SPECIAL EDITION | The seven months that were Jan-Jul 2021

Afternoon All ,

I hope you all had a relaxing Bank Holiday weekend , despite the somewhat dull weather here in the UK !

Many of you have been asking throughout the summer for an update on ‘’ How Are We Doing ? ‘’ etc .

So I spent a few hours looking at this yesterday whilst every single radio station up here in Darbados appeared to be playing it’s Greatest 200 songs etc …. < Abba were disgracefully not entered in any Top 10’s ! >

The time flew by , and below is a neat summary of what’s happened since January . Next week I will send you all the YTD tables ( Top 15 Only in each category … this is never about profiling those who are in the lower quartiles by choice / lifestyle )

But this is the story of the first 7 months .

JANUARY

The first month of the year saw tumultuous scenes in the US as Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol Building ahead of Biden’s glamour filled inauguration thanks to appearances by J Lo (her again) and Lady Gaga.

Similarly In our business , several of you started brightly , none more so than Zak who nailed 28 apps. Michelle in Darbados did an astonishing 19 apps and daaarn saaarff , the Gants Hill massive , innit , ( Ajay and Shak ) put 15 runs on the board in quick time . On Comps , Michelle nailed 16 , Nick Harris 14 , but Zak AK bulleted all with his amazing 34 completions .

On the Life side , Adrianna had a great month with 11 , and each of Pete Chappell and Warren Middleton did 9 each.

FEBRUARY

Month 2 saw Sarah Norman really kill it , with an astonishing 26 apps , which comfortably beat any opposition , though the efforts of Ajay & Shak ( 23 ) were once more notable . Clearly , every Asian in East London spends the new year spring-cleaning their finances or buying ( another ) BTL property , guys ?

It remained very much an Essex- fing on the comps where Paul Varney watched an impressive 16 cases complete ! Up the M6 , Jaime Lines flew the yellow and gold flag for Spotlite with 12 comps …. It only seems like yesterday , but Jaime has really flown since he joined , and perhaps much like Traore at Wolves , one wonders if it’s time now to move to a bigger club ??? < ouch ! …. sorry Ben ! > .

The Life side now began to be dominated by the Swansea maestros Kevin Gronow and Sophie Evans who wrote an astonishing 44 policies between them !

Across our celebrity media the stars were once again all dressed up with nowhere to go as a plethora of the Annual Back Slapping Awards do’s were shunted off into the Summer months and Harry and Meghan Markle announced their second pregnancy with a very un-private photoshoot unveiled on Valentine’s Day!

MARCH

Beware the ides of March ( the 15th ! ) and 15 was indeed what Nick Harris wrote . A super number , but topped by Zak once again with 28 apps and a now fast emerging Godfather- on- speed , in Ron Walton who smashed 24 apps in .

On Comps , Ron did 22 , but was topped by our resident 007 in Mike Atkinson who did a very stylish , shaken n not stirred , 24 comps !

The Life table saw Kevin Gronow write the highest again , but Pete Chappell was spectacular up there in Kings Lynn with some more scrumptious ides ( 15 ! )

In the movie world , the Bond film was once again re-scheduled for release back to the Autumn and Tom Cruise threw a childish wobbly on- set up here in Derbyshire whilst filming Mission Impossible 7 ! Tw*t .

APRIL

In the world of the celebrities the nation was still in shock at Piers Morgan storming off GMB! and Sir Anthony Hopkins was also missed off our screens as his BAFTA win was announced live and he was otherwise engaged painting!

In our more grounded world , Zak continued his fine start to the year just as Jose Mourinho was about to finish his … ! , and beleaguered Arsenal fans were being encouraged to continue to ‘’ believe in the project ‘’ !!

Following Zak however came each of Laura Sayers ( 9 ) and Tom Sibley ( 8 ) .

Unsurprisingly , the battle -royale continued on the Comps side where the head- 2- head between Zak and Ron was establishing these two near-Hertfordshire bunnies as the Duracell’s to watch . But it also saw fabulous months from each of Eva Alonso and Sean McGeough , who both cashed in 13 deals.

On the Life side , we also saw the advent of the Welsh tyro that is Nick Price who absolutely mashed his debut month with an awesome 36 deals.

MAY

The end of the footie season saw Arsenal finish 8th once again ( … but still believing in the Project !!! ) and Fulham valiantly relegated after a real scrap .. though Nick Harris’ own excellent figures continued to see him positioned in the Top 3 across the company .

