Colin Little, Business Manager for Lowes Financial Management, oversees the adviser support, paraplanning and administration teams. He tells Rob Kingsbury how he came into the role and what those teams deliver for the company.
Colin Little, Business Manager at Lowes Financial Management, has managed a number of teams of varying sizes in his 25 year and more career in financial services.
He worked for Northern Rock for 10 years prior to the financial crisis, then for another decade as a contractor, going into banks to help handle large volumes of work, the quality of output and production, as well as complaints handling.
It was the management roles he enjoyed most and where he feels he delivers most value. He worked his way through promotion to operational manager at Northern Rock, where he managed 40 staff, and when long-term contracting, he managed the quality control for a project with over 500 staff for a large bank.
Colin moved back to the north east in 2022, joining Lowes in the April as manager of the administration unit, then moved into the role of Business Manager when it became vacant in January 2024.
He currently oversees different business units in Lowes, including paraplanning, administration and the adviser support teams for the company as well.
“All of the teams sitting behind the advisers are important to us in delivering the best outcomes and results for our clients,” Colin says. “The support teams work directly for the advisers and are the ones that will, for example, complete application forms and deal with queries from clients – so they will most likely be known to the clients to some degree.
“The paraplanners are more behind the scenes, doing a lot of the research, analysis and calculations. They will be talking with the adviser about the client’s goals, discussing the solutions, and comparing the plans and products to confirm which will be best placed to deliver the right result for our clients’ objectives. This allows our advisers to focus their attention on ensuring we deliver the best service to our clients.
“Our administration staff have a comprehensive knowledge of what needs to be done and when, which forms are needed, and where the hiccoughs in the process are likely to be. They have to be tenacious at times and are past masters at holding the phone line until they get the information they need.
“They process applications and complete all post sale administration work. Whether that be checking investments have been processed correctly, updating addresses and providing valuation reports. They are also there to ensure that matters are dealt with proficiently and sensitively should the worst happen, guiding family members through the process.
“Everyone uses their knowledge and experience to keep things running as smoothly as possible.”
Colin’s role is to support each of the teams to ensure they can do their job to the best of their ability. The company has 11 paraplanners, nine administrators and eight support staff and each team has a co-ordinator, who report in to Colin.
“I will be looking at how we do things within the teams. Could we be more efficient or give our clients a better service by doing things differently?
“I’ll look across the business units to see where we might have a spike and how we can deal with it. I’ll look at where the blockers are in a process, why they are occurring and what action we need to improve things.
“We want to get all the information we receive from a client processed within 24 hours of receipt and anything paraplanning within five to 10 working days.
“It’s important that our processes are working efficiently, and that people are focussing on what’s needed and not being distracted by things that could better sit with other people in the business. It’s about having the right people doing the right things at the right time.”
“One of the busiest times of year is tax year end. So we look at how we can best prepare for that. Where might the pinch points be and how can we use our resources to ensure that although there are challenges, from our clients’ perspective we give them as smooth a journey as possible.”
Colin is also involved in project work within the business and liaising with third parties on their levels of service to the company. “This might mean having meetings with other companies to see how we can improve things.”
He’ll also get involved with the human resources side of the units, such as recruitment.
Lowes has a policy of, if possible, recruiting from within. “It’s important that we get the right people for the right roles and when we recruit we look for people who will fit the culture at Lowes and also we look to the future and their ambitions to maybe take on other roles,” Colin says. “There are definitely opportunities for career development here.”
An adviser firm can only be in business for over 50 years, as Lowes has (it was established in 1971), if it looks after its clients. Having worked in large organisations and banks, Colin says the contrast with the culture at Lowes is striking.
“What I’ve seen since I’ve been at Lowes, is just how client-centric we are as a company. Whichever team it is working on behalf of the clients, the common goal for everyone is very much delivering the best outcomes and results we can for every single client. And in that, everyone plays an equally important role.”
