OctoBlast: David Crozier on the best financial plans for clients, and ‘brobdingnagian’ regulatory rules

Octo Members
22 August 2019
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A half-hour watch. 

David Crozier is founder of Navigator Financial Planning, a successful Northern Irish financial planning practice. 

In our OctoBlast series, he talks through with Lee Robertson the approach his business takes with clients, the bits he’s enjoyed most over his career, and the headwinds he sees advisers facing.

When describing the philosophy of his business, he refers to the importance of process: “it’s about the financial planning, not the plan; everything else is a commodity”.

He adds that, as highlighted in the case with Woodford, changing circumstances and financial needs means he always aims to give clients plans and investments they can get out of relatively quickly if need be.

On headwinds, he describes his frustration with high regulatory costs and overly ‘brobdingnagian’ rules.

He goes on to describe why he’s not overly worried about the ‘fees’ debate, tipping his cap to Alan Smith’s argument for fixed fees, but talks on the potential for reducing costs through much greater efficiency in areas such as back-office technology.

For more of our longer form multimedia pieces, we have Mike Wilson‘s podcast on why investment trusts are the personal investment choice for fund managers, and Dan Brocklebank on how passives ‘shine a light’ on the true value of active management.

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