The artificial intelligence “revolution” will bring financial advice to a wider audience, according to Nigel Ashfield, founder of Time Investments.
Speaking to FT Adviser, Ashfield said he founded Time in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash and he learnt how to run a business from his father and grandfather who ran a sheepskin shop in Yeovile.
He said they never used debt to boost their business, something which stuck in his mind about how a business should be run.
“We don’t tend to have very high lines of growth where we just go for super growth, we are very much more focused on growing incrementally each year,” said Ashfield.
The business started with 30 employees and has now grown to 130 with £2bn of funds under management.
Time is focused on investing in UK assets and only sells to advisers, which Ashfield called the company’s USP.
He said: “We think advice is actually very complex and therefore, if we were to offer our products directly to the consumer, that feels really uncomfortable for us,” said Ashfield.
“Apart from potentially taking out our most important customer, which is the wealth management world, we really only focus on advisers as our customers, ultimately with the investors sitting behind them.”
Consolidation and AI
Time’s adviser focus means the firm has a good sense of what the top concerns for the industry are at the moment.
“On the ground, we are seeing plenty of consolidation at a time when the great wealth transfer is also happening,” Ashfield said. “[It highlights] that importance of advice.”
He said the more widespread adoption of artificial intelligence will go some way to help advisers serve more clients.
He said: “This AI revolution will bring financial advice to a much wider audience.
“I feel like the younger generations are becoming much more literate about investments generally.”
He called tools like ChatGPT an unbelievable resource for efficiency.
“I think the products that are going to come from that advancement will bring lots more financial advice to more people, because it will be more accessible and that can’t come quick enough.”
tara.o’connor@ft.com
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