Case Study - Charles Wilkinson Financial Planning

Charles Wilkinson (Stephen’s grandfather) opened his insurance broking business in Huddersfield in 1947. Ownership passed to Stephen and Veronica in 1974; in 1978 they opened an additional office in York. In 1985 the Personal Lines insurance business was sold and the Commercial Lines insurance business continued to operate from York. They were carrying out an increasing amount of work in life and pensions business, and eventually sold the Commercial Lines insurance business and concentrated on Financial Planning.

Stephen and Victoria tell their story below…

Before Assyst:-

In 1992 we were reviewing our record keeping. We had been using computer systems since the late 1970s, but these were based around our insurance business and the need for annual renewal quotations. What we needed was a record of clients personal data and the products they held.  We also needed the ability to record details of products that we may not necessarily be managing, but which would form part of the client’s overall financial plan. We wanted a means to easily mail clients and to identify products and/or investment funds. We wanted the facility to have a record of meetings and discussions, and the time spent on each client

Which other companies did you have experience with?

Much of our work is bespoke financial planning, very personalised to the individual client’s requirement.

We looked at systems such as Plum Software and Truth Financial, however, these seemed expensive relative to our requirements at the time. We considered using a propriety database, which we could adjust to our specific requirements, and arranged for a software engineer to create a basic record package for us. It soon became evident that would be an expensive option requiring more work on our part – in a small business having available time is always an issue.

Why Assyst?