After two years with accountancy firm Mazars, Sarah Lord has been named director of client strategy at Succession Wealth.
Speaking to International Adviser after two weeks in the role, Lord described the opportunity as “exciting”.
Her “passion for the client experience” was a key driver behind the move, she said.
“Joining a business that has that focus, where I can really contribute, was hugely appealing for me.”
No mean feat
As director of client strategy, Lord will have a wide range of responsibilities.
“Essentially; areas such as fee structures, routes to market, brand identity for clients and across the wider industry, professional standards and marketing all fall under my remit.”
Succession Wealth’s clients are UK-based, typically have between £0.5m and £2.5m ($3.1m, €2.8m) worth of assets and are aged 50+, which gels neatly with Lord’s experience at Mazars and Killik & Co before that.
Clear communication
Moving forward, Lord defines her key priority as “defining the client experience, given the rapid evolution that we’re seeing within financial services”.
“By that, I mean the growing use of technology.”
The existing client experience at Succession is very good, she said: “It’s about enhancing it.
“It’s about the tone of voice, how do we communicate with the client, how do we make them really want to engage with us at a different level?”
Jargon jumble
This is a key issue for the whole industry, Lord said.
“Everyone has their own view, but I think as a profession we need to do more around general financial education and regular communication and touch points.
“It will vary, from firm to firm, how much communication they send out. But you have to make sure that it is client-friendly and isn’t full of acronyms, which mean nothing to the clients.”
She added that it was not meant as a criticism of client understanding, “we just get so used to using acronyms”.
“As a profession, we need to drop all of that and communicate in plain English and speak the language of the client.”
