Thame Out The complimentary magazine for the Thame area
Family business
Wills & Trusts Wealth Management. A company that helps take care of family financial planning and legal support. It also treats their employees like a family too.
Established for over 25 years and based here in Thame for the past nine, Wills & Trusts is recognised today as one of the UK’s leading full-service wealth management firms with Chartered Financial Planner status.
The company was created by David Batchelor, thanks in part to a family inheritance. Given a lift by a relative, it’s no surprise that families are at the core of the companies philosophy.
Whether you’re planning for tomorrow or thinking about your family’s future, Wills & Trusts combine Chartered financial services, legal and accountancy advice to help you protect, grow and enjoy every aspect of your wealth. Building a future and cementing a legacy.
David’s vision is to make massive changes in many people’s lives as well as those of the company’s employees.
“I believe that life is about growth. It’s about making everything we do tomorrow better than today. Our future and that of our clients must be better than the past,” says David.
“When you come to work you do it for three reasons. First (and let’s be honest) you need to pay the mortgage or rent. Second, it’s because you want to do something that you enjoy doing 80% of the time (there are always those days when you need a glass of wine when you get home) And third you want to feel that you are doing something meaningful with your life.
“I believe that every one of us wants to do something meaningful. I think every one of us wants to do more than just pay the mortgage. And I’m convinced that everyone of us wants to love what we do; and to love what we do we must do something meaningful.
“By building legacies we mean building our clients wealth. Of course this means their money, but it also means their intellectual and emotional wealth. The wealth that is built from their life’s work, effort and toil. It is this that creates and builds our clients wisdom.
“Protecting those legacies is all about making sure that the family keeps and maintains that wealth. We want our clients to pass all of their financial, intellectual and emotional wealth to the people that matter, the next generation. Now, that might not be their children, but it will be someone with whom they have a deep connection.
“And why families? Because this is what’s important. We could spend the time helping business to pay less tax, but would that really get you emotionally involved? We could focus on group pensions schemes, but would that give you a deep sense of satisfaction when you go home at night?
“There is nothing like getting that card, that call or that note from a client that says thank you for what you have done. Its a very, very rare thing. When was the last time you wrote to McDonalds to say thank you? Or your bank, or your insurance company, in fact anyone?
Wills & Trusts has three Prime Directives. These are the foundations on which every decision is built.
1. Do the right thing
“It all starts with doing the right thing. In every situation we must ask ourselves as a company, are we doing the right thing.
“We hire the right people who know what it means to do the right thing. They can’t walk past a paper clip lying on the floor because they know that to move it, is to do the right thing. They would never leave a dirty cup in the sink because they know that is not doing the right thing. They keep promises to clients and always do what they say they will do”, says David.
2. Putting the client first
“Everything and I do mean everything revolves around the client. Putting the client first means just that, it means enacting the golden rule and then some.
“But who is your client? The answer is, of course the end user, but it’s also those with whom you work. When we put our team before us, we create a degree of trust and cooperation that no one else can match, but it must start with us. We must give to receive, and we must give until we receive.
“Putting the client first is all about service and the client journey. It’s about under promising and over delivering. It’s about always doing what you say you will. It’s about going the extra mile. It’s about understanding the client so that you can communicate in ways that they understand. It’s about understanding what it is that they care about,” adds David.
3. Make the future better than the past
Can you imagine a world that does not progress? Or a world where everything stays the same? Would you watch the same episode of a soap opera every day? Would you be happy with having as much wealth tomorrow as you did last week, or knowing the same things tomorrow as you did last year?
“Making the future better than the past is fundamental to making life better, whether it’s the lives of our clients, ourselves, or our team mates. The need for constant and never ending improvement must be part of everything we do every day, every week and every year.
“Your family. Our family. Growing together. We all share a similar vision for the future: to experience the joy that comes with having the financial freedom to build a better life for ourselves and our loved ones, and the comfort it brings to know everything will be taken care of, even after we’ve gone.
Wills & Trusts Wealth Management was founded upon this very idea more than 25 years ago. And even though their methods, expertise and knowledge have evolved throughout the years, their principal focus has remained largely the same.
Whether you’re planning for tomorrow or thinking about your family’s future, Wills & Trusts combine Chartered financial services, legal and accountancy advice to help you protect, grow and enjoy every aspect of your wealth.
Perhaps their ‘family’ can help yours.
91/92 High Street, Thame, Oxfordshire, OX9 3EH
+44 (0) 1844 212907
www.willsandtrustswealth.com
You can read more articles like this one in the latest edition of Thame Out.
