One of the appealing aspects of journalism is that no day is the same as the next, and that is largely due to the people you meet. No individual is a carbon copy of another and they can all surprise you. During the course of my interview with David Montgomery, I am pleasantly taken by his answers.
The managing director of M&G Wealth is Scottish and he grew up on the west coast of the country. He was introduced to basketball by his chemistry teacher and, through the game, developed an affinity for American culture and sport.
They appealed to him so much, he ended up living there.
“I always had this desire to live in the US, to experience something different,” says Montgomery. “I am not sure my wife had the same desire and I remember doing a PowerPoint presentation to persuade her. Our two boys were quite an easy sell.
It is about having the courage of your convictions. There are times when it’s not all going great
“And, to be honest, it was partially done for my boys, because both of our families [Montgomery’s and his wife’s] grew up in the same area of Scotland over the generations. I wanted to show you can go and explore the world.”
After Montgomery had made several trips to the US by himself, the opportunity arose to be based in Colorado as chief operations officer of Transamerica (USA). He describes working there as “the icing on the cake”, having relocated his family so he could lead the individual solutions (insurance, annuity and mutual fund) business.
The experience was a rich one and saw Montgomery at the centre of some huge projects involving multinational firms.
“I was involved in the biggest outsourcing deal in North America,” he says, “when we were outsourcing about 4,000 people from Transamerica to Tata Consultancy Services. At the time Donald Trump was in power [as US president] and he was absolutely against outsourcing or offshoring.”
M&G Wealth could have fallen on its face quickly if I had not got people behind me
Montgomery found the vast size of the US a challenge; it was difficult to scale the business due to the differences between state and federal laws.
“Trying to do things across the US is not easy. Everyone points at the payment system and asks, ‘Why are they still using cheques?’ An example in Colorado is the Alpine Bank up in the Rocky Mountains. They don’t have the tech infrastructure to do contacts stuff, but lots of people bank with them.”
Career hallmark
The presence of Montgomery at the centre of complex transformation projects in wealth management is a hallmark of his career. He began in utilities and has been in financial services for the past 13 years. The common factor throughout has been throwing himself into corporate situations that others would rather avoid; allied to a competitive streak rooted in his love of all sports and his days as a basketball player.
In late 2019 the 47-year-old moved his family back to the UK, where he formed M&G Wealth. The remit had come from parent company M&G plc, which subsequently purchased the Ascentric financial platform business in September 2020.
I keep going until somebody tells me to stop. I am quite focused on, ‘This is what I am going to do and we are heading in this direction’
“It’s the ambition the company has got that attracted me. It had been through this merger and de-merger before I came back. We talk about it as the ‘newest old company’. So it is a new company with a lot of capabilities.
“My background is very much transformational change and building things at companies. If there is something big going on, I want to be involved in it. If others are shy of getting involved in certain projects, I am not. That is the energy I bring.”
Entrepreneurial culture
In his two years at M&G Wealth, Montgomery has certainly been active. He has tried to take the entrepreneurial culture he was exposed to in the US and apply it in his current role.
On the day we meet [31 January], M&G Wealth is launching its new investment service: &me, in collaboration with wealth manager Moneyfarm. The investing app is designed to help consumers feel more confident in their investment decisions. Clients can call or chat directly from the app, or book a video meeting with a dedicated &me consultant.
It is not just about selling products. It is about helping people manage and grow their savings and investments
The app helps clients identify how they feel about investing, their level of comfort with risk and their financial goals. Montgomery flags it up as an example of “moving at pace” to help close the advice gap, with consumers needing various degrees of support.
“A year ago [February 2022], we had the idea of launching a direct-to-consumer [D2C] proposition out to the market. We decided to partner with someone that already had that capability. The &me proposition is Moneyfarm’s technology combined with M&G’s investment capability.
“To get to market within just over a year is pretty good going. We are really excited about it.”
He points out the offering is a stepping stone into its ecosystem that can serve all needs, from guidance to advice.
“You might start your journey in one place and move through to another.
I have surrounded myself with strong people and been really lucky with the team
“We now have this shopfront of capabilities where you can do D2C investing through &me alongside an investment consultant through Moneyfarm that will help you.
“You can then move into our hybrid advice where there is a bit of technology to keep costs down to help people with less money, and then we have full holistic advice. We have built all that capability over the past two years.”
Aside from developing its technology credentials to close the advice gap, the firm is focused on its academy. This was launched in 2021 with a target to double the number of advisers at M&G Wealth over the next five years.
