“I walked into that room of 400 people – and I was the youngest”

Financial Times article written by deputy editor Sonia Rach.

When Dipesh Mistry, director & IFA at Illuminate Wealth Management, first walked into a networking room early in his career, he immediately realised he stood out.

“There were about 400 people there,” Mistry said. “I was probably the youngest in the room, and definitely the only non-grey-haired person. It was all middle-aged men in suits — and this was in Harrogate, Wetherby, York. They just weren’t used to someone like me.”

Speaking to FT Adviser as part of our Coffee Corner series, he said at the time, he was working in premier banking — looking after high-net-worth clients within a major retail bank.

The environment was, as he put it, “brilliant for learning, but not exactly diverse.”

Still, he found guidance where it mattered most.

“I was lucky,” he said. “I had a mentor — everyone knew him as Mr Harrogate. He sadly passed away last year, but he took me under his wing. He introduced me to everyone, made sure I had a seat at the table. That support made such a difference.”

What was your entry into financial services?

Mistry said after studying economics at university, he joined the bank as one of its youngest branch managers — aged just 21.

“It was incredibly sales-focused back then,” he said.

“But I learned quickly that the best results came from listening — really understanding what people wanted, and finding solutions that worked for them.”

His early years in retail banking evolved into a focus on high-net-worth clients and families.

“It was a great learning curve for me as it was really about becoming that trusted adviser, understanding their needs and requirements,” he said.

“I did that for 12 years or so, and then it eventually got to the point where I sort of realised I want to be doing more.”

He said he enjoyed looking after clients, but felt limited in how he could help them.

“I get to know them well, I get to know their families, understand what’s coming up in their life, what’s important to them, what they want to achieve, but you’re very limited in it in a banking, retail banking environment,” he said.

“I’ve always worked with financial advisers, wealth advisers within the bank, and I had started my qualifications, my diploma and I thought this is something that I think I really want to do because I want to do more for clients.

“They were the only people who talked about supporting both me and the client – not just how much money I’d make. That stood out.”

“I want to be able to give them that full, sort of holistic planning that they require, which really at the moment they don’t have.”

Mistry said he always felt he had a good skillset of helping customers to understand what it is they’re doing, explaining it in their language, so he looked at the opportunity to go into financial planning.

How was the journey into financial advice?

“I spoke to over 25 firms — private banks, large networks, smaller local IFAs,” he said.

“I didn’t know if there was an appetite for someone like me, coming from a banking rather than wealth management background.”

Mistry said a private bank offered him a salaried role and although it would have been the comfortable choice — he turned it down.

“By that point, I realised I wanted to go out on my own. I wanted the autonomy to build something in my own vision — with my own values,” he said.

“Don’t have fear – that’s what I’d tell anyone starting out. You’ve got to go for it.”

A few days later, the director who had interviewed him reached out again — this time to suggest he speak with a network that specialised in helping ex-bank professionals transition into independent advice.

“It was based in Cornwall, which seemed odd at first,” he said.

“But when I spoke to them, they were the only people who talked about supporting both me and the client – not just how much money I’d make. That stood out.”

“Other firms offered large upfront sums to sign on,” he said.

“That would have been easy, of course, but after meeting these guys two or three times, I really like the people, where they came from, how they spoke about what they do and I spoke to a couple other advisers within the network who were very, very positive about it.

“Ultimately, it’s about yourself building that business as you want.

“There’s no leads, there’s no clients, there’s no income, there’s no office to work out of so this was probably the hardest one to do, but I felt it’s the right thing for me in the long run. So there might be short term pain, but it felt right.”

What were some of the challenges you faced in the transition?

“I suppose initially, it was definitely this transition from the traditional face to face type of advice to the online side of things,” he said.

“[And] without a doubt, increased regulation as well.”

All of this tied in was quite a steep learning curve, he said.

“I wasn’t entrenched in it previously so it was quite easy to adapt, I suppose, but from banking, where everything’s very rigid, this is what you do, you start at nine, you finish at five or six, or whatever, everything’s structured.

“There’s very specific goals, there’s very specific roles, there’s very specific rules. So to go from that to being totally autonomous, and I have the ability to just manage your day, your diary, your training, your marketing, everything, your website — where do you start?

“That was a huge change from banking and being in that sort of corporate world to doing self-employed financial advice.”

What advice would you give to someone starting out now?

“Don’t have fear — that’s what I’d tell anyone starting out. You’ve got to go for it,” he said.

“Pick up the phone, have the conversation, and be proactive.

“During Covid, when everyone was anxious about their investments, I just called people to cut through the noise. Clients valued that. Not every adviser did it.”

That proactive approach is what sets good advisers apart, in his view.

This article was written by Sonia Rach and originally appeared on ftadviser.com