Laura Pearson launched financial advisory venture Storeton Rose from her Wirral home just three years ago – now it has a team of nine and close to £20m of assets under management. Tony McDonough reports
A Wirral financial advisory firm that was founded with just one person during the pandemic is now looking after assets totalling close to £20m for more than 1,200 clients.
Former HSBC banking executive Laura Pearson established Storeton Rose Financial Planning in her home in Wirral in late 2021. She converted one room into an office where she met with clients but, as the venture grew, the needs for premises became urgent.
Her team has grown to nine people and earlier this summer the business moved into a 285-year-old building in Higher Bebington. Originally a public house, it was converted to offices in the 1960s.
More growth is now on the cards with Laura planning to take on more people by the end of this year and in 2025. She also plans to grow via acquisition and establish new offices in other parts of Merseyside.
“We are just coming up to £20m of funds under management and more than 1,200 clients. That is really good coming from a standing start because we haven’t actually acquired any businesses,” Laura told LBN.
“A lot of firms will grow through acquisition and we will be looking to do that eventually. Everything we do at the moment is organic. We have spent quite a lot on growth and recruiting new people and moving into this building.
“So the next thing is to grow the pot so we can buy other businesses but it is likely we will look for finance to do that as well.”
Laura, originally from Crosby, was a branch manager for banking giant HSBC. She later worked in the estate agency business, initially running mortgage services before later becoming an area director. She then pivoted into the financial advisory sector.
She explained: “I’d been running businesses for other people for a long time. The next step was to start making money for myself.
“Much of the work I’d done in corporate environments had put me in good stead for running my own business. One of the important things is being able to talk to people and generate business. And I’d been doing just that.
“Recruitment and retention is so important, too. It is where a lot of business owners fail by not bringing in and keeping the right people. I am always learning but I think I did this at the right stage of my career.”
On launching during the pandemic in November 2021, Laura added: “COVID presented challenges but also opportunities. I didn’t feel the need to delay the launch. When I recruited staff everyone worked from home and so we have strong processes in place.
“Before we moved into here I had an office at the front of my house. Clients could come there if they needed to. As the team grew so did the need for our own premises. More advisors means more clients.”
She said that while a lot of advisors will have a narrower focus, such as investments or pensions, Storeton Rose covers a wider range, such as mortgages, wills and estate planning.
Laura added: “We want our clients to stick with us forever because we cover everything. What we see with wealth managers is people who are already wealthy taking that wealth and preserving or growing.
“With us it is more about building a plan. We still have wealthy clients but it is more about planning around how to make their money grow at all stages of their life, not just when they are wealthy.”
It is the Storeton area of Wirral where Laura has made her home and Rose was her grandmother’s first name and her mum and her daughter’s middle name, hence Storeton Rose.
Both nan and mum have passed, mum aged just 62. Laura said: “Mum spent many years working hard as a teacher at schools in Liverpool. She got cancer and died quite quickly after so never got to enjoy all her retirement after all the years of graft.
“It’s a genuine reason why myself and the team are passionate about helping people with their financial planning at every stage to ensure they don’t miss opportunities such as early retirement.”
To this end Laura and her team also offer pro bono financial advice. She explained: “We offer financial wellbeing and education for the local community. We do it on webinars and we are also now putting on a programme so people can come in here for events.
“We work with Mersey Care on financial wellbeing and invite the staff to webinars, completely free. Sessions are usually around 40 minutes and they can book a free consultation with us afterwards and sometimes that leads to business for us.
“We are kitting out the meeting room and doing more local community events such as those aimed at first-time buyers.”
Laura has worked hard to recruit and retain the right people. Some members of her team had worked with her in previous roles. She has also invested in IT, allowing clients to access services digitally or, if they prefer, face-to-face.
And Laura is a finalist in the 2024 Enterprise Vision Awards, along with another 11 Merseyside women, as well as a finalist in the Professional Adviser Women In Finance Awards.
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Investment into the new Wirral premises has given Storeton Rose a firm foundation from which it can look to expand.
“I’m aware of my responsibility to all the people I employ so I have been really keen to ensure we are in a good position financially,” said Laura. “We are not in debt and if we were to have another COVID then we are in a position where we could pay our staff.
“We love this building and everyone who comes in loves it. It has a really good feel to it. It is great to have that sense of history.
“More staff will come in before the end of the year and again early next year. There is an opportunity for the brand to expand into other areas of Merseyside.
“I grew up around Crosby and I know south Liverpool very well so there is an opportunity to expand over there. Our main focus for the moment is the Wirral but we will definitely look at physical locations in other areas.”