We’re thrilled to announce that two of our talented Financial Planners, Tom Clark and Isabel Thomas, have started 2026 on a professional high. After years of dedication, hard work and study, both have achieved Chartered Financial Planner status – one of the highest professional milestones in the industry.
What does Chartered mean?
Chartered status is universally recognised as an industry gold standard. It’s not just a title – it’s a commitment to excellence, ethical practices and ongoing development. For clients, it means you’re working with Financial Planners who have the highest level of technical knowledge and are dedicated to putting your interests first.
While Goodmans is recognised as a Chartered Financial Planning firm, we don’t believe each individual needs to become Chartered to reach excellence. Those values are already baked into our culture and embraced by every single one of our team. Still, it’s a bonus if someone can officially prove it!
For clients, it means you’re working with Financial Planners who have the highest level of technical knowledge and are dedicated to putting your interests first.
The road to Chartered
It’s a long slog to become Chartered. It takes approximately 1,000 hours of study along with complex written assignments and around 14 formal exams... that’s all on top of the day job. However, many firms – like Goodmans – will provide time, support and resources to help. You also need five years of professional experience to make the grade and commit to ongoing learning.
Tom’s journey
Tom wasted no time earning his Chartered stripes, starting his studies in his spare time while serving as a Royal Marines Commando. His training ramped up when he joined Goodmans in 2021. After intensive mentoring from our Managing Director, Andrew Moore, alongside immense discipline, focus and client experience, his hard work to reach this point has paid off in a fraction of the time it takes most advisers.
Tom says: “Achieving Chartered status has been a long-term goal for me. It represents not just technical knowledge, but a commitment to doing the right thing for clients every single time. I’m proud to reach this milestone and ready to keep learning and growing.”
Isabel’s journey
With a Master’s in Finance and several years’ experience in the industry, Isabel’s technical expertise was already advanced when she joined Goodmans in 2022. Since then, she’s consistently gone above and beyond to deepen her knowledge and build client relationships, and has become a key part of our Investment Committee. Her quick progression from Paraplanner to Financial Planner and now Chartered status is as unsurprising as it is well-deserved.
Isabel shares: “For me, becoming Chartered is about setting the highest standard for myself and a way of showing clients that they can trust us to provide quality advice that’s truly in their best interests.”
More homegrown success
Ensuring our team has the right knowledge and financial planning capabilities is, of course, vital. However, we believe quality financial planning is about so much more than technical know-how and passing exams.
Qualifications are one thing, but you just can’t teach the values, enthusiasm and people skills that makes our team and our client relationships so special. That’s why our team is relatively young – we choose to invest in people who share our values and have the potential to develop into the right role.
We’re proud to have seen Tom and Isabel grow in recent years to become proficient advisers in every sense and build genuine relationships with clients. It’s an incredible accomplishment!
