By Toby Hines, BetterLife Financial Planning
Not long ago, I travelled up to Cheshire to spend a full day with a client family I’d previously only ever seen on video calls – around a 700-mile round trip for me.
Instead of half an hour on screen, I was in their kitchen, looking at family photos on the walls and talking about the people in those pictures – children, grandchildren, university plans, worries, hopes. The conversation opened up in a way it never could online.
When I started BetterLife Financial Planning, that was exactly what I wanted: deeper relationships, better conversations, and the freedom to run a genuinely client-driven, retirement-focused planning business. As a ValidPath Member, I’ve been able to build and run the firm on those terms. In this article, I want to share how.
I built my firm around the clients I understand best.
I mainly work with people who are five to ten years from retirement, many of them business owners. I’m at a similar stage of life myself. I’ve been a business owner for around 25 years, so I recognise the mix of anticipation, uncertainty and responsibility they’re carrying.
Before BetterLife, I worked in a very successful practice in Cornwall and looked after more than 100 ongoing clients, plus around ten new planning clients, increasing almost weekly. It was a great training ground, but I didn’t always feel I had the time or headspace to really understand everyone’s situation.
When I set up BetterLife, I chose a different model. I wanted a much smaller client bank – around 40–50 people – so I could go deeper with each family. As a ValidPath Member, I’ve been free to do just that. At ValidPath, Independence is Everything™ – there’s no pressure from the network to chase volume or fit a particular mould. I can design my firm around the people I understand best.
I use technology to support compliance and real relationships.
I’m happy to use technology where it genuinely helps. I use meeting recording and AI note-taking so I can focus on the person in front of me and still capture the detail. Those tools are useful for picking up small but important points that might otherwise be missed, as well as for admin and ensuring that all the compliance paperwork is in order. What I don’t do is use technology just to churn out more advice and double the number of clients.
ValidPath fits well with that approach. As a Member, I can benefit from the technology they use to streamline compliance checks and admin, without being pushed into a production-line style of advice. When it comes to compliance support, they review some of my cases, help me structure advice in line with the rules and are there for technical support when I need a second opinion. That lets me get close to the freedom of being directly authorised, without carrying all the regulatory burden alone.
A lot of advisers feel that regulation and the FCA just make life harder. I don’t see it that way. In my view, the rules exist to protect clients and make sure they get good outcomes, not to trip advisers up for the sake of it.
Being a ValidPath Member helps me keep that perspective. Their case checks and feedback are rooted in the “Is this good for the client?” attitude that underpins Consumer Duty, rather than pure box-ticking. That gives me confidence that my recommendations stand up both technically and ethically, and it means I spend less time worrying about whether I’ve missed something and more time focusing on the planning itself.
On a personal level, I take genuine pride in the work I’m able to deliver now – the reports I write, the letters I send, and the time I spend with each family. It’s the kind of thoughtful, unhurried planning I always wanted to do. I often catch myself on a dog walk realising how refreshing it feels to work this way, with no rushing or cutting corners, just complete pride in the quality and depth of financial planning my clients receive.
I wanted real independence and a community behind me.
Independence is important to me. I want to run a planning-led business, not a product-led one. That means having my own investment philosophy and being able to recommend what I believe is right from across the market, provided I can justify and evidence it properly.
Some networks are very vertically integrated and effectively dictate how you invest clients’ money through their own solutions. ValidPath isn’t like that. As a Member, this is my business: I run it and advise as I see fit, within the rules. As long as I can clearly explain why I’m recommending something, they’re comfortable with it.
The ValidPath Member community is a big part of the appeal too. I’m part of WhatsApp groups and mastermind groups with other Members. When I had a particularly complex case recently, another adviser jumped on a call with me for an hour and we worked through it together. At regional events, there’s space for honest feedback and discussion, and ValidPath listens.
The move was easier than I expected.
Like many advisers, I was worried about the practical side of moving: how long it would take to get set up, and how long I’d be without income. When I decided to become a ValidPath Member, I’d pencilled in July as my realistic “go live” date. In reality, I was authorised and trading roughly eight weeks earlier than that.
Joining ValidPath and the onboarding and setup process was smoother and faster than I’d expected, and that took a lot of the stress out of the decision.
If you want to run a people-focused, planning-led business, keep genuine independence over how you work, and still have strong compliance and peer support behind you, my experience is that ValidPath is the best network in the UK to do so.
Get in touch with the ValidPath team.
