Meet The Team

Meet The Team

Richard Westwood – Chartered Financial Planner & Director

Richard is a Fellow of the Personal Finance Society, the highest qualification awarded by the Chartered Insurance Institute. He has been in Financial Services since 2006 and has built on his career in the early years with the CIS as well as advising Personal and Corporate clients as an adviser with Barclays Financial Planning. He then spent time with a national independent financial advice firm, where he specialised in Pension and Retirement planning, delivering educational seminars to both the public and private sector for forthcoming retirees. He also has an excellent understanding of the complexities of Defined Benefit pension schemes.

Xennon Horner – Independent Financial Adviser & Director

Xennon has been in financial services now for near on twenty years. He spent over ten years with Barclays Bank PLC advising clients on lending solutions, before being selected to join Barclays Financial Planning to complete the trainee financial adviser programme. His role was to provide advice to personal and Corporate clients on a range of financial planning areas before taking the next natural step to join a national independent financial advice firm. Xennon specialises in investment and retirement planning, as well as delivering educational seminars and services to other professionals, such as solicitors and accountancy firms.

Thomas Burns – Independent Financial Adviser

Thomas joined Rothesay Bennett in its first year of trading and covers Scotland. He has been in financial services for over 21 years. Thomas spent the bulk of his early career with Scottish Widows specialising in Group Personal Pensions for Corporate clients and advising personal clients regarding investment and wealth planning. Thomas then joined one of the largest independent financial advice firms, where he delivered educational retirement seminars to the public and private sector in Scotland and forged many valued relationships. He has extensive experience in providing retirement planning solutions to business owners and their families and provides coverage to the North & Scotland.

Mike Seal – Chartered Financial Planner

Mike joined Rothesay Bennett in its first year of trading and covers the South West. He has been in financial services for over 32 years. Mike spent ten years with Affinity Financial Awareness and was a member of their investment committee, which provided investment solutions for the national adviser force. Mike has a passion for constructing investment solutions and has extensive knowledge on advising for Later Life planning and Ethical investments. Mike also has specialist knowledge of defined benefit pension planning and advising personal clients on investment-based solutions.

Charles Spear – Independent Financial Adviser

Charles joined Rothesay Bennett in 2017 and covers the Midlands & North. He has been in financial services for 35 years. In 2001, Charles joined and was one of the founders and original members of Affinity Financial Awareness. Charles spent 16 years with Affinity as an Adviser and National Sales Manager during its rise to a national advice firm. Charles brings a huge amount of experience to Rothesay Bennett, having been an independent adviser for so many years. This experience is invaluable, and Charles continues to offer a fantastic service to both existing and prospective clients via a range of financial and wealth planning solutions. Charles specialises in advice at retirement and constructing flexible income solutions following the recent introduction of Pensions Freedom.

John Taylor – Chartered Financial Planner

John joined Rothesay Bennett in 2017 and covers the Midlands & South. He has been in financial services since 2010 and his early career was spent as a senior paraplanner to some of the largest independent advice firms across London. John has specialised in providing advice to Senior Medical consultants since achieving Chartered status in 2014. He has extensive knowledge of the complexities of the NHS pension scheme & the bespoke nature of annual/lifetime allowance pension planning that is required for such clients. More recently, John’s relocation to the Midlands saw him joining one of the larger independent advice firms where he continued to provide innovative investment and retirement solutions for both personal and corporate clients.

Kevin Hincks – Independent Financial Adviser

Kevin joined Rothesay Bennett in 2018 and covers the Midlands and East. He has been in financial services for over 30 years, having spent many years with the likes of Prudential, Cooperative Insurance Society and The Cooperative Bank. Kevin prides himself on his ability to offer a fantastic client experience. Over the years, Kevin has provided financial planning advice to personal clients across a range of planning areas and has specialist knowledge and experience of dealing with Ethical/Sustainable investments.

