Financial Planner

Exchange Street Recruitment; City Of London; On-site; GBP 68,000 - 83,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity pathway

Mentoring from founder

AI paraplanning tools

Warm referral flow

Job summary

Exchange Street Recruitment is partnering with a new financial planning venture led by a founder who has built substantial assets and seeks a lead planner capable of ownership and growth.

The role offers a basic salary up to £75,000, revenue share, and a pathway to equity. You’ll benefit from warm referrals, AI paraplanning tools, and robust compliance support as you pursue an ambitious business-building journey.

Qualifications

• CAS with 2-3 years’ advice experience.
• Not a trainee role; senior level.
• Experience from independent firm, national advice business, private bank or academy accepted.
• Ambition to build a business and leadership capability.

Responsibilities

• Originate opportunities and develop introducer relationships.
• Learn to build and run a business with founder guidance.
• Move toward an equity stake and potential CEO path.
• Leverage warm referral flow and grow client opportunities.

Skills

CAS

2-3 yrs advice exp

Job description

You've learned how to advise. Now imagine being taught how to build a business.

Most planners are taught how to look after clients.

Far fewer are shown how to win them, develop introducer relationships, build recurring revenue and ultimately create a successful advice business of their own.

This role is about that next step.

This is a new financial planning venture being launched by the founder of a highly successful private wealth business.

He previously built around £600m of assets over five years at a major private bank, before launching his own firm and growing it from zero to around £285m AUM in two years, largely through referrals.

Now he wants to find someone he can help develop into much more than a good employed financial planner.

The long-term opportunity is to become the lead planner, take a genuine stake in the business and potentially become its CEO.

WHAT’S THE OPPORTUNITY?

This is an employed role from day one, with a basic salary of up to £75,000 and revenue share on top.

You won’t need to bring clients with you.

There is already warm referral flow available, typically involving clients with around £500,000–£2m to invest, so there will be genuine opportunities from the outset.

But the point of the role is not to spend the next ten years servicing somebody else’s client bank.

You’ll work closely with the founder and learn how he has built businesses through referrals, introducers, strong client relationships and commercial judgement.

Over time, you’ll be expected to originate more of your own opportunities, take increasing responsibility for the firm and move towards a contractual equity stake.

The ambition is not for you to become a slightly more experienced adviser.

It is for you to become someone capable of building and eventually running the business.

WHAT DO YOU GET?

• Up to £75,000 basic
• Warm client flow from day one
• No requirement to bring a client bank
• A contractual route to equity
• Direct mentoring from someone with a proven record of building substantial AUM
• Support in learning how to self-source and develop introducer relationships
• Strong compliance and operational infrastructure, including an administrator
• AI paraplanning tools
• The chance to help shape a new business rather than simply inherit somebody else’s model

The business is being built from scratch, with a lean structure and heavy use of technology and AI.

The target is to build around £400,000 of ongoing revenue within 24 months, but this is not a sink-or-swim sales role. The idea is to build it properly, and the founder knows it takes time to judge whether that is working.

WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

This is not a trainee role.

You’ll need to be CAS, with at least 2–3 years’ advice experience behind you.

Beyond that, pedigree matters much less than potential and character.

You might come from an independent firm, a national advice business, a private bank or an academy environment.

What matters is whether you look like someone capable of considerably more than your current role allows.

You’ll probably be:

• Commercially sharp
• Proactive
• Credible and polished with clients
• Comfortable taking responsibility
• Curious about how businesses actually grow
• Confident enough to back yourself
• Humble enough to learn
• Comfortable with business development
• Self-motivated without needing to be chased

You may already have thought about running your own firm one day.

You may even know that is where you want to end up, but have no idea where to start or do not want to take all of the financial and regulatory risk on your own.

That is probably the sweet spot.

WHO THIS ISN’T FOR

If what you really want is a good client bank to service, a clear corporate ladder and a well-defined role that stays broadly the same, this probably is not for you.

Likewise, if the idea of business development makes you uncomfortable, the longer-term opportunity will not suit.

The founder will invest heavily in the right person, but the expectation is that you use that support to become increasingly capable, commercial and independent.

THE TEST

You do not need to have built a business before.

You do need to look like someone who could.

That means more than saying you are ambitious or entrepreneurial.

It means showing where you have taken ownership, created opportunities, pushed beyond the boundaries of your role or demonstrated the judgement and drive needed to build something for yourself.

If you’ve learned how to advise and suspect there is a much bigger career in you than simply becoming a more senior adviser, this is worth a conversation.

Don't worry if your CV isn't up to date, we can come to that later.