Finance expert plans growth
A FAMILY owned firm of financial advisors has announced ambitious plans to double the size of the company and extend its regional coverage.
Active Financial Services, run by Karl Pemberton and his father Glyn from offices in Guisborough, said it was close to signing a deal with two firms, which would increase its team of advisors from seven to 15 overnight.
It follows a number of new appointments at the firm recently, which said it was deliberately recruiting staff from banks and other commercial operations in a bid to inject the best corporate systems and practices and bring it closer to businesses.
Karl Pemberton, who joined the company after a period in private and investment banking at Yorkshire and RBS banks, said the environment in which independent financial advisors now operated was very different from when the company started 22 years ago. He said recent changes in company structured insulated it against the credit crunch, which in other areas of the country has seen widespread redundancies.
“While others are cutting back, we feel what we are doing at the moment puts us at the cutting edge of financial advice, certainly in Teesside. We will never compete with the likes of St John’s Place, which is owned by the Halifax, but there’s no reason why we could not give them a good run for their money.”
The firm has already recruited staff from Npower and Alliance & Leicester bank. “To attract people from big corporate backgrounds, we must be doing something correct.”
Mr Pemberton said the firm was keeping a watchful eye on plans to deregulate the legal market in 2011. For the first time, providers other than lawyers could offer legal advice.
“It’s not something we are looking to do at the moment because we already have some fantastic links with law firms and work closely with them. But if there was an opportunity for some law firms to work under the Active brand it would be a fantastic opportunity.”
He said the firm would consider looking for additional offices in central Teesside. “We will outgrow our premises pretty quickly, but we would never leave Guisbrough because it has been our heartland.”
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