Two minutes with Rohan Sivajoti, Advisory Services Director, eVestor

You have recently announced that Postcard Planning is being acquired by eVestor. Tell us a bit about the business.
Postcard Planning is a financial planning business based in Wetherby and Leeds. I founded the business in June 2015 which specialises in providing accessible and affordable advice.
Why have you decided to sell so soon after launching the business?
The future of the UK advice market lies in the ability to combine market-leading technology, communication and accessible human advice within a competitively priced proposition and this is exactly what Anthony is aiming to do with eVestor. Joining the team at this early stage means I can not only influence the development of a new and hugely exciting venture, but also get to work alongside a highly experienced and successful team with a clear and compelling vision for the future and the necessary funding to make it happen. The deal represents not only a great opportunity for me and the Postcard Planning team but also all of our clients.
Who are your current clients and what do they think of the decision?
We have a small group of quality and recently engaged clients and since announcing it to them there has not been a single concern raised; just lots of well wishers!
What’s going to happen to them?
Nothing. I’ll still be looking after them and, as ever, working in their best interests.
There is not expected to be any immediate change in the service they receive nor in the relationship they have with us. My firm belief is that many of my clients will benefit from the combination of eVestor’s digital proposition and low-cost solution, which may help them to achieve their goals quicker.
Are you effectively giving up on face-to-face advice?
I’ll still see local clients face-to-face but anything further afield was usually under my online service proposition any way. eVestor will still be offering support and advice, just in a digital format.
What were you doing before Postcard Planning?
Everything financial services! I have a financial services degree and have worked as a paraplanner, adviser, for a platform, a fund management house and a tech provider. It’s fair to say that my overall knowledge of the industry is strong due to a varied career path to date.
Why did you become an adviser?
I love making a genuine difference in people’s lives. I want to help people. Especially my demographic – the millennials.
Our parents had it pretty good. Double digit house price growth once they’d got on the ladder, final salary pension schemes and buoyant stock markets. The outlook ahead for millennials differs greatly from this. Therefore, it’s essential, now more than ever, to begin planning your financial future – and starting as early as possible. Millennials have time on their side but need to act now before it’s too late to catch up to pay for their desired lifestyles throughout retirement.
Would you recommend it to others looking for a career?
100% yes. Let’s be honest here, you help people live the life they want with no regrets and get paid pretty well for it.
And I get to have a real impact on people’s lives, not just dealing with data and machines.
What a career!
What needs to be done to close the well publicised ‘savings gap’ in the UK?
I’m not sure about the ‘savings gap’; I think it’s a knowledge gap. Why aren’t people saving enough for their futures? Well it’s because they don’t know how to and that fear of the unknown drives inertia. We live in a culture whereby people cosy up in what I like to call their “denial nest”. It’s all warm and cosy in there as long as they avoid facing any financial issues. How do we tackle the fear of the unknown and get people saving? Teach them.
It’s barmy that kids in schools are still taught about Pythagoras’s Theorum and mitochondria, but not taught how to buy a house or save for the future, which is just as important. Those are things that I’d want my kids to know and I bet there are few who disagree with me.

How do you think the financial advice landscape will look in the future?
Very digital. Face-to-face may work well with individuals who have very complicated needs but many others will shift to digital for pure convenience and availability of information.
Anyone wanting to find out more about investment trusts 20 years ago would have to speak to someone; nowadays they can Google it. This shift in behaviour will increase towards other facets of people’s lives such as saving money. The real winners will be those who combine technology with a personalised service and make the complicated easy to understand.
What’s the most important thing someone thinking about seeking financial advice needs to remember?
The earlier you start saving, the easier it is. Start now.
What are your views of financial education, do you think enough is being done to educate the younger generation for their future?
No where near. It’s on the curriculum now but a couple of hours in citizenship classes is not even scratching the surface. We need to do more. I’m currently working my own ideas on this area with eVestor – wait and see!
When you are not providing financial advice what do you like doing?
Travelling and playing sport. I’ve now been to 57 countries and the aim is to get to at least 100 before I’m 50. The world is so vast, varied and beautiful that any spare cash I have goes on holidays.
Cricket for me embodies all the things I like doing; exercise while excelling as an individual as part of an overall team. That’s as good as it gets.
If you had a windfall of 10k what would you do with it?
3:30 at Kempton Park.
Nah, I’d do something I loved which as you can probably tell would be to book more holidays!