The PenLife Christmas roundup: our 2023 highlights

Welcome to the PenLife Christmas roundup, featuring all our highlights from this year.

Keep reading as we take a closer look at the key events of 2023, and find out what’s in store for PenLife in 2024.

Our team gained new qualifications in 2023

Here at PenLife, continual improvement across all areas of the business will always remain a priority. Which is why we make sure to invest in our people – because when we improve, our clients’ experience improves too.

We’re delighted to say that one of our Financial Planners, Craig Howard, achieved Chartered status this year. Only a small percentage of Financial Planners in the UK are Chartered, so this is a huge accolade for Craig. This means we now have a team of seven Chartered Financial Planners!

What’s more, Adam Dent became a Fellow of the Personal Finance Society (PFS), a professional body dedicated to building trust in the financial planning profession.

That’s not all – in fact, in 2023, nine of our team passed exams or apprenticeships, or gained a new qualification!

Positive feedback from our brilliant clients

One of the achievements we’re most proud of from 2023 is strengthening our relationships with our clients. We conducted a survey earlier in the year, and found that:

• 44% of clients believe that working with us has helped or will help them achieve their financial goals
• 91% would recommend us to their friends, family, or colleagues
• 71% of clients have recommended us in the last year alone.

But of course, we’re not satisfied until everyone is 100% happy with what we’re doing. So, we’ve introduced the following improvements:

• We’ve digitised our monthly newsletter, as well as sending weekly and monthly investment updates to clients who want them. That way, we can keep you in the loop about what’s happening in the world of finance, as well as offer updates from inside our business.
• We have begun building our brand-new website (more on this later!).

Here at PenLife, we like to think of ourselves as an open book. So, if there’s anything you would like to tell us about your experience of working with our team, we’re all ears – just get in touch using the contact details at the bottom of the article.

Clients can also leave us a review on Google or VouchedFor – all feedback is appreciated by our team. Thank you so much to everyone who has taken time to leave us a review, it really does make a difference.

We’ve been recognised by several awarding bodies this year

Thanks to the feedback and trust of our clients, we’ve been awarded several accolades by some of the top institutions in financial services this year.

VouchedFor

VouchedFor is a review site that helps individuals find the best Financial Planners in their local area, and enables them to leave feedback on their experience with a specific person or firm they have worked with.

We are so proud to say that all of our Financial Planners who feature on VouchedFor have achieved Top Rated status. Being VouchedFor Top Rated means that the Financial Planner has received a huge amount of positive feedback from clients and sits among the top Planners in their area, as well as in the country.

New Model Adviser Top 100

Each year, Citywire New Model Adviser names its top 100 financial planning firms in the country.

We’re thrilled to have been named in this year’s list.

FTAdviser Top 100

FTAdviser, a branch of the Financial Times that provides specialist news on issues in our sector, releases an annual Top 100 featuring the most exemplary firms in the country.

PenLife made the list in 2023 for the third year in a row.

Welcoming new team members to the PenLife family

The PenLife team grew by two more people in 2023.

Welcome to Laura Corbett, our new Senior Administrator, and Kostas Stylios, our Adviser Development and Compliance Manager!

Raising money for local charity, The Island

Every year, we choose a local charity to partner with in order to help raise money for a good cause.

During 2023, we have worked with The Island. This organisation is a children’s charity that provides mentoring, safe spaces, and mental health support to young people in York.

Events we’ve run or attended in support of The Island include:

• Charity lunch club, in which a staff member makes a delicious meal for the team who each pay a donation
• Our “row and run” event in which our team collectively clocked up the distance from The Island’s Head Office to the Isle of Man
• Yorkshire Tough Mudder
• The York Rotary Dragon Boat Race
• The PenLife charity quiz night
• The PenLife charity snack box.

Plus, we have a few tricks left up our sleeves before the year is out, so stay tuned for more.

At the start of the year, we set out to raise £5,000 through these efforts – and as of November, we have smashed our target, with total to date £5,550.

You can read more about The Island and our fundraisers on our JustGiving page.

Christmas Jumper Day at PenLife

On 20 December we’re hosting our Christmas Jumper Day at the PenLife office. Our team are invited to wear a Christmas jumper and pay a donation to charity – and pay double if they don’t wear one!

As we have done throughout the year, funds from this day will be donated to our chosen charity, The Island.

What’s happening in 2024

As we round off the year, it’s now time to look ahead and see what 2024 has in store for our company.

On top of maintaining our usual standards, we’re bringing some exciting new improvements to the business…

• A brand-new website. We’re in the process of designing our new site, which is set to go live at the beginning of 2024.
• An expansion of our referral scheme. As you might know, any client who successfully refers someone to us receives £50 as a “thank you” from PenLife. Look out for a very exciting new addition to our scheme which is being introduced at the beginning of the year.
• Celebrating our 40^th anniversary in 2024. We’ll keep you posted on how we’ll be celebrating!
• We’ll be supporting a new charity for 2024. Our team have now voted for their top three charities to support in 2024, and we’re going to be emailing clients soon, so you can cast your vote. The charity that receives the highest number of client votes will receive our support throughout the coming year!
• We are looking to further strengthen the team with recruitment and additional training.

We’re here for you all year round – just get in touch

To learn more about what we’re planning for 2024, or if you have any other queries, email us at enquiries@pen-life.co.uk, or call 01904 661140.

From all of us here at PenLife, we wish you all a very happy Christmas and a wonderful new year.

Please note

All the information contained in our blogs is correct at the time of writing and is subject to change in the future.