EOA welcomes EO transition of Heron House Financial Management

Heron House Financial Management Ltd, the award winning Chartered Financial Planning and Wealth Management firm based in Newport, has just become employee-owned.

The company founders, Saran Allott-Davey and Christopher Jordan have sold a controlling share of the business to employees through an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT).

Having worked hard to build the business over the last 25 years, Saran and Chris wanted to ensure that the ethos and service which has been a major factor in the company’s success, would continue for decades to come. When they started to explore various succession planning options a few years ago, a trade sale or merger simply did not fit in with their plans to remain independent and protect their clients and staff.

In 2018, they came across employee ownership and were intrigued to find out more, they attended the annual Employee Ownership Association (EOA) conference and there was no looking back!

Plans were first announced to staff last October and soon after, they implemented a ‘Transition Team’ of three to explore and test out how things would work when the EOT was implemented. This was a great success and those three team members are now appointed as Trustee Directors of the firm.

Saran and Chris are not ready to retire but want to be part of a wider dynamic team all working together for the long term, and becoming employee owned will enable them to slow down, to a degree, and gradually exit when the time is right. The management team will benefit directly from share options to reward them for the commitment and hard work necessary to run a regulated financial firm.

Heron House was established in 1994 and since then has grown from a team of just two to 18, who are all based at their office, a converted Victorian house in the centre of Newport. They are a multi award-winning firm, including this year receiving the Citywire ‘New Model Adviser of the year 2020’ award for Wales for the seventh time. They have developed an excellent reputation over the years, by providing a personal, bespoke and holistic approach to financial planning, and building long term relationships with clients and their families. They offer a wide range of financial planning and investment services and have a particular interest in ethical investments and philanthropic work. They serve nearly 700 clients across Wales and throughout UK from London to Scotland.

As part of their journey to EOT, Heron House became a member of the EOA and found the regional events, annual conference and support from EOA staff and other members a very important part of their learning and overall transition to EOT.

You can find out more about Heron House by visiting their website: www.hhfm.co.uk