Rathbones London

Earlier in the month, the Rathbone apprentices visited the London office for the first time to experience the different functions that the London office provides. I think the main difference between London and Liverpool is how well London is set up in order to cater for client meetings. This was evident in the many professional meeting rooms available, in-house catering and prime location in London.

The apprentices were split up in to groups of three and we were given presentations on different departments that are predominantly based in London. The first presentation was on RUTM, which I found fascinating as the only real experiences I had with unit trusts was processing unit trust dividends and the material from the first IOC examination. In addition to this, I had a half an hour meeting with Alan Dobbie who manages the Blue Chip Income & Growth Fund for RUTM. I found the meeting to be very helpful as I was able to ask a lot of questions about RUTM and Alan was more than willing to give me an insight into his role. 

We were also given a presentation by Marketing, allowing us to see how the Rathbones brand image is promoted throughout the community and how Rathbones are adapting to suit modern technologies.

We were then given the opportunity to meet the RIM Management Committee and talk to them about how the apprenticeship scheme has benefitted us over the last seventeen months. Each member of the committee was interested to hear our opinions on the scheme and equally we were interested to hear about how their roles affect tasks on a daily basis.

To round the day off, we were given an informative tour around London, showing us much of the financial history that has made London the dominant financial centre it is today. Some of the places we saw were as follows: Royal Exchange, Bank of England, London Metal Exchange and many major financial headquarters, such as Lloyds.

For me, the day was a success and we came back to Liverpool with an understanding of how our London office operates and the culture difference between the two.

February Update

It has been just over two months since my last blog post, which was based on my completion of the Introduction to Securities and Investments exam. Since then, I have been reading the UK Financial Regulation book provided by the CISI ahead of the exam in April.

I have found the material itself to be directed towards the procedures and principles that are in place as a requirement for approved persons to fulfil. The knowledge gained from this material will be extremely useful when faced with making significant decisions in my future career, so as to comply with the FCA/PRA.

With my time on Rathbone Pension & Advisory Services coming to an end in April, I am confident in saying that I have gained so much from the department. It is not only the technical aspects of pensions and insurance that I have improved on, but also my interpersonal and organisational skills, and I believe this will continue to improve with the more experience I gain in different departments.