Moving people around
Green’s strategic review also took in consideration of a flatter management structure, so has he not replaced his former right hand man Mike Coady who left suddenly late last year and is currently working for rival Guardian Wealth Management in Dubai?
“I think Mike was perhaps less influential than maybe you think. You have just missed the ego. Mike’s a good guy, who was running the UK, which is only 3% of the company’s business.”
“Mike’s very talented, don’t get me wrong. I’m not being critical. He helped us with lots of various things, but Mike is Mike.”
On the hiring front, he said he has just taken on “one of the top guys in the world on blockchain with a team of ten”
“He’s a blockchain expert but he’s a fintech expert. I want a system – which he calls it like Lego – that all fits together so clients have got access to all the information. They can go some way to looking at things themselves. I think that you can automate, to some extent, even client services and give clients very good service by making sure that you’ve got very good technology. I’m trying to go that route.”
With no plans to pull out of any markets or close further offices, Green said deVere will continue to grow, currently standing at around 520 advisers worldwide.
“Ultimately, there will be some sort of pyramid, with, the bottom end of the market more fintech. The middle bit is telephone advice plus fintech. The top end is personal financial advice. If that’s correct, you’ll end up with top advisers, elite advisers dealing with elite people. You’ll end up with telephone advice plus technology reducing costs. Then the people that, unfortunately, can’t have the personal advice who end up using technology.”
