Money Is Not The Most Important Thing In Life...but it's a pretty close 2nd to oxygen

Steve Manning - Founder of Manning and Company

A wise man (whose name escapes me) uttered these words that I read in 1988 soon after my encounter with a financial adviser who had been recommended to me.

I was not long married, was living in a mortgaged house, looking forward to starting a family and was fully employed with a finance company that was a subsidiary to a major bank.

I reluctantly met the financial adviser but thought that with my company salary, pension and life cover package, I would not require his services.

Suffice to say I was totally misguided in my naivety. Not only did I realise how exposed I was financially and how forces totally outside my control could impact on my future, I was so impressed with what the financial adviser was offering, his passion and absolute belief in his role in people’s lives that I knew for sure I wanted to be him!


I could see how I was woefully unprepared financially…and I had a final salary scheme which included sickness and death benefits as well as a pension……what about the self -employed and those employees with nothing at all, save the state benefits?

Of course there was plenty of opposition from family and friends to me going ‘self employed’ and giving up a secure employed position. But my mind was made up and in 1988 I set up Manning and Company. A one man band!

I have always been fascinated with human nature. We are fickle – quite contradictory and often go through life like a boat in calm and rough seas without a rudder. We go wherever the winds take us.

I was totally consumed in my role and felt a huge responsibility to clients who put their faith in me. Relationship is key to any advisory role and that comes with trust. The number of clients grew over time, primarily through word of mouth, which in itself was very rewarding.

As the business grew so did the responsibilities of employing staff and providing the right support and tools for the new advisers that joined the company. Sometimes quite stressful but always rewarding (not necessarily financially!) often a challenge too.

So human conditioning is such that people gamble on the lottery for instance where the odds against winning a significant sum are huge. Whereas the biggest gamble is living life itself.

Somehow people think that when considering any type of protection products, be it protecting income, coping with a ‘critical illness’, heart attacks, strokes and cancer being the most common or dying prematurely they are ‘sure’ they will live free of all ills until they are 85 +.

Conversely when making preparations for retirement years either people cannot seem to find the time to consider addressing it (much like making a simple will) or they are convinced they will not live long enough to benefit!

One thing is for sure; A pension crisis is looming and the state will not be in a position to take up the slack.

With medical advances the odds are in favour of growing old gracefully, which of course is welcome, but be in no doubt if you are a betting person the chances of not being able to work for a significant length of time through accident or illness and/or suffering a critical, life changing illness is very high indeed.

The least likely event is in fact premature death and yet most people will have some sort of life cover which is to be applauded even though it is probably not sufficient!

1988 verses 2015

In 1988 there were 1000s of financial advisers. Insurance companies had large sales forces and there were equally as many Independent Financial Advisers. Competition was good for the client and at least the awareness was there.

Today a financial adviser is more rare and thus awareness is sparse. People face the same problems and have the same goals but unless they are wise enough to seek the support from an adviser their dreams will be just become yet more wishful thinking and at some point the ‘If only I ….’ statement will be uttered.

The ‘thank you’ letters that we regularly receive from families of clients that we have advised over the last 27 years are testament to a job well done and the great satisfaction gained from it.

(Steve Manning stopped advising in 2008 due to Multiple Sclerosis but continues to take a great interest in life planning, financial planning and human self- development).