“I was going to be a professional footballer — like nearly every 15-year-old boy,” the chief executive of Abrdn’s Adviser business, Noel Butwell, reveals.
When I enquire for which team, he quickly replies: “Is there any team other than Aston Villa?”
As a Fulham fan myself, who was at Wembley on 26 May 2018 for the Championship play-off final, I resist reminding him of the outcome that day. But I tell Butwell which team I support and, thankfully, am not ushered out of Abrdn’s office in London.
For those who don’t know, Fulham secured promotion to the Premier League that year after beating Villa 1–0. Noel’s team was promoted the following year, though, while Fulham was relegated. Next season both clubs will be in the top flight again. Maybe see you at Craven Cottage or Villa Park next, Noel?
We’re very focused on delivering capabilities that help people become better investors
Born in Birmingham, Butwell has clear passion for Villa. He was “pretty good” at football and was part of the club’s youth team.
“Villa were at their peak. They had won the First Division and then the following year won the European Cup, as it was called.
“And then it was just a gradual decline of fortune ever since… because I left,” he jokes.
Butwell’s time with the club came to an end when his father secured a job promotion and the family moved to Bristol.
A trial with Bristol City didn’t quite work out. He played semi-professional football for a bit before stumbling into financial services.
Insurance capital
Bristol was effectively the insurance capital outside London. Butwell worked for General Accident in the motor department.
He remembers exactly how much he was paid (I do know but promised not to disclose it) and the day he started: 23 July 1987.
“It was good fun and a good grounding,” he says.
The strategy is built upon the needs, the wants and the aspirations of our clients
He even managed to keep playing football, with the Chartered Insurance Institute.
“Some of the guys worked in the life department and they had a Ford Escort 1.3 Litre. I wanted one of those.”
A trainee ‘life inspector’ role caught Butwell’s eye, so he travelled to London for an interview and “unbelievably got the job”.
Aged 19 he got his first patch and covered all of west Wales from Swansea.
He accelerated through different roles and ended up as sales manager of Friends Provident in Croydon, before taking a job in the City.
There are very few times in a career to be a market leader and disrupt the market. That’s what we’re looking to do
“I’ve worked for only four companies, three of which no longer exist,” he laughs, although, when he thinks about various changes of ownership, one other would still count. After a short period at NPI he got a call out of the blue from his now-close friend and mentor, Paul Matthews, who was then sales director of Standard Life.
“I started there on 15 October 2003 and I’ve progressed through the business ever since.”
Milestone
This month (July) marks 35 years of Butwell’s working life, the majority of which has been in client-facing sales roles dealing with financial adviser businesses.
“I was made the CEO just coming up to three years ago. I had my dream job as a sales director that was all I ever wanted to be. I thought, ‘Brilliant! I’ve made it.’”
A call at quarter to 10 on a Monday night from Martin Gilbert, former chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management, changed everything: Barry O’Dwyer, head of Standard Life Aberdeen’s (SLA) UK business, covering pensions, savings, platforms and asset management, was set to move to Royal London.
We’ve got a plan that takes us through to the end of next year. It’s a multimillion-pound investment
The conversation went along the lines of: “Barry’s leaving; it’s all very amicable. You’re in charge.”
No pressure. Except Butwell had to be in Edinburgh to deliver a big presentation to about 1,000 colleagues on the Wednesday.
Back story
The business has changed somewhat since then and is now known as Abrdn. There’s quite a back story on how it got there.
Has the Abrdn unveiling been ‘a burden’ for SLA?
A merger with Aberdeen Asset Management created SLA and later the almost two-century-old Standard Life name was sold to Phoenix.
It left SLA needing to carry out a branding review.
The resulting Abrdn attracted some ridicule from the adviser community. Now the dust has settled, how has the rebrand been received?
“I think it’s 50-50. It still divides opinion. We’ve got this challenge now where the company is called Abrdn but obviously Standard Life still exists and we’re in the final throes of the separation aspect.
The whole schedule of what we have got planned is a direct result of client feedback
“But when you go into the platform all you see is Standard Life and Elevate.”
Advisers often still refer to Standard Life when they have meetings with Butwell.
“As a commercial organisation, you want people to have an emotional connection with your brand. Anytime you change that it creates a response.
“Our challenge is to build the brand equity and attract customers and clients.”
The Standard Life brand engenders a degree of recognition and trust among consumers, he recognises.
We’ve got a plan. I believe it will be a tangible demonstration of the next evolution of the platform market
“We celebrate the past but it’s not what we are, going forward.
“We’re a client-led business. We’re very focused on delivering capabilities that help people become better investors. It was right we changed the name. Besides, it was very confusing.”
The rebrand even made it on to TV show Have I Got News For You.
“How many of our competitors have ever been on that? My boss was over the moon about it,” says Butwell.
Talking of Abrdn’s boss — how have things been going since Stephen Bird took over as CEO in September 2020?
“We’re coming up to one and a half years in to a three-year strategy. Stephen has been very clear on what the business is and what it isn’t.
I love being number one. I want to stay being number one in the market and I want there to be a bigger gap between us and the number two
“He realised this was a business — particularly on the asset management side — in decline. It had seen a market change around it while it had not changed, either at all or quickly enough.”
Three vector models
The business needs to be arranged around clients rather than retrofitting them in, Butwell emphasises.
