Thornton Holmes

Hi, I’m Thornton Holmes, Orchid Financial Services Limited. As a business, we’ve been appointed reps of Corbel for 14 years now.

What are the advantages of being in a network?

So we’ve looked at direct authorisation in the past, and we’ve looked at the costs, and we’ve done our costings. And financially, we are far better off concentrating on what we do best, which is building the client bank, building the assets under management, and relying on the outsourced support from Corbel, for research, paraplanning, and compliance services.

How important is it that you have compliance and paraplanning under one roof?

Absolutely essential, really. To write the levels of business that we do, to have that extra support, without the massive overhead of cost that it would be for us if we employed people directly to do those services – it’s a godsend.

What’s the best thing about working with Corbel Partners?

The best thing about working with Corbel is having other experts on hand to bounce off ideas and discuss cases with, as well as using the resource in terms of paraplanning and auditing.

Would you recommend Corbel Partners to other financial advisers?

I would definitely recommend Corbel as a principal firm if you’re looking to become an AR, join a network. We have had previous experience in the past when we first set up over 20 years ago, and it wasn’t a good one.

They’re everything that a bad network isn’t in terms of support, being human, being able to talk to somebody, being able to pick the phone up, and getting things done when we need to get them done in a timely fashion.

How would you rate the quality of paraplanning support?

The quality of support from the paraplanners at Corbel is second to none. They’re very quick at responding once an application has been made. They normally come back with any questions very promptly.

We have a personal email, we have a phone that we can pick up to discuss the case with them. So very easy to deal with, and very thorough, is what I would say.

What would you say to other advisers considering joining Corbel Partners?

I would always say to everybody: “Look at all your options, and obviously don’t just look at one solution before you make a decision on which network to join. But do please consider Corbel.”

Because I think that once you’ve spoken to David and Paul, and seen the support that you can get at a cost that is extremely competitive in the industry, it will be the right one and the right choice for you.

We’ve been with them 14 years now, so I think that says something about the sort of service that we get.