As this is the first newsletter of 2022, we thought it was an ideal opportunity to give you some insight into what’s been happening at Charlton House in the last 12 months.
There’s also some news for you about changes and developments in the pipeline for 2022.
The pandemic still overshadowed everything
As you’re no doubt aware, the Covid pandemic continued to overshadow almost everything during 2021.
From a business perspective, this meant that online communication remained the standard way to interact with our clients. We know many of you find Zoom and other online meeting tools a great way to communicate which is why we had embraced this before the pandemic.
Restrictions on travel still persisted in 2021 and, with the continual changes in lockdown status, they meant planning any long journeys was still fraught with complications and uncertainty. This is set to continue in 2022, at least for Hong Kong – my planned trip for February and March has been canned because of the inbound travel ban from the UK with no end in sight to this.
Hopefully, we’ll see restrictions lifted in the coming 12 months, and get back to business as normal.
We set up our new Hong Kong Charlton House business in 2021
It might not have made the front pages of any business papers, but one of the key achievements of 2021 was Charlton House setting up a new company, gaining regulatory permissions from the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong (SFC) and moving our entire business operations from the previous company!
Charlton House WM Limited was granted its regulatory permissions from the SFC in August, literally days before my BIG piece of personal news (see below) – the timing could have been better to be fair!
The novation of clients across to the new business took some time, but we’ve been told the whole process went remarkably smoothly.
I’d like to thank all my clients all for their support in getting this done, as well as our Operations Director, Tat Wong.
Our Hong Kong business was audited by the SFC
Our previous Hong Kong company also had an audit from the SFC. Again in August. Again the timing could have been better!
It’s fairly standard for regulated businesses to be audited even 5 years or so and even though we’re meticulous in how we manage our business affairs, record-keeping and paperwork, it was understandably a stressful time.
So, we were delighted to get a clean bill of health from the SFC, as the audit went very smoothly.
Personal news
As you may be aware, we welcomed a new arrival chez Snelling in 2021 with the birth of Lenni in September 2021.
Not content with the upheaval the arrival of a new baby inevitably brings, I decided that 2021 was the year to plan and carry out major renovations on my house. I’m now hoping 2022 will bring calmer waters on the domestic front!
Also in 2021, Tat Wong in our Hong Kong office passed the first part of his MBA with flying colours. Not only that, but Tat was also cited on the Dean’s honours list as being in the top echelon of all entrants. We’re sure you’ll join us in congratulating Tat on this fine achievement.
Looking ahead to 2022
As we’ve stated, there are reasons for optimism when it comes to the pandemic restrictions lifting in 2022. This should have made international travel easier although a spanner has been thrown in the works with respect to that early on.
We’re looking forward to a new member of the advisory team in Hong Kong joining us in March – initially based in the UK but with a planned relocation to Hong Kong at the back end of the year. We’ll let you have their full details and background in a future newsletter.
The business is about to finalise a capital-raising exercise from two close contacts of the business. The funds raised mean that the business is well capitalised and will help us to start implementing an exciting but prudent growth strategy over the next 5 years.
To assist we have enlisted the support of the highly regarded business consultant, Brett Davidson, who specialises in helping independent financial advisory businesses.
This all means some positive enhancements to the services our clients will be receiving over the coming year, which we will be communicating separately.
Get in touch
If you’d like to know more about our plans for 2022 please contact us by email or, if you prefer to speak to us, you can reach us in the UK on +44 (0) 208 0044900 or in Hong Kong on +852 39039004.
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