“The strategy is built upon the needs, the wants and the aspirations of our clients. That’s why we’ve got the three vector models: investments, adviser platforms and personal wealth.”
The third strand has become a more significant part of the group after Abrdn recently completed its purchase of direct-to-consumer platform Interactive Investor.
Butwell tells me Bird has described the adviser platform business as the “hidden gem” of the organisation.
“It’s got a great set of financials. It is the market leader, although I accept the market has caught us up and our competitors have definitely caught up.
We will never be the cheapest. What we will be is good value
“But we’re about to try and create some clear blue water between ourselves and them.”
How has he felt when looking over his shoulder and seeing the competition coming?
“I’m a competitive person and, if you had asked me 10 years ago, I probably would have said it was important to win. But competitiveness now is more about, ‘Are we backing up what we say?’
“We need to create more capacity in this market so more people can get advice. What drives me more than anything now is doing that.”
Butwell continues to stand by his mantra of wanting his platform business to be the “easiest” for advisers to partner with. He wants to speed up processes and make systems more intuitive with interactive tools so people can take immediate decisions.
“If I’m looking over my shoulder it’s because I know we’ve got so much great stuff that we want to do and it’s not out there already.”
How many of our competitors have ever been on Have I Got News For You? My boss was over the moon
One of the reasons for the delay is all the internal work the company is going through following the Standard Life sale.
“I love being number one. I want to stay being number one in the market and I want there to be a bigger gap between us and the number two. But I wouldn’t say that’s the major driver for me.”
‘Noble profession’
He describes financial advice as a “noble profession” and outlines the need to get more people into it.
“We need to excite individuals to come into this sector.”
Competitiveness now is more about, ‘Are we backing up what we say?’
But what does the future hold for the Wrap and Elevate platforms?
“Over time, Wrap and Elevate as names or badges will be consigned to history,” Butwell admits as he talks of the firm’s transformation plan.
“We will have a solution that will be more on a modular basis so advisers can choose the propositions that meet the needs of both their business and clients.
“We’ve got some exciting ideas. I have got a name for this and what it will be and what it will look like.
“And that’s where some of the frustration comes in as we’ve had to deal with all this internal stuff and we’re continuing to have to do it — it’s a lot of heavy lifting.
We’re a client-led business. We’re very focused on delivering capabilities that help people become better investors. It was right we changed the name
“We’ve got a plan; it’s a closely guarded secret for now. But I believe it will be a tangible demonstration of the next evolution of the platform market.”
Is it possible for a platform to stand out from the crowd?
Butwell says it can appear as though there is little difference between platforms because the market seems so focused on price.
“We will never be the cheapest,” he acknowledges. “What we will be is good value.”
He believes combining the content and experience of the platform will help keep Abrdn in pole position. But he admits the company hasn’t always got it right.
“You’ve got to listen to your clients, and we didn’t. We do now and the whole schedule of what we have got planned is a direct result of client feedback.”
Did complacency play a part?
“Standard Life was at its most arrogant at times with the view, ‘Of course we know advisers and what they want. They want this.’”
We’ve got this challenge now where the company is called Abrdn but obviously Standard Life still exists and we’re in the final throes of the separation aspect
Failing to listen to advisers created friction with advice firms.
“It wasn’t a conscious decision to say, ‘We’re just not going to listen to them.’ We had a lot of people with great ideas and we believed we could really grow the business on the basis of doing some big grandstand things. Some worked and some didn’t and at times you just need to do the basics well.”
Listening to advisers is now of paramount importance to the firm. Feedback is regularly sought in client councils. Russell Bignall, who Butwell pinched from Quilter in October last year, has come in as managing director of sales and has been tasked with bringing the voice of the client back into the Adviser business.
Abrdn launches junior ISA on Wrap platform
Currently around 50% of the advice market has either Wrap or Elevate in their business, so Abrdn has a good coverage to ascertain views. What would Butwell like the figure to be?
“I’d like that 50% to use my platform as the primary platform.”
‘Hanging on by fingertips’
A development schedule will be rolled out that will broadly tick everyone’s box, he says.
“We’ve got a plan that takes us through to the end of next year. It’s a multimillion-pound investment.”
He’s eager to get going with it because Abrdn is “hanging on by its fingertips” as the market leader for advised platforms.
You want people to have an emotional connection with your brand. Anytime you change that it creates a response
“There are very few times in a career to be a market leader and disrupt the market. That’s what we’re looking to do.”
And he has no doubt the competition could also have something up their sleeves.
“I can’t allow for what they do or don’t do. “All I know is I’ve got it down in writing and I know exactly what the plan is — what we’re going to do and why.”
In the second half of 2022 we can expect Butwell to put his money where his mouth is.
CV
Noel Butwell has worked in financial services for nearly 35 years. He joined Abrdn (then Standard Life Savings) in 2003 with various management roles in sales before becoming chief executive of Abrdn Adviser in 2019.
He is responsible for setting, leading and delivering the strategy for the adviser business in the UK retail and wholesale savings market.
Alongside this, he is an executive sponsor of Abrdn’s employee network, Balance, which promotes an inclusive working environment by helping to improve gender balance at all levels.
Additionally, he is a member of the UK government’s advisory board tasked with boosting socio-economic diversity at senior levels in UK financial and professional services.
This article featured in the July 2022 edition of MM.
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