Andrew Goodwin is the Managing Director and Co-founder of National IFA Truly Independent Ltd and Author of ‘The Happy Financial Adviser’.
His 20 year career in Financial Services started when he graduated from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh with an Honours Degree in Actuarial Mathematics and Statistics.
Between 1995 and 2003 he worked for General Accident (now Aviva) as a Senior Financial Consultant before moving into their corporate division where he achieved advanced qualifications in Taxation & Trusts, Supervision & Sales Management and Pensions.
In 2004 he joined National IFA Positive Solutions on a self-employed contract and during this period he recruited and mentored others into a similar role. By 2008 he was head of the North division in charge of his own recruitment team of Business Consultants.
In 2009, he recognised that the industry was changing and left Positive Solutions to set up his own multi-adviser firm with co-founder Cath Bowden called Truly Independent Ltd. With just £10,000 of investment Truly Independent Ltd today is the largest firm in Cumbria and supports more than 40 self-employed IFA’s across the UK and is growing.
23 September 2025 by Andrew Goodwin
As a financial adviser, you probably rank discussing retirement plans with clients among the greatest pleasures of your professional life. It can certainly produce some heartwarming and rewarding moments. The instant when a client first understands a comfortable retirement is achievable is especially sweet. The sense of joy which fills the room when the likelihood…
15 July 2025 by Andrew Goodwin
As you’ll doubtless have noticed, markets have had something of a rollercoaster ride of late. Amid numerous unhelpful dynamics, the fluctuating fortunes of Big Tech have been one of the main drivers of volatility. A major lesson from the turmoil has been that diversification is still vital. Contrary to claims from people who ought to…
10 July 2025 by Andrew Goodwin
Most of us like to do a job ourselves if it will save a little money. We might resolve to paint a bedroom rather than pay a decorator for the privilege, for example, or we might replace a car’s flat battery instead of summoning Halfords to work its magic. Sometimes the DIY option turns out…
25 June 2025 by Andrew Goodwin
I recently made a brief attempt to discover the origins of the word “upskill”. It turned out to be trickier than I’d assumed. Maybe I need to upskill in the internet-trawling department. Although it doesn’t reveal where or by whom, Webster’s Dictionary reports the term was first used in 1978. This should be of interest…
28 May 2025 by Andrew Goodwin
Unless you’ve been hiding in a nuclear bunker for the past few months – not a bad idea, some might think – you’ll be aware of the Financial Conduct Authority’s “targeted support” initiative. For those still in the dark, let’s quickly recap what it’s all about. As is often the way with FCA matters, this…
28 April 2025 by Andrew Goodwin
Financial advisers often devote relatively little thought to their own retirement. Given that they specialise in helping other people retire happily and in comfort, the irony of this oversight is pretty striking. It’s true that everyone thinks about retirement in some way, of course, and advisers are certainly no exception in that regard. Yet simply…
14 April 2025 by Andrew Goodwin
It’s already clear that 2025 will be another challenging year for advisers and their clients. The list of concerns features some wearily familiar issues, including the persistence of the advice gap, ever-increasing regulation and growing pressures on smaller IFA businesses[1]. Perhaps above all, though, the prospect of market volatility has our industry worried. According to…
12 November 2024 by Andrew Goodwin
Here’s an intriguing question for you. Who are the principal agents of change – whether positive or otherwise – in the wonderful world of financial advice? To put it another way: who is coming up with the ideas that are reshaping how we lead our professional lives? And, by extension, who is determining how we…
14 October 2024 by Andrew Goodwin
I fancied myself as a bit of a chess player during my school days. I wasn’t exactly a grandmaster, but I took part in county-level tournaments. As was deemed cutting-edge back then, I sometimes practised with an electronic chess set. The youngsters of today would doubtless find that set hilariously primitive. I would guess it…
7 October 2024 by Andrew Goodwin
I know this is hard to believe, but I haven’t always been the easy-going, supremely cheerful, endlessly availing soul everyone rightly sees me as today. In the past, given what I felt was due cause, I could actually be quite cantankerous. Take my battle with what I perceived to be the dark forces of a…
