Meet the Clarion Family

Meet Ron Walker

What is your role at Clarion?

My official title is “Founder” and my main roles are to set the strategic direction, guard the brand culture and bring in high-level clients. I also personally look after a small number of Clarion’s wealthiest client families.

How did you take your first steps in to financial planning?

It started more years ago than I like to admit, I was a practicing IFA and became one of the founding members of the Institute of Financial Planning in 1987. The client-centric ethos of this ‘new movement’ felt just right for me and also made perfect business sense. It still does today.

What do you think Clarion offers its clients that makes us unique?

That we are authentically focused on our clients’ welfare and not just their money. At a recent meeting with a client who suffers from back problems, she was finding it difficult to get comfortable on the antique chairs in our boardroom. We brought in one of the all-singing Herman Miller task chairs we provide to all our staff and it turned out to be one of the best things she’d ever tried, so we bought her one and had it sent to her home.

We never stop thinking about what’s important to our clients, we recently added free private G.P. consultations to our top-level client service package. One client couple, when told about this at their Annual Planning Meeting, clearly felt a private G.P. would add value to their busy lives and were most appreciative. The feeling that we had done something so pleasing to the clients was genuinely more satisfying for me than the substantial sum they had given us to invest at the same meeting.

The prospect of improving a client’s wellbeing means as much to us as any tax saving or investment success we can achieve for them.

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learnt in your role?

That what really matters in life is not what you have, it’s what you do. Life isn’t a rehearsal and we spend more time encouraging clients to take money out of investments (to enjoy) than we do advising clients to put money into them. Part of our role is to give our clients certainty and absolute confidence in how much they can afford to spend without ever running out of money.

When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?

At first a vet and later a physicist, researching and solving problems.

Who has inspired you in your life and why?

Personally, my parents for instilling a good work ethic and teaching me that manners matter, always.

In business, it’s my clients. I’m lucky enough to have worked over the years with many first and second-generation business owners, some of them turning over very large sums and making huge profits, yet they still manage to retain humility and keep their feet on the ground. We seem to attract people who don’t shout about their wealth.

What keeps you awake at night?

Either thinking of new things we can do in the business generally or for specific clients. My mind can run riot during the early hours and I sometimes have to get up and write it all down. I look at it later in the morning and think most of it will never work, although occasionally something great comes out of it.

Describe your perfect weekend

Either at home with my wife and two grown up daughters (who live in London) or away somewhere in the mountains or near the sea. I’m happiest when I’m active and outdoors, so a perfect day would be kitesurfing with my daughters or skiing with the whole family, followed by plenty of chat over an informal dinner with great food and then maybe a cheeky one at a late-night venue playing good music!

Spring, summer, autumn or winter?

I do like winter and the whole log-fire feel, although I love daylight, so I’d have to say spring or summer.