PIBA Member Profile
Name : Rosemary Collins Company name : RMC Financial Services Location : Galway Member Since : 2011

Consumer Protection Code I attended a seminar on the above presented by Elizabeth Smith from PIBA, which was an excellent presentation. I am being honest when I say it was not an easy seminar to sit through after your first week as an impartial Broker. What I mean by this statement is that as a chartered accountant with QFA certification and having gone through all the procedures of getting authorised by the Central Bank, at the end of the seminar I wondered whether for us as Brokers, file compliance is now superseding the actual good unbiased advice being offered to clients. It should not be one or the other. The greatest compliment that I have received from a client (thankfully many times) is a referral to a colleague or family member. As it stands now, I may have to wait until that family member or colleague calls me! Business Focus My business focus has not changed since the year I started to work. Work hard, be honest and have an interest in your job and an interest in the people you meet: somehow it works and people then have an interest in you and in your business. Within all areas of financial planning, retirement planning is an area where there have been enormous changes over the past few years. There are so many options for clients now that it is very difficult for customers to decide what is the best route for them to take. It is very important that clients gain an understanding from their advisors of the options that are available to them. Succession planning is another area I believe clients will put more focus on going forward, as the thresholds have reduced significantly and the tax rates have increased substantially over the past few years. Downtime If I could go to the Alps every weekend I would but I guess RMC Financial Services is a bit in the early stages yet! I took up skiing five years ago and I love it. I have two children aged 11 and 14, and anyone with children knows there is very little down time when there is hurling, soccer, music lessons etc. I could say that I’m training for the Dublin City marathon in October 2012, but that would not be very honest, since one lap of the racecourse in Ballybrit does not suffice as training! But I’m working on it!