Meet the Clarion Family

Meet Adam Wareing

What is your role at Clarion?

Head of Operations. It’s my job to manage change and ensure we’re working efficiently to benefit our clients.

How did you take your first steps in to Financial Planning?

I fell into it! The reason I moved back to Manchester following my undergraduate degree in Sheffield was to start a Masters in Physiotherapy. However, I’d been working in the pensions department at Aviva (then Norwich Union) and really enjoyed what I was doing, having rapidly progressed in the few years I was there, so I decided on a career in finance. After a journey involving a number of roles, I ended up running my own financial planning firm before joining Clarion in 2014 as Head of Paraplanning and then winning the Institute of Financial Planning’s Paraplanner of the Year award in 2015.

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

Clarion were one of the pioneers of true financial planning in this country and the emphasis has always been on the planning rather that product selling. The unique thing about Clarion, however, is our ability to provide clients with certainty through planning, simplicity based on our experience and positive returns through our expertise.

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

One thing I learnt early from my career at Clarion is that you always need to be in your client’s corner. Thinking of it like a boxing ring; it’s us and the client in one corner with everyone else (HMRC, product providers, investment providers etc) in the other corner – it’s our job to use our fighting nous to get the best outcome for our client.

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

I never had any burning desire to be anything specific when I was growing up, I always liked to try my hand at different things. In my later teenage years, I wanted to be a physio for a sports team but I definitely found my calling in finance.

Who has inspired you in your life and why?

Steve Jobs is one of my idols. In his own words, “people with passion can change the world” and that’s exactly what he did, albeit with a fair amount of failure along the way. When Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he asked one simple question: ‘Who is Apple, and where do we fit in the world?’. In answering that question, an almost bankrupt Apple changed direction, jettisoned 70% of their product line and concentrated on the 30% that were “gems”. These gems then became the household products that we use today and Apple became the first trillion dollar company.

The reason Jobs inspires me isn’t about the money. It’s the way in which he was able to instil into everyone at Apple that they were there to change the world and then make us (the public) buy in to what they stood for. Other companies often made better products or released them earlier but people bought into Jobs’ vision.

What keeps you awake at night?

I’m the club secretary of Ashton on Mersey Football Club. We currently have around 400 members from age 4 upwards and are rapidly growing. Helping to manage a club of that size isn’t easy and I often wake up at night thinking about things! But I wouldn’t change it for the world – seeing hundreds of kids having fun playing football each week makes it all worthwhile.

Describe your perfect weekend

Saturday typically revolves around football. I go and watch my youngest son (aged 6) play first thing on Saturday morning before coaching my eldest son’s (aged 10) team later in the morning and the girls’ section in the early afternoon. Coaching is immensely rewarding and it’s amazing seeing the children develop as players and people before your eyes.
We reserve Sunday for family time. Typically, this means a day out with my wife and kids but they’re rarely relaxing! Having two active boys means that I’m more likely to be go-karting that I am taking a leisurely walk!

Spring, summer, autumn or winter?

Summer, definitely. I prefer the longer days and nights.