A head of financial planning has been appointed at leading North East financial advisory firm, Lowes Financial Management, as the company continues to build a strong senior team to enable its ambitious growth strategy.
Gershom Chan, 37, originally from Edinburgh, has been appointed to the newly created role at a time of wider restructure and ongoing expansion of the practice and service proposition.
As a multi-award-winning independent financial advice firm, Lowes, which last year celebrated 50 years of servicing clients, recently appointed its first associate director, Andy Gardiner, and opened a new office in Teesside to further develop its national and regional profile.
In his role as head of financial planning, Gershom Chan will be involved in better defining and expanding the client proposition whilst also taking the lead on the training and development of the next generation of financial planners.
Lowes Financial Management, which also founded Lowes Financial Academy – an initiative which aims to help attract new talent to financial services – is keen to encourage newcomers with the intention of modernising and revolutionising the profession, something Gershom is passionate about, and is enthusiastic about driving forward.
Gershom, a Chartered Financial Planner and Fellow of the Personal Finance Society, has been part of the wider Lowes team for around four years, working in several technical roles initially and then becoming a Lowes consultant, servicing his own bank of clients. His appointment as head of financial planning comes as the firm seeks to cement itself as the best independent financial adviser (IFA) in the North East.
He said: “I am delighted to be taking on this role at Lowes during such an exciting period of growth and progress. Lowes has built its reputation on providing personal service to clients, and I fully intend to be involved in continuing to strengthen that approach across the business.
“I appreciate that Lowes is a family business – we are families looking after families. What we offer is highly personalised, enabling Lowes to offer a genuinely flexible service with minimal bureaucracy.”
Ian Lowes, MD of Lowes Financial Management, said: “Gershom is highly qualified and has extensive experience in financial planning and wealth management, as well as banking. This gives him a comprehensive knowledge and unique perspective of financial services. It is important that our team is constantly adding value for our clients, and we believe that Gershom is the person ideally suited to drive this approach forwards.”
Lowes advises clients across a wide range of financial aspects such as inheritance tax planning, investment management, pensions, tax mitigation, long term care and other general financial planning issues helping clients and their families to secure their financial future. More specifically, Lowes is a recognised national authority in the profession on structured retail products.
Last October, Lowes was once again recognised as the UK’s Best Investment Advice Firm by financial adviser magazine Money Marketing – winning the award for three out of four years, being runner up in 2019. The Money Marketing Awards are one of the financial services profession’s most prestigious awards that recognise and reward the sector’s leading advisers and providers.