Alex Whitson is a keynote speaker at the IFW Conference taking place at the Bristol Hotel on 23rd May 2023.
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Alex Whitson runs VouchedFor, the UK’s largest financial adviser review platform. He’s passionate about championing the value of good advice and making it accessible to more people.
Alex’s team recently launched Elevation, a platform that uses insights from over 250,000 client reviews to help improve client experience.
Prior to joining VouchedFor, Alex was a Managing Director at Haymarket Media Group, overseeing the growth of the company’s global digital and event revenues.
At the IFW Conference, Alex will deliver the talk:
‘How Can Embracing the Consumer Duty Drive Your Bottom Line? What 2023’s Data Tells Us.’
Your key learning points will be:
- Understand the commercial benefits of fully embracing the Consumer Duty
- Understand the industry’s main Consumer Duty gaps and gain ideas to address them
- See what analysis of 1000s of clients’ feedback tells us they most value at different stages of their journey (incl. before they become a client)
We’re thrilled you’re speaking at the IFW Conference 2023. What are you looking forward to most?
I’m delighted to be returning. I love the variety of the speakers and sessions at the IFW Conference. It’s rare to attend an event that gets you thinking on both a professional and personal level like this one does.
What can delegates expect from your keynote talk, ‘How Can Embracing the Consumer Duty Drive Your Bottom Line? What 2023’s Data Tells Us’?
I suspect many folk have had their fill of Consumer Duty stuff…. This session will hopefully be different. I’ll share what analysing recent client feedback tells us about what clients really want from their adviser, planner or coach. And why the average advice firm could unlock an extra £1.6m per year by taking a thorough approach to Consumer Duty.
How did your career lead to you becoming Managing Director of VouchedFor?
I spent most of my career in publishing, at a large company called Haymarket. It’s a great business and I had a wonderful time there but after many years decided I wanted to work for a smaller company with more societal impact. I drew up a list of 10 contenders and speculatively emailed their founders. VouchedFor made it onto the list because I read an interview with the founder, Adam, and he seemed like a good guy intent on making the world better. I reached out, joined as CMO and became MD a couple of years later.
How would you summarise your passions, both in and out of work?
At work it’s about trying to make people’s lives better in any way we can. Whether that’s giving people who need it (but often don’t seek it) access to the right advice for them or helping ensure that those in the advice process have the best possible experience.
On the personal front, all the cheesy, cliched stuff I’m afraid (maybe I need an extreme hobby to make future answers to this question less dull!). I’m lucky to have a great family, doing the best I can for them is my biggest motivator.
What’s your happiest memory?
I was lucky to grow up in a beautiful part of Scotland. I have many fond memories wandering the hills around Loch Lomond.
What’s your understanding of financial wellbeing and why it matters?
For me it’s about unlocking the role that money plays in facilitating true happiness.
Society makes it easy to take your eye off the ball and get consumed by accumulating as much as possible or keeping up with the Joneses (whoever they are!).
I mentioned earlier that my biggest motivator is doing my best for my family. A statement like that often leads people to think mainly about making money… but really it’s about understanding first what will make me the best possible dad/husband and then figuring out how money can help.
What do you wish you’d been told about finance when you were 15?
That my homemade pizza business was not going to be the next Dominos.
What are you doing to advance your own financial wellbeing?
Not enough probably. Though I recently audited our last 12 months’ of big costs through the lens of ‘did that make us happy?’ It was a useful exercise.
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