Anthony Smith – Independent Financial Adviser

Anthony joined Rothesay Bennett in 2019 and covers the Midlands & South West. Anthony spent nine years serving as a RAF Police Dog handler before deciding to join the financial service industry. He has now been in financial services for 20 years, with his earlier years in the industry working for smaller brokerage firms, before he moved on to join larger National IFA firms. Anthony predominately spends his time advising personal clients on diversified investment and retirement solutions, both in terms of growth and/or income requirements.

Graeme Lewis DipFA (MP) – Independent Financial Adviser

Graeme joined Rothesay Bennett in 2020 and covers the Midlands and surrounding areas. He has been in financial services for over 10 years, having started as an Independent Financial Adviser with the Co-Operative Financial Services, and more recently providing personal mortgage lending solutions with Mortgage Bureau as a Mortgage & Protection Adviser. He has vast experience in the mortgage sector, including specialising in the new build & shared ownership section of the market. Graeme prides himself on his ability to help clients confidently plan for their objectives both now and in the future; through financial planning advice, mortgages, protection, investments and pensions.

Adam Peachey DipFA (MP) – Independent Financial Adviser

Adam has been in financial services for over 15 years and joined Rothesay Bennett in 2020. Adam spent 11 years with Barclays Bank, and more recently the last 4 years at Wesleyan Mutual Society specialising in providing investment and pension advice to public sector employees such as Doctors and Teachers. Adam prides himself on his ability to help clients plan for their short and long-term objectives utilising investment portfolio planning. Adam has specialist qualifications in Long Term Care planning, Equity Release and Mortgage advice alongside his Diploma in Financial Advice.

Kaili Horner – Operations Manager

Kaili is the Operations manager and oversees the client support team. Kaili ensures the adviser team is well organised and is also responsible for the day to day efficiencies in the back office, this ensures the advisers can spend more quality face to face time with their clients. Kaili spent several years with Barclays Bank PLC, supporting small and medium business clients in terms of their day to day banking and lending requirements. Following her period with Barclays, Kaili then took on the role as a PA to independent financial advisers. Kaili gained her mortgage accreditations and can source mortgage lending for both personal and commercial clients and has specialised knowledge of mortgage advice for business owners and buy to let investors.

Julian Westwood – Paraplanner/Compliance Executive

Julian has been in the financial services industry for over 20 years. Tis time was split between CIS and Affinity Financial Awareness, during its transition to small advice firm to a national firm, specialising in educational retirement seminars across the country. Julian provided financial advice to an extensive range of personal and business clients during his time as an adviser and has now taken on the role of Compliance and paraplanning specialist. He supports the advisers and ensures that the advice quality provided from Rothesay Bennett is consistent and remains at the highest standards.

Cristian Lane-Davies – Analyst

Cristian joined Rothesay Bennett in 2019 and is a member of the Investment Committee, managing more in-depth and complex investment cases and analysing market data. He spent time working in the city of London at Bank of America Merrill Lynch on the Equity Trading floor and at S&P Global Market Intelligence. Specializing in fund selection and portfolio management, Cristian has acquired the knowledge to confidently find the most suitable investments for every market situation.

Tazmin Pinfold – Client Support Specialist

Tazmin joined Rothesay Bennett in 2018 as her first foray into the financial services sector, following a decision to make a career change. Tazmin provides invaluable day to day support services to the adviser team and oversees a range of Backoffice tasks. Tazmin also handles any telephone enquiries from our existing and potential clients and is responsible for ensuring a smooth client ongoing service experience. Tazmin is training to become a paraplanner and working towards her professional qualifications.

Ellie Welling – Senior Administrator

Ellie joined Rothesay Bennett towards the start of 2021 and is part of the back-office support team providing day to day administration support for the advisers and clients and being one of the first points of contact by answering incoming calls. Ellie has worked in Financial Services for several years where she has worked within a variety of roles. Ellie has also recently completed her Diploma in Paraplanning and achieved her CeMAP qualification. She is now progressing into a Mortgage Adviser role and can source mortgage lending for clients of Rothesay Bennett.