meetings onto platforms such as Zoom and Teams. It opened up opportunities that enabled both clients and financial advisers to make more productive use of their time.
Flagstone’s platform has also shown how technology in financial services can be used to improve the customer experience by making it very user-friendly. And it betters the client outcome by bringing together a wide variety of banks and financial institutions offering a huge range of cash savings accounts that are accessible almost instantaneously.
Join our network of leading referrers today, and help your clients protect and nurture their cash.
