HISTORY OF FINANCIAL
FINANCIAL Ltd's birthday is 15th February. The first member of the Network signed their forms on that day in 2002. That IFA had a simple need, he explained to founder Charlie Palmer: to exit his current IFA firm and get up and running as an independent quickly, then, with resources but no time pressure to apply direct to the FSA for a licence.
That work taught us how to run a network. Several IFA firms joined and then, the defining moment of our network approached - in the form of an enormous headache. All the IFAs began to ring up to chase their commission. "Where is my £50 NPI PRO rebate?" they shreiked down the line, "NPI say they paid it to you, but you haven't paid us, why not?" We realised then that the only way forward was to work on fees only and get the IFA commissions paid direct to the member. Incredibly, it was another three years before we realised that we had invented the UK's first and only HYBRID network, and it was only recently, in late 2008 that we realise that our proposition is transforming an industry struggling to cope with regulation forcing the change from a commission to a fee based model.
FINANCIAL LTD is now owned by Standard Financial Plc who also operate a compliance consultancy, fund manager, pension administration and an in-house IFA. Charlie Palmer has 100% ownership via holding company Standard Financial Plc.
