We spoke to MPA Administrator Assistant Louise King about building a career within financial services and the importance of good customer service.

How did you get into Financial Services? 

I’m originally from Solihull and have worked in financial institutions all my professional life, since leaving school. I’ve always been interested in the various financial scenarios and working with different customers to help them with financial matters.

I worked for Bristol and West and National Home Loans back in the 1980s, which gave me in-depth financial services sector experience.

What is your area of expertise?

I work closely with clients, building strong relationships through direct communication.

I find it really rewarding making people happy, and I’m a big believer in good old fashioned customer service, which helps build trust. Customers still appreciate having that point of contact and someone to deal with their queries.

What do you enjoy about working at MPA?

I Joined MPA in 2021. It is a lovely place to work; it has a great atmosphere, but, most importantly, everyone wants to do their best for our clients.

The firm is also committed to developing the team and investing in staff, so we’re lucky to have training opportunities to build and progress our careers.

We also have a truly fantastic team of people here and we enjoy lots of team activities. We’ll often go out for meals together, and our Christmas parties are great – we’re off the Blue Bell on the High Street this year!

How do you support IFAs and Paraplanners?

Until recently, I looked after Dave McGovern IFA, John McCreadie IFA and Maria Britton IFA, working with them directly.

My day-to-day role involves handling all new client enquiries and business leads, including setting up new clients across all different service statuses and products, including pensions, investments, mortgages and Inheritance Tax (IHT) products – to mention just a few.

I also deal with client requests, fund switches and withdrawals, keep the Intelligent Office (client management system, IO) up to date and send off letters of authority to obtain policy information.

We’re going to move to a centralised team with individual admin pods, which will be a big change to how things have worked to date, but I’m excited about it. It will mean more variation, we’ll gain more exposure to different cases and clients and it will also be good for clients and advisers in providing consistent support..

What tips would you give to clients for making administration of their financial affairs easier to manage? 

Keep your paperwork and records up to date and keep the information MPA provides safe and accessible so that you know where your money is, where it is invested and you can keep track of everything in case you have any queries.

We have our client portal where all client’s plans can be viewed. We also send out regular Review Reports detailing all plans and the current valuations, we can also arrange access for clients on the provider platforms to help people get access to any information they need.

What do you enjoy doing when you are not at work?

I love walking and spending time out in the fresh air. I also enjoy travelling and being with my family.

For more information about MPA’s range of financial advice services, visit www.mpafm.co.uk/services.