On the apps front , it was a 3- way fight which saw an M’force returnee in Rhys Forrest come out on top with an exceptional 16 cases in his first full month back in the fold . This marginally topped an ever-consistent Sean McGeough on 15 and a fast-improving ( Berberry No 2 ) in Mark Nathan on 13 . Sean also threw his hat in to the ring for the new Tottenham job and was given a waiting room ticket with number 53 on it !

Cases completing saw 2 new headliners grab the news with Heather Wall securing drawdown on a whopping 13 cases , beaten however by an astonishing 17 completions by Phil Lyle as he duly celebrated the hornets ‘ re- entry back in to the big time .

Life -wise , Kevin Gronow was back in charge with a taff-tastic 37 deals , whilst over in scorching Tel Aviv , Jo Zeff blitzed it with 13 cases aided by her London luvvies . Great work Jo .

JUNE

The Euro’s came to us in June and whilst England did ok , it was yet another triumph of caution over expansiveness . The restrictions around the pandemic also started to finally ease and the Indian cricket team arrived with their annoying and arrogant captain , Kholi .

There was nothing annoying however about the group-wide figures for the business which were record-breaking , no doubt aided by the Stamp Duty holiday closing . No fewer than 16 brokers got in to double figures on applications and foremost amongst these were Dominic Willett , Paul ‘’ Fish ‘’ Oglesby and Ricki Wenn who was also now close to completing the purchase of the Cozens & Dean business < Congratulations to all , there ) .

At the top , it remained a two-way battle between Ron and Zak . Whilst on the comps side , the wives of Messrs Varney and Taylor saw that their husbands had been very busy getting 13 cases each over the line , just as staycations were being planned and booked . Sarah Norman also celebrated a landmark birthday , hic

And down in Swansea , the incredible Sophie Evans completed no fewer than 49 Life cases ! WTF !!!!!

Elsewhere , Sean McGeough was still sat outside White Hart Lane awaiting his job interview and being told by text .. ’’ you are now 4th in line on our call holding ; thank you for your patience ‘’

JULY

…. All of which brings us almost up to date on what has been a record year for the Group and for so many brokers .

July unsurprisingly saw some hideous completion stats with the front two of Ron and Zak having a whopping 36 between them . But not far behind were Nick Harris , Sarah Norman , and Ben Hancox with over £1.5m in completions . It was to be a tough month for Ben and the Dingles elsewhere however as just when Sean McGeough looked destined for the Spursy job …. they gave it to Nuno !!!

And as if to prove that there was indeed Life after the expiry of the SDLT concession , we witnessed some exceptional volumes in apps from Eva ( 14 ) , Berberry’s No 2 ( 14 ) , and Paul ‘’ Fish ‘’ Oglesby ( 10 ) .

The storyline on the Life side remained the same with KG and NP at CFFL smashing in 80 cases between them whilst amid the broker community Chris Taylor proved his consistency again with 3 and a fast-approaching Senior Citizen in Neil Gould registered an impressive 7 . In sport , two divers made the news as Tom Daley signalled that he would finally win Gold in Tokyo , and Jack Grealish left Villa for Oilchester Citrey.

HALF-TIME SUMMARY

Gaffers often use their half- time periods to give glib pep talks , but clearly one isn’t needed here !

Your collective figures have been outstanding , and coupled with the incredible rate of recruitment we have seen , the Shareholders are rightly so extremely delighted with the first half of the year , especially he Society .

Purchases have obviously waned but that was to be expected . Over the next quarter there will be two strong influencing factors to how you do ;

1. Lenders have told us already that they want to finish the year with strong pipelines etc so look out for more ‘ fire-sales ‘ etc .

2. Sept and Oct are record months for PT’s …. So do please try to get ahead of that now .

Finally , a word of thanks to the case managers and paraplanners ….. the 3,500 cases which you wrote simply wouldn’t have been possible but for the excellent work of your and our admin staff . This is reflected in the fact that the completion rate on screened cases is almost 80% which is in the top quartile for lenders when they assess their Intermediary-metrics . And in terms of Compliance ( where we manage each account via a Red / Amber / Green risk - scorecard ) we only have 2 brokers presently on red and just 3 on Amber , which is a decent profile from 75 writers )

The monthly get-togethers will thankfully start again soon and it’ll be great to see folk face 2 face again .

Well Done All ,

The Management Team