We’re aware that a lot of the time, the person whom you as a client come into regular contact with at Emery Little is your financial planner; the personal face of your investment plans and aspirations. But behind this knowledgeable face is a whole team of other specialists, applying their expertise and experience to inform, manage and support your financial plans.
We feel we want you to ‘meet’ these people and give you a sense of Emery Little as a whole.
So let us introduce one of our Paraplanning team, Adrian Felaar.
Take it away, Adrian…
Like every good Millennial, after finishing a degree in Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry at St Andrews, I was not sure what to do in the “real world”. The only certainty was that after a litany of failed experiments (column chromatography should be banned), it was time to hang up the lab coat. I knew I wanted to pivot into financial services and a kind, daring soul called Emery Little liked like a good home for me.
I had a phone call with our CEO, Jo, came in for an interview in December 2019 (for which, on reflection, I was way too formally dressed) and started as an intern in January 2020; the rest is now happy history.
I am a member of the Paraplanning Team. It’s always a challenge describing the role of a paraplanner, but we’re the “middle office”. I help prepare investment reports and client reviews, sit-in on client meetings and provide other general technical assistance.
I’m quite detail oriented, so I enjoy digging around to understand why things are the way we find them. I also enjoy generally learning about the complex system that is the financial world…must be something of a hangover from the science days. I also just enjoy reading through files and hearing client stories: we have a fascinating client bank.
I’d like to hope I’m helping our clients to understand the advice their planner has given and answering questions that arise.
I think I described myself as an “omnivorous” reader to our Operations Director during my interview – that still stands. I sing bass in a chamber choir. I play the organ, piano, and during lockdown I restarted violin lessons after a decade-long hiatus. I don’t think my neighbours are ecstatic about that!
