As we approach the festive period, we wanted to reflect on the year that has just passed. Looking back, 2021 has been an extremely busy year for the BlueSKY team.

2021 started in lockdown with all the team working from home (except for Jack, who has done a sterling job throughout the Covid period manning the phones and sorting out our post in the office).

As a team, our move to working from home over the last 21 months has been successful. We hope you agree that we have managed to maintain the high standards of customer service and response times that we pride ourselves in.

We are, however, a team-based organisation and think that we work best when all together in the office. In the second half of 2021, we all got back to our desks and started to welcome clients to the office.

Working closely with you and your clients

Over the years, we have built up a strong reputation for working closely with solicitors by assisting them and their clients in sharing financial assets on divorce.

This is a hugely rewarding part of the work that we do as our input often leads to a breakthrough where both parties feel able to move on.

This year has seen a substantial increase in the number of enquiries that we get from you, our family lawyer contacts. It’s a key part of the work we do, and we’d like to thank everyone who has been in touch this year with queries about financial matters or to introduce clients who can benefit from our expertise.

We also support many couples and individuals who are going through divorce by producing literature and guides to help them navigate the complex world of pensions and finance on divorce. In January, we even started a Facebook campaign where we offered access to a free guide on the financial aspects of divorce.

To further cement our standing with matrimonial lawyers, back in April we presented a series of six webinars focusing on some of the technical aspects of pensions and pension sharing.

More than 500 of you attended these webinars, and you can view these webinars on our website – we think you will find them invaluable.

One of the UK’s top 100 financial planning firms

To build on the great reviews that our clients give us, as a business we were shortlisted for a couple of prestigious national awards in the third quarter of the year.

As you may know, we were finalists in the Money Marketing Best Retirement Adviser of the Year category, and New Model Adviser recently included us in their UK Top 100 financial planning firms for 2021.

Along with client reviews and testimonials, receiving recognition of this nature is a real endorsement of the work we do. It also provides us with valuable areas of feedback where we can try and improve going forward.

New faces and new services

To help deliver an even better service in 2021, we took on Mike, our new Chartered financial planner, at the start of the year. Mike has fitted into the team very well and is very busy helping our clients.

This year we also introduced some new service features for BlueSKY clients, which they had requested in the 2020 client survey. These include quarterly investment newsletters and regular themed monthly articles.

Back in the spring we also asked clients if they would be kind enough to leave a review through Google or VouchedFor. We are thrilled that our clients left more than 100 reviews across both platforms.

The positive reviews give a great boost to the team and help us attract new customers by demonstrating the good work that we do and how it has made a difference to people’s lives.

A few clients kindly volunteered to take this even further and have appeared in video testimonials, which we will add to the website imminently.

Thank you for your support, and merry Christmas

Looking back, 2021 has been a year where things started to get back to normal. And, by and large, it has also been a good year for investment returns (although, as we write this article, the Omicron Covid variant is giving markets the jitters).

We are not resting on our laurels, and we will be looking at further ways to improve our service to you in 2022. In the short term, we are looking to recruit another client relationship manager and another technical expert to help with the service that we provide.

If, at any time, you feel that you have suggestions for how we could make things even better, then we would love to hear from you.

We wish you all a very happy Christmas and look forward to speaking to you in 2022.

Get in touch

If you have clients who would benefit from financial advice, or you’d like to explore how you can work more closely with BlueSKY, please get in touch. Email info@blueskyifas.co.uk or call us on 0118 987 6655.