A recent article in the Daily Telegraph once again reinforced the prejudices and stereotyping we, as professionals, face every single day.

Apparently, there are not enough doctors, teachers, accountants, engineers or quantity surveyors in the UK.

I suspect if I look hard enough someone will be extolling the virtues of estate agents and traffic wardens.

Investment firm Dolfin has bought a “significant” equity stake in national IFA Alexander House Financial Services.

Alexander House is an appointed representative of Old Mutual Wealth-owned network Intrinsic.

Dolfin is an independent financial services company providing custody, execution and asset management to advisers and their clients.

When starting a new IFA practice five years ago, I assumed self-employed advisers would be self sufficient in the new business department.

We instead focused on research, infrastructure and paraplanning, sales process, chartered status, client communications and so on.

There is so much diversity around us in business today. Each colleague has their own individual needs, skills, qualifications and expectations.

Some people we will click with, but others can be more challenging. We cannot understand why they struggle with certain problems, or perhaps we think they are rushing things or being overly demanding.

When starting a new IFA practice five years ago, I assumed self-employed advisers would be self sufficient in the new business department.

We instead focused on research, infrastructure and paraplanning, sales process, chartered status, client communications and so on.