Chartered planner turned fintech head of solutions for smaller IFAs
Founder of fintech start-up Ningi said his time as an adviser has enabled him to see the problems in the industry, particularly for smaller IFA firms.
Speaking to FTAdviser, Peter Ridlington, CEO of Ningi, discussed the launch of a free financial health check tool in partnership with New World Financial Group, which aims to make financial planning and education more accessible.
Ningi creates and develops integrated software and digital tools for financial planners and said the launch aims to help close the “advice gap”, which it believes can be done largely by addressing the lack of integration between existing technologies.
Ridlington said: “My degree is in accountancy computing but I’m a chartered financial planner so I started life as a trainee adviser and spent a lot of time working in compliance but because I can code it’s that combination of skills. “
Ridlington began his career on a graduate scheme as an account manager at Mattioli Woods and later moved to Wesleyan where he held a variety of roles over nearly three years, including as a compliance consultant.
He also worked as Product Director and Chief Product Officer over a period of another three years at Wealth Wizards.
“Me and the team that form Ningi were on a project at Wesleyan – the insurance company – where we were looking at hybrid advisory as you would call it now, but looking at how we can make the advisory business profitable,” he said.
“We automated financial advice back in 2012 there and pretty much my entire career [has been] in robo-advice, hybrid advice, building digital journeys for different people and the business itself was formed effectively, the week of the first shutdown.”
He explained that part of his motivation for launching Ningi came after discovering a problem that had been there for over ten years.
“I feel like the industry has had this vision of what technology needs to be for financial advisors for over a decade, an end-to-end process that empowers human advisor hybrid advice.
“I’ve worked for different people to try to make it happen, different consulting roles, and it hasn’t been done. It hasn’t been cracked.”
Cutting out bureaucracy
A recurring theme in the industry is the advice gap and Ridlington claimed this was a key motivator when it came to launching his company and tool.
He explained that the advice gap situation, especially for smaller advisers, sees many on track with their business plan, where they increase or hope to increase the value of a client, because they cannot serve smaller clients cost-effectively.
“The new problem is that the future clients of most IFAs are either less in current wealth and about to inherit money or are just never going to be wealthy enough to justify a portfolio of £250,000, £500,000 pounds or £1m,” he said.
