Andy Little - Partner

Andy Little began working in the financial services sector in 1981. He initially worked for UK Provident and then Provident Mutual, but after 10 years working for large insurance companies, Andy decided to become an independent adviser. He joined the national IFA, Godwins in 1991, and during his time there built on his technical knowledge, undertaking the Examinations necessary to earn him the Advanced Financial Planning Certificate (now Diploma in Financial Planning).  It was also at Godwins that his interest and knowledge of investments grew; an area of financial planning which has remained a core interest for Andy. 

During his last 5 years with Godwins, Andy began to specialise in providing financial advice to employees of one of the UK’s largest companies, British Petroleum.  His knowledge of the BP Reward Package, Pensions team and general ethos enabled him to build strong relationships at all levels within the company.  His ability to incorporate such detailed knowledge of the BP Package into clients' wider financial situation earned him a strong reputation with BP employees. Towards the end of 1998, Andy made the decision to start his own operation, offering the kind of ongoing client service that he had been unable to do within the constraints of a large national firm. Andy’s father was already running a thriving IFA Practice in Wilton, near Salisbury, and so Andy opened a satellite office just outside Hemel Hempstead. It is testament to Andy's reputation and ability to build client rapport, that despite his relationship with BP not being at a corporate level, the connection to the Company largely followed him from Godwins.  Over the years, his client bank has grown, largely based on referrals of BP Employees, past and present.  He now services a large number of clients across a broad social spectrum, with a significant proportion being high net worth clients.

The combination of technical excellence and commitment to client service is at the core of Emery Little LLP. Andy takes a holistic approach to financial planning, but continues to have a particular interest in investments, which is reflected in his client bank, the majority of whom have strong Pension and Protection provision through their Employer. 

Moving forward, Andy recognises the need to move with the times, and embraces technology. Our Online Portfolio was one of the first to be available directly to clients and Andy continues to investigate new uses of IT to enhance client service.  Cashflow Forecasting and Kinder Life Planning are the two latest areas to be added to our Financial Planning 'Arsenal'.  We are developing a client hub, which will extend our online portfolio capabilities and give clients a secure area within which to access historical review documents and reports as well as comments on areas of interest, such as BP Shares. 

Andy is fully committed to becoming a fee based practice in good time for the December 2012 deadline.  His aim is to drive the company towards offering segmented services, within which each client relationship stands on its own two feet.  Our aim is that all clients get a service they truly value at a cost that they feel is value for money.  The primary challenge faced is to achieve all of this without losing the elements of our service which are valued by our clients and make us unique.

Derek Gibbens - Senior Financial Adviser

Derek has 25 years experience, including blue chip companies and bancassurance.  He is qualified as a Master of Business Administration, a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute and holds Dip PFS.

Derek puts his clients first and enjoys helping them achieve their financial goals and aspirations and protecting and growing their financial wealth and that of their families.

He lives in a female world with five daughters, a female cat and is supported by one son and their dog.  In his free time you will find him running and hiking up mountains.

Caroline Ashton - Senior Adviser

Caroline has been working in the financial services sector for the past 13 years with the last 8 of these as an Independent Financial Adviser. After spending a year working at Friends Provident in a role providing product support to IFAs she began to appreciate what an important role an IFA can play in people’s lives and the positive impact quality financial advice can have.

After quickly progressing through the financial planning certificate she joined Charles Reynolds Associates as Trainee IFA and Paraplanner, continuing to expand the depth and breadth of her knowledge by studying towards the Advanced Financial Planning certificate.

For last 7 years prior to joining Emery Little, she worked as an IFA, advising a variety of individual and corporate clients with diverse requirements and goals, at John Stephen Associates IFA Ltd. During this time she has enjoyed developing relationships with clients providing holistic financial advice to enable them to plan for their future and the various events life can throw at you. Whilst at John Stephen Associates she completed her Diploma in Financial Planning to become the company’s Investment and Pensions specialist.

The reasons for choosing to become an independent financial adviser still hold true today and centre on both independence and advice. She feels that in today’s world it is not just about advising clients but also about educating and enabling them to deal confidently with everyday financial matters.

