Celebrating 5 Years of Colmore Partners: A Look Back on All We’ve Achieved

It’s amazing to see how the business has developed from something that began in the aftermath of a global pandemic, starting in the front room of our Practice Manager Kelly Howles’ mother’s house. Some of you may have noticed the lemon drizzle cake at our 5th anniversary celebration, a small nod to those early days. Thankfully, the tradition of having a sweet treat in the office has stayed with us ever since.

One thing I’m especially proud of is that our growth has been entirely organic. We haven’t expanded through franchising or big acquisitions, but by steadily building relationships, developing our team, and staying true to the values we started with.

Today, we look after 365 individual client family groups, many of whom supported us before Colmore Partners officially began and chose to continue working with us. More recently, much of our growth has come through referrals from existing clients, which I hope says something about the trust people place in us.

I do have a few financial stats to mention… When we first set up, we established ourselves based on £250 million assets under advice (AUA). Fast forward 5 years and we’re now heading towards £650 million, meaning that in a relatively short period of time we’ve more than doubled our size while also continuing to contribute to our workforce, growing from just 5 people to 18.

Along the way, we’ve been lucky to receive some shiny awards. We know awards aren’t the be all and end all in any profession, but it’s always nice to be recognised. One of the more important achievements, is that we’ve been voted a Great Place to Work for the last 3 years running, last year scoring an average of 93%. One of our main goals in setting up an independent firm was to challenge what a typical planning firm looks like, so seeing our staff genuinely happy here feels like a great start.

Most recently, thanks to our client reviews, we’ve been recognised as a Top-Rated Firm on VouchedFor and featured in The Times amongst some of the best firms in the country, many of which have been established far longer than us and have significantly larger teams. Being compared and ranked alongside businesses that have been functioning for decades means we must be doing something right!

We’re a Birmingham-established business, with an increasing national presence that, in a short space of time, has managed to do incredibly well for itself. We’re a firm that prides itself on staying true to our values and culture, finding and retaining talent, and helping our staff grow and develop throughout their professional careers.

This is only the beginning, and what lies ahead is an incredibly exciting prospect. But for now, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on and appreciate just how far we’ve come since those early days.

I’d like to think that everyone who has been involved already knows just how much their support is valued by the Colmore team. However, appreciation should never be expressed in small doses and deserves to always be celebrated.

Behind Colmore Partners is an incredible network of people, not only our staff, but also our professional advisers, clients, and everyone who has played a part in helping us become the business we are today. Every individual involved has contributed immensely, and for that, we’d simply like to say thank you for helping Colmore Partners grow into its true potential.

Colmore Partners is an Appointed Representative of Best Practice IFA Group Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, the registration number is 223112.