A round up of 2020

Well… what a year! Although this has been a difficult year, and we only had three short months of normality before lockdown measures were well and truly underway, we’ve had a busy year at AAB Wealth. So, we decided that... Read more

Blog21st Dec 2020

Well… what a year! Although this has been a difficult year, and we only had three short months of normality before lockdown measures were well and truly underway, we’ve had a busy year at AAB Wealth. So, we decided that our last blog of the year should feature a 2020 round-up all about our fantastic team.

Some could argue that 2020 has given very little positives, but our team have really come together, adapted and continue to make sure that we deliver for our clients, and to each other, demonstrating the true meaning of teamwork time and time again.

We have also had a number of successes worth shouting about throughout the year:

Awards

In January we announced that we had been awarded Adviser of the Year – Scotland and Northern Ireland at the 2020 New Model Adviser Awards and we continued the awards success into February when our very own Jack Swan was been awarded the Achievers Award by the Insurance Institute of Aberdeen, at their annual dinner, a fantastic achievement.

Earlier this month we announced that we had ranked on the New Model Adviser’s Top 20 Financial Planning list for 2020. To make this prestigious list New Model Adviser state that firms must be building great bonds with clients by providing a great service and be driving the profession forward, both in terms of growth and best practice.

Promotions

In May, we shared news of promotions within the Senior Team when Chartered Financial Planners Andrew Dines, Ian Campbell and myself became both Directors and Shareholders

Exam Success

Our team continue to shine in their exams. We have said many times that professional development is very important to us here at AAB Wealth, helping us to provide you with the best possible service and advice. We are very proud of the ongoing commitment shown by our team with exam success from December 2019 – December 2020 celebrated by:

  • Martyn Paterson – Chartered Financial Planner
  • Beth & Jack – Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning
  • Sarah, Claire & Kirsty have all enjoyed exam success this year and continue working towards achieving their Diploma.

A huge well done again to you all!

New Recruits

This year we welcomed Risk and Compliance Manager Neil Folan to the team, we also welcomed Chartered Financial Planner Richard Johnston and Trainee Kirsten Pryde who will both be based in our Edinburgh office. It has been great to see them all quickly become part of the team and we are looking forward to seeing them in person next year.

In amongst our ‘corporate’ updates we also shared with you Sarah’s surprise engagement, Ian’s new arrival (Alexander will be 1 on New Year’s Day!) and of course, when we said a fond farewell to our Compliance Officer Ian Smith when he retired back in April. We also kicked off our series of regular team updates with Beth and Sarah both sharing updates in October and November respectively. 2020 has certainly been a whirlwind and we look forward to sharing more team updates in 2021.

Along with the general roundup of our team news from the year, we asked the team to share their thoughts on what they learnt about themselves this year and what their outlook for 2021 is. In addition to the quotes captured below the team reflected on resilience, adaptability, embracing change, improved IT skills and above all else, people.

…and of course we also had a few comments about Zoom quizzes, physical activity, masks and daily caffeine intakes!

We also asked them to share their thoughts on what 2021 might look like which we have again captured below.

In summary, the team recognise that 2020 has been a hard year, but do believe we can all take some positives from it. Whilst there will be a lot we want to ‘leave’ in 2020, there are many things we should look to continue in to 2021 such as having a better work/personal life balance, the skills and flexibility we have all developed, maximising agile working and making more time and effort for one another.

Our team are also looking forward to celebrating all of the special occasions that were delayed this year in person with friends and family, as well as hopefully going on holiday! They are also looking forward to getting back into the office for some face-to-face client meetings and more time in each other’s company when it is safe to do so.

In the meantime, we have had our very first virtual Christmas ‘party’ which gave us an opportunity to catch up and ‘socialise’ over some festive activities before we had a different kind of day at the races, and funnily enough, no Zoom quizzes! (see photo below). We weren’t quite sure what to expect from our Christmas party this year, but it was definitely our best remote gathering yet! We are feeling very thankful to have such a great team and can’t wait to get together in person next year, hopefully not too long now.

On that note, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

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