Caroline joined Emery Little LLP as she felt that they felt they shared a similar ethos of providing open, honest and easily understandable holistic advice, with a commitment to client care and service. In addition to her advising role she will continue to study toward gaining Chartered Financial Planner status which we feel will benefit the company and our clients even further.

Rebecca Timmins - Operations Manager

After leaving school Becca studied at Southampton University and attained a 2-1 in Acoustics & Music. She then moved to Hertfordshire and started working as an administrator for a Hemel IFA where she quickly advanced and joined Emery Little in 2002.  Becca then went on to gained AFPC within her first 2 years of joining and has worked closely with Andy throughout as his Paraplanner.  

Since 2010, Becca has been more involved in the running of the business, including managing the administration and paraplanning functions, improving efficiencies, assisting the planning towards RDR, and managing much of the day to day compliance work.  Becca was attracted to the company, principally because of Andy's drive towards client service and commitment to client reviews.

Alfie Mullan - Paraplanner

Alfie started working at Emery Little 4 years ago as a Junior Administrator. Since joining he has worked hard to obtain his Cert PFS qualification, with support from the company and progressed through Administration to take on Paraplanning responsibilities during 2011.  He has since taken his studies further and has recently taken the final exam to give him the Diploma in Financial Planning from the CII.

Alfie takes responsibility for the Paraplanning function relating to around half of Andy's clients, in line with our aim to build relationships with office based staff as well as Advisers.  For those clients, he is responsible for drafting reports and preparing reviews, assisting Andy in his preparation for meetings, as well as building cashflow forecasts, dealing with client queries and hopefully making sure everything runs smoothly!  

Jo Little - Paraplanner

Jo graduated in July 2010 with a BA in Industrial Economics from Nottingham University.  She has quickly progressed and is currently preparing to take the final exam she needs to gain her Diploma in Financial Planning.

Jo performs a very similar role to Alfie, for a different section of the client bank.  Again, this assists in relationship building, giving clients dedicated contacts within the office to deal with their queries.  Jo's technical knowledge is progressing very quickly, and she plans to take her studies further, with her ultimate aim to become a Chartered Financial Planner.

Jo has become extremely proficient with Voyant, attending meetings where these plans are presented to clients, and creating different scenarios in line with how the discussion progresses.

Joanna Conteh - Paraplanner

Joanna is the latest edition to our team at Emery Little.  She began assisting our administrative team in a number of areas, and giving general support to the other Paraplanners, but has recently progressed to a more involved role.  She has been instrumental in assisting us to manage the workload relating to our updated client reviews, and manages the systems for the preparation and production of reviews.

She is in the process of taking her diploma exams, and is learning about the Voyant system with the aim of being proficient on this within the next few months.  Joanna is also starting to take responsiblity for the paraplanning function relating to a specific bank of clients, to better manage the workflow within the office.

Jennifer Curd - Administrator

Jenny joined the team 4 years ago, having previously worked for an IFA in Milton Keynes.  She had her first child, Olivia, in April 2011 and has recently returned to work part time from her maternity leave.

Jenny is an experienced administrator, who deals with both client based administration, processing new business, maintaining client files and queries etc, and also accounts based work, reconciling commissions behind the scenes.

Andrea Dole - Administrator

Following her relocation from Wiltshire to Hertfordshire, Andrea joined the Emery Little team in January 2011.  She gained her qualifications working in the head office of a major international financial services company for over 20 years.  As with our Paraplanning team, Andrea deals with the administrative issues for a specific bank of clients (approximately 50%) again, to help build relationships and rapport and hopefully help provide a more joined up service for clients.

Andrea also manages many of our systems, including having responsiblity for the online portfolio system.  She also takes care of the updates and upgrades to our back office administration systems.

Amanda Yates - Secretary/PA

Mandy has been with Emery Little for a number of years and in that time has made herself invaluable to the team. She expertly manages Andy’s extremely busy diary, liaising with clients and investment companies to keep everyone happy!  

Mandy additionally deals with all of Andy’s audio typing, and handles the typing of annual reviews, as well as issuing the majority of the recommendation letters and reviews which leave the office.  

Melanie Ajibade - Administrator

Melanie joined Emery Little in May as an Administrator, and has quickly gained confidence and taken on increased responsibilities.  She has worked within the financial services sector for over ten years and is now working alongside Andrea in dealing with applications, online switching, client enquiries and also commissions.