Planner Ben Littleton thought long and hard before leaving his esteemed job as an international trade and commodities manager with Rabobank.
For one thing, he loved his work. His role with the agribusiness giant meant he spent much time talking to representatives from large cotton companies and sugar mills, as well as numerous growers and producers.
“I’m passionate about the bush and I loved coming into contact with so many farmers,” Littleton says. “They have a lot of humility and they are very humble people.”
So when two of his business associates from an accounting firm asked him to jump ship and establish a financial planning division within their company, he was not swayed. Not straight away, at least.
“I loved my job but there were aspects to it that I was tiring of, such as the petty egos in big corporations,” he says. “Eventually, I was worn down and decided to leave and it was the best decision I ever made.”
Many of those farmers Littleton met impressed him with their resilience. That has helped shape his approach to financial planning.
“You would go out with farmers onto these paddocks that were bone dry and they were getting up and still working 12-hour days and getting ready for the time when it would rain,” Littleton notes. “And that is what you have to do. They took a long-term view of the situation and that is what planning is like as well.”
He doesn’t miss the corporate lunches or the perks of working for a large company either, as he feels much more connected to his work these days.
“It’s really exciting to talk to people one on one,” he says. “I now have the opportunity to fix people’s problems, rather than fix the company’s problems.
“There is much more of a sense of achievement involved.”
Littleton has also noticed more and more young people, sometimes fresh out of university, coming in for financial advice.
“Some of these kids are the children of our clients and they want to set themselves up,” he says. “Sometimes, they saw what their parents went through with the GFC and they wish to avoid that.”
Nevertheless, Littleton is concerned about the lack of financial literacy among young people, an issue that was brought home to him when his daughter asked him to explain the concept of interest to her.
“She had just left school and was about to be receiving her first pay cheque and I was saying to her that she needed to put a certain amount into a savings account and she would receive interest on it,” he recalls. “She asked me what interest was and I couldn’t believe that she had not learned that at school.”
Littleton approached the high school and made an appointment with the principal.
“I said it was crazy that I had just spent half an hour talking to my daughter about the specifics of interest and these are kids about to receive their first pay cheques,” he says.
Littleton offered his services as a guest speaker to his daughter’s school, and has also started talking to senior students at a second Brisbane high school.
Part of these talks is devoted to financial literacy — the basics of compound interest, budgeting and so forth — while the second part involves interesting the students in planning as a profession.
“I tell them about what we do for people and the satisfaction and sheer joy we get from seeing people reach their goals,” he explains. “You become an integral part of people’s lives and it’s a very privileged position to be in, and something we should never forget.”
| Ben Littleton
Name of firm: Perrier Ryan Name of licensee (if not self-licensed): Securitor Time in the industry: 15 years; previously worked in international trade and commodities at Rabobank Academic qualifications: Bachelor of commerce Accreditations: Advanced Diploma of Financial Planning, Chartered Life Practitioner, Fellow Chartered Financial Practitioner Professional association memberships: Association of Financial Advisers; Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand, affiliate member Other memberships: MTA, Securitor Professional Advisers Council |
