Alison Jarvis

Alison is a holistic financial planner who works closely with clients to build long-term plans that take account of the whole picture rather than a single product or decision, and that are shaped around what each person actually wants from their life. She advises professionals, families and business owners, and is comfortable with complexity, whether that is a substantial and untidy portfolio or a family situation that needs careful handling. Cashflow modelling is central to how she works, not as a technical exercise but as a way of showing clients what their choices mean in practice. She supports clients at every stage, including the harder ones such as divorce and bereavement, with the aim of taking the fear out of money so that they can get on with the life they want to live.

She arrived at the profession by way of law and business. Her earlier career took her from a Silver Circle law firm in the UK to South East Asia, where she spent several years working across the legal, charitable and commercial sectors, and it was an MBA, and its modules on money and financial management in particular, that drew her towards advice and the prospect of working with clients directly on their own finances.

Alison entered the profession through the St. James’s Place Academy, passing her exams first time and launching an advice business during the pandemic. In the six years since, she has advised within both restricted and independent firms. That comparison settled the question for her – independence, and the freedom to recommend from across the whole market, is what allows an adviser to put a client’s interests genuinely first. It is a large part of what brought her to Smith and Wardle.

What Alison enjoys most is the relationships. Being the person a client turns to at a pivotal moment, and being trusted with the decisions that matter, is the part of the job she values. She finds it particularly rewarding when someone who once avoided the subject altogether becomes properly engaged with their own finances and starts to get excited about what is possible.

Alison holds the Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning and is working towards Chartered status. At Smith and Wardle she appreciates working alongside people who genuinely put clients first, and a business model that is built to do the same rather than merely claim it.