So far, 105 candidates have entered the academy and 13 have left, an attrition rate of 11%. The gender split is 34% women and 66% men.
Acquisitions
M&G Wealth is also boosting staff numbers through recruitment and the acquisition of advice businesses. The aim is to grow those acquisitions organically, by hiring and via the academy.
The firm’s biggest takeovers of recent years are Sandringham Financial Partners and Continuum, both acquired in 2022.
Everyone likes talking about wanting to make money, but it needs to be done in a responsible way
Could all these initiatives make M&G Wealth a household name in the advice market? Equivalent to Ikea or John Lewis in retail?
“I’m not saying we could be a household name like back in the Pru days, but there is an opportunity to reposition financial planning; and get an understanding of why it is important.
“It is not just about selling products. It is about helping people manage and grow their savings and investments. So repositioning that in the market will be important and then it may become a more interesting topic for graduates.
“It’s certainly getting talked about by the next generation, such as my two boys.
“Everyone likes talking about wanting to make money, but it needs to be done in a responsible way.”
Leadership philosophy
As an experienced manager with a lot of responsibility, Montgomery shares his leadership philosophy.
It’s the ambition the company has got that attracted me
“It is partly a style thing. I’m quite a calm person so, when things get quite emotive about change, I am not very emotive. I am just, ‘Here’s the plan and here’s what we need to do.’ And a big part of it is just constantly communicating that message about the why and how.
“It is about having the courage of your convictions because there are definitely times when it’s not all going great, and it would be easy to say, ‘Oh well….’
“I am not like that. I keep going until somebody tells me to stop. I am quite focused on, ‘This is what I am going to do and we are heading in this direction.’
“And in the early days [M&G Wealth] could have fallen on its face quickly if I had not got people behind me. I have surrounded myself with strong people and been really lucky with the team.
“I have given them some direction but they are great as a group as well.”
He mentions Richard Denning, who runs the M&G Wealth platform, and Shanti Kelemen, its chief investment officer, as being particularly helpful.
To get the app to market within just over a year is pretty good going. We are really excited about it
As for those who have inspired him, Montgomery talks of ex-basketball player Michael Jordan and former Manchester United football manager Alex Ferguson. That is unsurprising, given his love of sport.
“Both went beyond their sport a little bit,” he says. “Jordan wasn’t just a good basketball player; it was the whole cultural thing around him, like the trainers and adverts. Then he went on to endorse brands like Nike, and I was impressed by how smart he was as a businessman.
“Ferguson was the same with his teachings at Harvard about what he’d done and how he’d won the league with his last team.
“Those kinds of people inspire me from a sporting perspective.”
Competitive streak
As a basketball player in his youth, Montgomery was a forward, akin to a striker in football. He stopped playing when he had stopped winning, underlining his competitive streak.
“I was a good athlete and did sprint, hurdles and triple jump. I was school champion six years in a row. Basketball was my favourite sport but the game has changed and become pedestrian.
There is an opportunity to reposition financial planning; and get an understanding of why it is important
“I don’t like watching basketball as much now, but I love football. I could sit and watch any game that’s on, including the club I support, St Mirren in Paisley, Scotland.
“Live sport is even better, and America was great for that. I went to baseball and enjoyed sitting in the sun with a slice of pizza. They do their sport so well.
“It’s just pure entertainment and you can take the family with you.”
He may have quit the basketball court but Montgomery is right at the centre of M&G Wealth, with many more games still to win.
M&G Wealth key facts
M&G Wealth Advice consists of 250+ restricted self-employed advisers in The Advice Partnership (TAP).
Sandringham Financial Partners has 180 independent financial advisers (IFAs) and there are 60+ IFAs from Continuum.
In 2019 there was a shift in the model of advice services, from Prudential Financial Planning employed restricted advisers (previously commonly referred to as ‘The Man from The Pru’) to the self-employed restricted advice model of TAP.
M&G Wealth offers several services:
- A digital investment business in partnership with Moneyfarm was announced in Q1 2022. This is aimed at younger investors of reasonable net worth, seeking to execute investment choices themselves, in the ‘accumulation’ wealth phase.
- A hybrid (digital/human) advice business called MAP (your future) was launched at the end of 2021, developed with Australia-based specialist Ignition Advice. This was ‘soft launched’ to a group of existing customers only, ahead of a wider rollout in 2023.
- Full holistic advice.
This article featured in the May 2023 edition of MM.
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