School’s out for summer and the holiday season is well underway, providing some much-needed rest and relaxation from a busy year to date for the RB team. A warm welcome to our new and soon-to-be new clients, along with a huge thank you to our existing clients for your continued custom and professional connections for your ongoing support. Grab a cuppa (or a tipple?!) and read on for an update about what’s been going on at RB over the last 7 months.
People
Congratulations are in order!
to Rebecca Dean, who passed her final exam in May to achieve her Diploma in Financial Advice.
to Barney Wood, who achieved Chartered status in February and is pending sign-off from trainee to competent adviser status
to Luci Tinsley who graduated recently from Durham University with a First in BA Honours Degree in Accounting and Finance with Placement Year
Activity
3 willing members of the team took part again in this year’s Jane Tomlinson’s Run For All Leeds 10k in June.
Awards success
finalists at the national Professional Adviser awards ceremony in March 2025 in 3 categories: Best Client Engagement – Adviser (Dan), Best Adviser Firm for Vulnerable Client Care and Adviser Firm of the Year North East. Sadly no wins on the night but we were exceptionally proud to reach the final.
finalists for the 6th year running in June – in 6 categories this year at the Yorkshire Financial Awards: Financial Adviser Team of the Year, Director of the Year and Independent Financial Adviser of the Year – Antony Barton, Support Staff of the Year – Jo Davey and Rising Star of the Year and Trainee of the Year – Barney Wood. Barney came away with a very well-deserved Highly Commended in the Trainee of the Year category.
finalist in the national Professional Adviser Women in Financial Advice awards 2025: Team Leader of the Year – Joanne Vaughan. Fingers crossed for Jo who will represent RB at the ceremony in London in November.
In our passion for promoting financial education, Dan Willers was interviewed by YOWAH radio a couple of weeks ago about breaking the myths around financial planning.
Recruiting young talent is crucial to sustain the financial sector and we are keen to offer work experience placements each year. Earlier this month a local ‘A’ level student, Thomas, joined us for a week as he is keen to pursue a career in finance. He ‘learned loads, more than expected and everyone was very friendly and helpful. It was perfect’. The whole team enjoyed sharing their experience with someone so enthusiastic and he made such a good impression that he will support us providing holiday cover for reception over the summer!
3 of our advisers (Antony, Gillian and Dan) were featured again in the VouchedFor Top Rated Adviser Guide published in the Times in March. We’re exceptionally proud as this is based purely on positive verified client feedback. Many of you have left lovely reviews on Vouched For and Google – thank you!
One regular piece of feedback is that we rarely ask for referrals for new clients – so this is us doing just that. If you have friends or family that you think would benefit from our friendly and clear advice, please send them our way. We are very much open for new business and have the capacity within our adviser team to look after any referrals very well. The initial calls and meetings cost nothing except time and we would welcome the opportunity to speak to any new clients.
Our partnership with Benchmark Capital is going well since the acquisition at the start of the year. RB and Benchmark enjoy a long-standing relationship and the aim is to combine the essence of RB (local family firm, long-standing clients and team members, excellent service) with the opportunities, technology and financial backing and compliance security a larger firm can provide. From February 2026 we plan to join the Best Practice network as an Authorised Representative firm, as opposed to our current status being directly authorised by the FCA – this is a welcome move as it will provide more support for our regulatory activities. Whilst this process takes place our status on the FCA register will state that we have applied to be de-authorised – this is nothing to be concerned about as we will be reauthorised simultaneously as an AR firm (but if you have any questions or concerns please do contact us).
Shoutout
A special mention for the Yorkshire Children’s Charity – we’ve heard first-hand of their commitment to support children who are disadvantaged through ill health, disability or financial circumstance, especially during the school summer holidays which can be especially challenging.
Tax and Tariffs
Speculation has been rife again recently about proposed tax changes and what more there might be to come. The main change that will affect a lot of our clients will be the inheritance tax charge on pensions from April 2027. We have various options for you to consider depending on your circumstances but given that the changes don’t come into force for almost another 2 years, you have plenty of time to plan for any changes with your adviser.
Springtime brought with it some volatile markets as President Trump unleashed his ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs. Markets dropped quickly but recovered just as quickly. It won’t the be last period of market turbulence but as always, sticking to your plan and staying invested will see you through.
Technology
Plans to launch survey software, which will ask you for feedback following your review meeting, have been delayed a little until September. We are always striving for excellence and keen to find ways to ensure that we are delivering the high standards of service our clients expect. Thank you in advance for your support.
Feedback on this software and indeed any feedback is always welcome – you can contact us in any way which suits you.
Production