Frank Cochran: How I cashed in on celebrity

An invitation to the Royal Variety Show propelled Frank Cochran from being an ordinary IFA into a financial planner for celebrities.

At first glance, engineering doesn't have much in common with providing financial advice. But Frank Cochran, the 51-year-old founder of Wolverhampton-based FSC Investment Services, found that his background as a former BT apprentice helped greatly when he started out in the financial industry, in 1979. To Cochran, independent financial advisers (IFAs) were just "glorified problem solvers", and he took to the job immediately.

Over the course of more than ten years he worked for a host of firms. But in 1991, after being made redundant by investment bank ING, he spurned an offer from Britannia in order to set up on his own, taking his many "satisfied clients" with him. Most were senior teachers. "They were well paid in the late 1970s and by the 1990s they had built up quite a sizeable investment pot." Over the first five years, these clients and others from his contact book helped him to grow his assets under management by more than £1m a year. Aware that he needed fresh clients to keep growing, he carried out aggressive regional marketing campaigns and began writing for the local newspaper. "It made us recognised and trusted within the local businesses community."

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James McKeigue

James graduated from Keele University with a BA (Hons) in English literature and history, and has a certificate in journalism from the NCTJ. James has worked as a freelance journalist in various Latin American countries.He also had a spell at ITV, as welll as wring for Television Business International and covering the European equity markets for the Forbes.com London bureau. James has travelled extensively in emerging markets, reporting for international energy magazines such as Oil and Gas Investor, and institutional publications such as the Commonwealth Business Environment Report. He is currently the managing editor of LatAm INVESTOR, the UK's only Latin American finance magazine.