WHILE many teenagers dream of becoming a professional footballer, musician or astronaut, Ross Lacey had a rather different career in mind.
By the age of 16, the now Director and Independent Financial Adviser at Essex-based Fairview Financial Management already knew he wanted to become a financial adviser.
It was not a career he would stumble into years later. Lacey describes the path he has taken as something he deliberately engineered from an early age, driven partly by a fascination with money but also by an experience that showed him just how important good financial planning can be when life takes an unexpected turn.
When Lacey was 13, his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 40. She died five years later, aged just 45.
His parents had been careful with their finances and worked with a financial adviser, putting insurance in place that meant his mother could stop working during her illness and his father could also take time away from work to support the family.
Seeing the difference that preparation made during an incredibly difficult period left a lasting impression on Lacey.
He said: “I was one of those sad kids at school when I was 16. Someone said, ‘What do you want to be?’ I didn’t say footballer or astronaut. I genuinely said financial adviser.
“When I was 13, my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was 40 and she died at 45 when I was 18.
“My parents were very good with planning and finances. They had a financial adviser and the relevant insurances, which meant my mum could stop working, my dad could stop working and they could focus on her and looking after the family.
“I saw the power of what that did for them.”
Power
Money had been an unusually open topic in Lacey’s family even before his mother’s illness.
As a child, he remembers sitting with relatives looking at mortgage statements and discussing how finances worked. He believes his father’s background contributed to a family culture in which discussing earnings and money was not considered taboo.
Lacey went on to study business and economics at the University of East Anglia and, while still at university, spent time in a Norwich stockbroking office during the 2008 financial crisis.
Watching professionals speak to clients whose investments had fallen sharply gave him an early lesson he still applies today: fear is often caused by being surprised.
Rather than simply showing clients how investments have historically grown, Lacey says he deliberately discusses periods when markets have fallen and asks clients how they would feel if the same happened to their own money.
He said: “We need to prepare people for the big dips when they come, not just mentally, but financially.
“We need to give them other pools and resources to draw from so they’re not forced to draw from something that’s temporarily down.”
After graduating in 2009, Lacey began working in finance and has now spent around 17 years in financial planning and investment management.
Along the way he became a Chartered Financial Planner and Fellow of the Personal Finance Society, as well as gaining mortgage advice qualifications.
In 2019, he left the City to become a self-employed financial adviser, building his client book from scratch. The timing proved challenging: within around a year, Covid arrived and Lacey and his wife had their first son.
He initially operated under another local firm’s banner before launching Fairview Financial Management as his own brand in 2022.
Prepare
The Rayleigh-based business has since grown to five members of staff, secured a high street office and acquired another financial planning business, while Lacey’s wife has also joined the company.
However, the experiences that initially drew Lacey towards financial advice continue to influence how he works today.
His father died aged 60 and never reached what Lacey describes as a “proper retirement”.
Growing up, Lacey remembers his parents talking about everything they would do “one day”, only for neither of them to get the opportunity.
It is one reason he challenges clients who continually postpone plans until retirement.
He said: “I grew up listening to my mum and dad talk about, ‘One day we’re going to do this. One day we’re going to do that’, and neither of them got to do that stuff.
“I sit there with people who are, in lots of cases, older than my dad when he died, still working and still talking about retirement when it happens.
“Part of our job, if we can show people as soon as possible what’s available to them, is that they don’t need to delay this. They can start doing things sooner rather than later.”
That does not mean neglecting the future. Instead, Lacey believes financial planning should find a balance between enjoying life now and making sufficient provision for later.
For clients approaching retirement, that can involve working out what lifestyle their existing assets could realistically support. Lacey says some people discover they are in a stronger position than they imagined and could potentially retire earlier or spend more than they thought.
Fairview also works with people experiencing major life events including bereavement, divorce, redundancy and terminal illness.
Experience
Lacey’s personal experience has particularly influenced his approach to clients who suddenly inherit substantial sums after losing somebody close to them.
Rather than immediately recommending they invest or make major decisions, he believes one of an adviser’s most important jobs can be telling someone that they do not have to do anything yet.
He said: “They feel this burden. If they’ve inherited money or they’re going through a divorce or they’ve come into money through sad circumstances, it’s like burning a hole in their pocket.
“They just want to do something with it, and that’s dangerous because they can make a decision that’s going to be really bad in the future.
“Part of it is almost giving them breathing space to say, ‘You’re going to be okay. You’ve got time. Let’s just park it here for now. Don’t make any rash decisions’.”
For Lacey, financial planning ultimately comes back to what money allows somebody to do with their life rather than the products they own.
And while his own route into the profession began unusually early, he is adamant it was no accident.
He said: “I didn’t fall into this. This was very deliberate. Everything I’ve ever done has been specifically to get to the moment I’m in now.
“I think most financial advisers, if you ask their story, fall into it in some way, shape or form. That was absolutely not the case here.
“It was completely engineered from the start.”
