Working Day: Paul Bocking

May 7 2008 by Tony McDonough, Liverpool Daily Post

Paul Bocking, co-founder and director of Liverpool-based Fraser Wealth Management _320

PAUL BOCKING is co-founder and director of Liverpool-based Fraser Wealth Management. He has 17 years’ experience of advising some of the region’s wealthiest people. This is an account of his day.

6.50am: I wake up to the sound of the radio, get ready and have breakfast with my wife, Maria, and my two daughters, Rachel and Stephanie. On a bit of a health kick at the moment, I opt for porridge with blueberries and the essential cup of tea for breakfast.

8.10am: Leave home in Formby to travel to Longton, in Preston, to meet with two long-standing clients, a couple that I have looked after for over 10 years, for an annual review.

9am: Call the office en route from my Bluetooth to discuss some of my ongoing cases with my relationship manager, Matt, and advise him of various tasks and reports that I want him to focus on during the day.

9.10am: Liaise with my co-director, Kevin Gillibrand, about invitations for a unique client hospitality event we are hosting. One of our clients paid £250,000 to Children In Need last November for a private audience with Katie Melua and Aled Jones. As part of the inaugural North West Leadership team for The Prince’s Trust, we’ve booked for a table of 12 for the event at Davenport Hall on May 20, and will be taking some of our clients as guests.

9.30am: Arrive at my client’s home to review their investment portfolio and private pension, which are worth over £373,000 and £150,000 respectively. The impact of the credit crunch has meant that their investments have experienced a slight loss over the past 12 months.

12.20pm: I leave my client and head back home, giving Maria a call on the way. She informs me that we need some paint from Laura Ashley, in Birkdale, so I stop off on the way to collect it. That’s Sunday afternoon taken care of – I hate DIY.

1.15pm: Arrive home and Maria updates me on several emails she has responded to from investment providers and also passes on a couple of messages.

2.10pm: I access our remote back office system to complete the interview notes from this morning’s meeting and also a previous meeting I had, alongside Kevin, at a very wealthy client’s home in Clitheroe.

3pm: I have a lengthy telephone conference with Susan, from DWF Solicitors, to discuss a Trust case we are jointly working on. It’s a rather sad case, dealing with a £7.5m Lottery winner who died within 18 months of winning.

4.15pm: I’m finishing earlier than usual today as the football team I manage, Redgate Rovers, has a semi-final game at 6.30pm against Toby Celtic in Skelmersdale. I’ve been managing the team, which my daughter Steph plays for, for the past four years. They play in the West Lancashire Girls Under- 14 league.

4.45pm: Before we leave for the match we sit down to dinner as a family and badger my eldest, Rachel, about her GCSE coursework.

6.05pm: We arrive for the football match in Skelmersdale and I get the team together to name the players for tonight’s game and warm up for kick-off. It’s a tough match but the team work hard and we win thanks to a stylish goal from Lucy Cunningham, which means we’ll be in the final for the fourth year running.

7.30pm: After the game, I briefly speak to the players’ parents about our fundraising efforts to send the girls to a residential soccer camp in Boston, USA, this July.

9pm: I check my diary for tomorrow and then settle down for the evening, a rare early finish to my day, and watch The Apprentice. I end up getting quite agitated at the contestants’ unwillingness to work as a team – don’t they realise that teamwork is fundamental in any business? If I was SAS (Sir Alan Sugar), I’d fire the lot of them.