About Dan

Dan is a qualified financial adviser and Trust’s founder and Managing Director.

 

Dan started his professional career in 1996 when he joined the Prudential as a trainee financial consultant (and met Rakesh, another trainee, in his first week of training!). During the 1990’s ‘the Pru’ like other large insurers was still providing holistic financial planning directly to non-wealthy customers, but by 2000 it had closed its sales force (along with other insurers who followed suit). During his time at the Prudential, however, Dan developed a concept for a fully holistic financial planning model that could profitably and sustainably be delivered to middle and low-income individuals, but crucially would also incorporate their core beliefs. After taking voluntary redundancy from the Prudential in 1999 and briefly working for two separate firms of independent financial advisers in between, Dan in February 2002 set up Trust Financial Planning to start to put his vision into practice.  

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Dan’s parents were missionaries and he spent his pre teenage years living in Algeria. Growing up in Algiers surrounded by extreme poverty, he became troubled from an early age at the relationship between faith (‘trusting God’) and wealth (‘having more money than we need’), and as a result decided in his early twenties to embark on a career in Christian ministry, with a strong emphasis on service within the community. It was only having embarked on that course, however, that it became clear to him that at the root of this problem is a need for Christians to confront and work through what their relationship with money should be. Trust, the Trust Vision, and the concept of a ‘Life Plan’ that sits at the heart of that vision, is the result of that journey.    

 

Dan has been married to Louise for thirty-two years, and he has three grown up children. What does Dan enjoy doing outside work? ‘I enjoy being a part of a vibrant village community, including Church, pub and Amateur Drama. I love rugby and have a passion for supporting the underdog. Although from New Zealand originally, I have been an avid fan of the Italian rugby team since they first joined the Six nations nearly a quarter of a century ago!’