Money Marketing Profile: Jeremy & Janet Davies
Symponia joint managing directors Janet and Jeremy Davies could be called the Richard and Judy of financial services, minus the premium rate phone lines and comfy sofas. Not only are the care fees planning network couple married, they also work closely with each other but there the comparisons to the king and queen of daytime TV probably end.
Symponia is Greek for compassion and the concept was born out of a wish to provide families of those who are having to enter a care home with independent financial advice on care fees planning.
The network was established in January 2005 and in October 2006, it was expanded to encompass all areas of financial planning for people of 65 and over.
Symponia's approach is to forge links with care homes and encourage them to refer their residents to the network for access to financial advice when they first meet with the home.
They are both passionate about the issues surrounding long-term care though they would prefer the phrase care fees planning to be used instead.
The Davies both have a medical background; Janet trained as a nurse before working as head of marketing at London's Princess Grace Hospital, was medical centre manager at PPP before it was merged with Axa and is currently head of care fees planning at IFA firm Warwick Butchart Associates.
Jeremy was European sales manager at Dun & Bradstreet for 12 years on the healthcare side and helped to establish the Millfield Care Partnership in 2002 and Symponia was born out of Jeremy's experiences at Millfield.
Janet says: "What Millfield showed us was how not to do it really. It is a different culture and some of the larger national IFAs worship the god of money and the client end of the market is not really valued."
But working with Millfield gave both of them the confidence to set up on their own. They took eight months to come up with the model which Jeremy says is still very robust today.
Symponia currently has 63 full members who are each allocated to an area in the UK, and in addition they have nine IFAs who are associate members and four professional partnerships in place. The professional partner programme involves non-specialist advisers teaming up with their local Symponia member in the form of a referral service.
Janet says: "We personally meet everybody who becomes a member and we say 'would we be happy if our gran or our mum was meeting them?' And if we are then we invite them to join."
Jeremy says: "It is a really crucial point for us in the selection of our advisers. Finding people that are not just good at passing exams but those who really have the ability to empathise and sympathise with the family at what is probably one of their most emotional times."
The network has been busy in recent months not only with launching its professional partnerships programme but also lobbying the FSA to tighten its regulation of care fees planning.
Currently the regulations state that existing advisers must have achieved the CF8 qualification in long-term care by last October but any adviser who was not practising in October 2004 has a two year window from the date they start working in the care fees planning sector to obtain CF8.
Symponia successfully recruited several MPs to support their calls for the tightening of these rules and the widening of them to include more products under the exam and as a result, the network was invited to meet with the FSA. But the FSA was apparently unrelenting in changing the regulations so the Davies pushed for the regulator to make it clear to the public that they should ask if an adviser has CF8 before they take advice.
Jeremy says: "The FSA have committed that when they reprint their literature they will make a stronger reference that only suitably qualified people should advising in this area. But they also made it clear that the literature will not be reprinted for some time."
Janet says they will be keeping an eye on the situation and will go back to the regulator if there is no improvement: "We have a regulator for a reason and if people go to their guidance and see it is a bit woolly or not clear then it is not good enough."
Awareness and reputation are the biggest barriers to raising the profile and importance of care fees planning to the public. Janet says long-term care has never been taken seriously by the IFA community as a lot of financial advisers are not comfortable with the more hands-on method needed in this market.
In addition to increased awareness, Janet wishes more providers would enter the immediate care market.Since Norwich Union's exit last September only GE Life, Axa and Partnership Assurance remain in this field.
But aside from this, she wants to raise awareness among the public that they can seek advice on care fees planning which can really help the, often emotional, process of putting a family member into care. She says: "Care homes have to play a part in this continued ignorance of care fees planning. A lot of care homes do not introduce the idea of it to families and some just will not."
Jeremy says: "There is an inherent fear or dislike of talking about finance among most care home managers. They almost see finance as a dirty word and something that doesn't need to be touched on."
Symponia is the only significant long-term care network in the market since IFACare took a backseat. Although its website suggests it is still active, the Davies have picked up quite a few members from the effective demise of IFACare. The business has also just entered an agreement to carry out the reviews of orphaned pre-funded policyholders in Axa's LTC business Lifetime Care, which was previously carried out by IFACare.
Symponia's targets include continuing to lobby the FSA on introducing clearer and stronger literature on care fees planning, growing the network to have 20 associate members by the end of 2007 (from the current nine) and continuing to forge links with care homes across the country.
In their spare time, Jeremy enjoys malt whiskey, eclectic music and photography while Janet likes theatre, film and walking. They are both planning to run the network from Corfu in the long term and they have already bought a plot of land in anticipation of this.
JANET DAVIES
L i v e s : Just outside Stratford with Jeremy
E d u c a t i o n : human biology and PE at A level, qualified in nursing
Career: 2003 to date: Symponia; 1999 to date: head of care fees planning at Warwick Butchart; 1996- 1999: care fees planning specialist IFA; 1996-1999:
direct sales advisor for PPP lifetime care; 1992-1996: head of marketing Princess Grace Hospital; Medical Centre manager at PPP New Cavendish Street
L i k e s : "The feeling of sun on my skin", champagne, Jack Sparrow
D i s l i k e s : Rudeness, lies and betrayal
D r i v e s : Bright red Mercedes C180
Favourite author: Fannie Flagg
Favourite films: The American President and Regarding Henry
Favourite album: Hunky Dory by David Bowie
Hero: Emmeline Pankhurst
If I wasn't doing this, I would be...A forensic p a t h o l o g i s t
JEREMY DAVIES
L i v e s : Just outside Stratford with Janet
E d u c a t i o n : BSc in Microbiology, marketing diploma from Institute of Marketing
C a r e e r :2005 to date: Symponia; 2002-2005: Millfield Care Partnership; 1989-2001: European sales director at Dun & Bradstreet 1989-2001
L i k e s : Malt whisky, eclectic music and wonderful visual images
D i s l i k e s : Being let down
Drives: Mercedes Sports coupe
Favourite author: Steven Covey
Favourite film: Ronin (for the car chase)
Favourite album: Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield
Hero: Rudolph Giuliani
If I wasn't doing this, I would be...A malt whisky taster