Up Close: Jerry Williamson's journey from scuba diving along Great Barrier Reef to rising star at Lyndhurst Financial Management

Hitchin Nub News aims to support our community, promoting shops, businesses, charities, clubs and sports groups.

We showcase some of these businesses, organisations and interesting individuals from our area displaying creativity and innovation in our regular feature called 'Up Close'.

For our latest Hitchin Nub News Up Close we're highlighting a young employee's success story at a renowned local business.

This week we are featuring financial planner Jerry Williamson from Lyndhurst Financial Management, who have an office in Hitchin town centre as well as a renowned presence across Hertfordshire.

So, read on as we showcase a young achiever in six steps

1) Holidays, golf and podcasts

I guess a good place to start is with a little bit about me, I love to travel, myself and my partner Hannah try to get away a few times a year to explore destinations we haven't been to before. We call them holidays but I don't think our always on the go adventuring approach would match others expectations of what a holiday is supposed to be. I like to keep healthy and stay active and spend a fair amount of time on the golf course working to reduce my handicap and recovering wayward golf balls. Outside of this, it's all pretty boring I'm afraid, socialising with friends and family, reading/listening to podcasts and occasionally picking up the guitar.

2) Trip of a lifetime brings Australia adventures: Scuba diving, jumping out of planes, rainforest treks and white water rafting

Regarding work over the years and how I've got to where I am now, the best place to start is probably leaving my role at Towers Watson (now Willis Towers Watson) in 2015 to travel across Australia and some parts of Asia with my brother. It was an epic trip of a lifetime with amazing new experiences such as scuba diving in the great barrier reef, jumping out of a plane over mission beach in Cairns, treks through rainforest, white water rafting among other great memories that I'll cherish for a long time to come.

3) From banking in Dorset to providing independent financial advice

Upon returning to the UK I found a job at a local estate agent as a junior property negotiator and enjoyed successive promotions throughout the three or so years that I worked there, spending the final 18 months as the branch sales manager. I left this position to move to Dorset and took a job at NatWest as I wanted to move back into financial services. My role was that of a senior personal banker, I started in the NatWest Dorchester branch and ended up working with a fantastic team at the Salisbury branch. At NatWest I was working towards moving into the private banking team, however, decided that I wanted to work somewhere that could provide independent financial advice and therefore accepted a role at Arthur J. Gallagher Wealth.

4) From south west trainee paraplanner and Dorset's beaches back to family and friends in Hertfordshire

I swiftly moved on to a trainee paraplanner position at a small family-run firm in Sherborne called Fort Financial Planning, working closely with the financial planner there to help the people we worked with achieve their goals. From here I decided to move back to Hertfordshire as although I loved the south-west for all its picturesque beauty and local beaches, I missed my family, friends and connections at home. This is the pivotal point, as this is where Lyndhurst features heavily (sorry to have dragged you through the rest).

5) Exams loom: Diploma in regulated financial planning leads to fruitful career with fantastic Lyndhurst

I started out with Lyndhurst in March 2021 accepting a job offer to be a junior paraplanner, developing my industry knowledge whilst continuing my study toward a diploma in regulated financial planning, which I had started in my former role. Since, then I have been promoted to Paraplanner, Assistant Financial Planner and in just the last couple of weeks have been signed off as a financial adviser/planner. It has been a remarkable journey because the team at Lyndhurst have been fantastic in supporting my aspirations in becoming a financial adviser. At Lyndhurst, there is a wonderful relationship between the staff and the people we work with and I believe this largely a product of the working environment and the experience and prestige of the company; making it an incredible place to work.

6) Modest Jerry

Jerry is far too modest to share his incredible achievements but having completed the Regulated Diploma in Financial Planning early in 2022, he has been studying further with a view to achieving Chartered status in the coming years. Since completing the Diploma, Jerry has been awarded certificates in Discretionary Investment Management, Equity Release and Mortgage Advice. And in March of this year, heard-working also completed his first level 6 exam in Investment Planning, achieving a unit pass with distinction.