“Oh yes, he is!” If you happened to see the recent Charlton Panto Players’ production of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, you might have spotted a familiar face treading the boards. Our very own Sam Colby Butcher, one of our financial planners, unexpectedly found himself part of the cast, along with his eight-year-old daughter, Isla.

Belinda joined the rest of the NCF panel on the Daventry community bus to see the charities who benefit from NCF funding, and their work first hand.

We have been fortunate enough to have been awarded a string of accolades in 2019, but each time it feels just as special, meaningful, and exciting as the first.

Crusader is an outfit with more than 20 years of history, specialising in boat trips for disabled and elderly people in the local area. To carry on doing what they do they need support and funding, along with paying customers. That’s why we decided that a chartered boat trip was the perfect way to help support the organisation and the ideal setting for our latest team away day.

It’s always nice when you find yourself among like-minded people, especially when they’re talking about things you’re really passionate about. If you believe strongly in a particular set of values, a conference about those same values might seem like preaching to the converted. But it’s actually reassuring, gratifying, exciting even, to be in a room full of professionals who get fired up about the same stuff that you do.

Our own Richard Peters, one of our financial planners at Fortitude sits on the grants panel for the Northamptonshire Community Foundation, which means he gets to see the foundation in action as well as playing a part in selecting the initiatives that receive funding.

It’s hard to believe, but this September marked the ninth year that Fortitude has held Chartered Financial Planner Status. We’ve now been the proud holders of what’s often called the ‘gold standard’ of our profession for almost a decade – more than half the time we’ve existed as a business.

In this blog we’re training the spotlight on Director Chris Bowmer. With the Ashes just behind us and Ben Stokes now probably chasing a knighthood, it’s a good time for Chris to share why cricket matters and what it’s taught him.

This month, we were delighted to win the ‘Business Of The Year Award’ at the SME Northamptonshire Business Awards 2019. Here’s how it came about and how the night unfolded.

Our own Richard Peters was recently awarded Certified Financial Planner™ status, by the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (CISI). In the time-honoured tradition of celebrating our colleagues’ achievements, whether they like it or not, here’s what that means for Richard and his clients.

We know that financial planning can seem daunting and we often see people putting it off for that reason. In the end, we’re talking about major life decisions, so in a sense, it should seem daunting. But like anything else, the way to move forward is to break it down to key steps and get each of those right.

One of the most important things we do as your financial planners is help you to see the big picture, but we’re also here to make sure you’re looking at the right picture to begin with. Something we see quite often is clients who focus completely on making money.

We’d like to share a piece of feedback we recently had from a client. We’re always grateful to hear your thoughts on how we’re doing, what we do well and where we could improve things further, but this particular comment really gave us a good feeling. 

We recently shared that evolution and expansion had been the themes of 2019 so far. They continue to dominate, both for the company and for the individual talent we have on board.

Our client support professional, Davina Bowmer, volunteers once a month at the dementia cafe in Greens Norton, run by the Northamptonshire Carers Association. In June we sponsored their second annual Golf Day.