A catch-up with Ross

Approaching the end of his first year at AAB Wealth, we caught up with Ross White to hear how he found joining the firm remotely and how his role in Client Service Support has evolved. Ross also shares some of... Read more

Blog25th Apr 2022

Approaching the end of his first year at AAB Wealth, we caught up with Ross White to hear how he found joining the firm remotely and how his role in Client Service Support has evolved. Ross also shares some of his highlights from the past year and goals for the coming year.

In case you missed our first blog welcoming Ross and two others to the team, here’s a brief reminder:

Name: Ross White

Where did you grow up: I grew up in Aberdeen, but I was born in Edinburgh, and I’ve always wanted to move down at some point!

Favourite hobby: I’ve always loved cycling or going on walks or hikes in the Deeside area

Experience prior to joining AAB: I worked in hospitality and studied business management online whilst on furlough.

How you heard about AAB: I’d always known about AAB locally, but when I applied for the apprenticeship programme found out about an opportunity in AAB Wealth. I had never previously considered financial planning, but I knew I wanted to be part of a young ambitious team who value their clients, so applying for the job made perfect sense.

Joining the team from home

When I started during the pandemic, I found it surprisingly easy working from home. The team were all supportive and everyone stayed in touch with regular Teams calls. WFH was extremely helpful when balancing my work and personal life, for example it meant I could get started studying as soon as I finished my day while keeping my evening free.

Taking part in the AAB CommonHealth Games as a vice-caption for the Wealth team was a highlight of my first few months at AAB Wealth. It is an event series which aims to get all the departments within the AAB group connecting, contributing and competing. It allowed me to know the team in a context outside of work, to hear what everyone enjoys doing in their free time and what new activities people were giving a go.

Having stopped a few years ago due to an injury, I got back into playing football which I hope to do again this year. The games also inspired me to learn and write new songs on my guitar with my band. Since restrictions lifted, we’ve been gigging regularly and I’ve continued to write songs, in fact we recently finished recording an album which is due to release in the next month or so. I can’t wait to show everyone!

Despite joining from home, these activities coupled with regular communication and support from the team made it really easy to melt right into the AAB Wealth family…in addition to improving my health and wellness, which is a bonus!

How my role has evolved

Although I had no prior experience in financial planning, it’s incredible to look back at how far I’ve come over the past year, but it’s also a testament to the brilliant team that has supported me every step of the way.

I love the variety of work I get to do in my role as Client Service Support, it definitely keeps you interested! I work closely with the team to provide excellent service to our clients. This can involve sitting in on meetings with the advisers to help assess clients’ needs and priorities, gather information on any existing policies a client may have, setting up plans, payments and withdrawals, and helping with any projects the team are doing. My role has evolved since I joined as I have been given more complex cases to process, more projects to work on and I have been working more with our cash flow software creating new plans for new clients or amending plans for existing clients.

I realised this was the career for me when I started to see just how much our clients value the service we provide and the impact it can have on them. From getting told they can retire earlier than expected and being given the confidence to take their dream holiday, to the safety of knowing their families will be provided for and looked after should anything happen to them. I have also loved getting to meet our clients and even more so now that we have started taking meetings back in the office, I get the chance to see clients face to face on a regular basis.

Looking to the future

It really is amazing looking back on the previous year to see how much I have learned, and it’s my hope that in another year I will be able to reflect on a whole host of new skills I have picked up as I continue taking on more responsibility in my role. I am currently studying towards my diploma in regulated financial planning, which I hope to complete in the next year, so the knowledge I pick up from this will help develop my understanding of my day-to-day tasks. I have five exams to get through, so it’ll be a lot of work, but there’s plenty of support from colleagues who are going through or have recently completed the same exams, so I couldn’t be in the better position to pass!

Share this page