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To me the start of the year is an enjoyable time. After a good long break at the beach I get back to work full of enthusiasm and ready to implement lots of new fresh ideas.
Coming back to the office this year is a little different. I've had a poignant reminder about one of the things l like about the financial services industry and why I have stayed involved with it for more than 15 years.
Simply it's the people.
Over the weekend I found out that Glenn Thompson, an adviser based in Fielding, had died from a heart attack. Glenn wasn't particularly well-known in the industry as he didn't belong to the FPIA or anything like that. But he was a member of SIFA and it is at their conferences that I got to know GT.
He was one of those blokes who love to talk and share a story.
While he wasn't one of these high profile guys he epitomised some of the great qualities I find amongst advisers. He was a likeable guy who wanted to help people.
I've talked to a few other people about GT. One former BT business development manager described him as the client services team's "favourite adviser".
Here's what he said: "Some of the things he did just made our day. He would always remind us that we worked for a great company. He'd write to BT's CEO to tell him that he liked dealing with us.
"He'd also write to tell us what he thought of new services we had implemented, or changes that we made. He was always constructive, and always encouraging.
"Glenn would ask the young Client Services Representatives if they had a savings plan, and if they didn't, he'd encourage them to get started. One thing with Glenn though was he'd love to chat - so you knew you'd be on the phone for a while when you heard his familiar greeting "gidday my boy, GT here".
In many ways its guys like GT, not all the technical stuff, the markets and the product, that make the financial services industry such a great place to be.
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I am saddened to hear the news of Glenn Thompson's passing. He was one of the characters of the financial services industry. I say character because he wasn't your 'normal' adviser - he did things differently. He challenged conventional wisdom and limited his product selection so that he could make his plans understandable for his clients. And he was a great advocate of a regular savings programme, especially for the young.
Like Philip and others I knew GT as a likeable chap who loved to tell a story.
I enjoyed visiting GT at his home in Fielding, knowing that a meeting planned for an hour could easily stretch into two if you let it, largely because of the wide-ranging, open and frank discussions and his great hospitality - he insisted on you having lunch or afternoon tea, partaking in the homebaking generously produced by his wife.
While I have had no direct contact with Glenn in recent years, I still recall quite clearly many years ago sitting in the dining room of his house on the hill, having lunch,looking out across the plains talking about the airforce, investments and many other topices of conversation.