And what a week it was. As we all know it’s been a rollercoaster over the past 15 months and we were gutted we didn’t get to celebrate our birthdays last year – especially as the babies of the group, The Verve Group and The Art of Finance had turned 1! So, in true Verve style, we’ve made up for it by having a birthday week, we’re talking pizza, pressies and prosecco – you name it, we did it!

With The Verve Group and The Art of Finance now 2 years old, Apricity Compliance 3 and our big sister Para-Sols now 12, we had lots to look back on and be proud of.

Having worked hard to establish ourselves as the biggest and best paraplanning company in the UK, the demand for Para-Sols services over the pandemic was beyond anything we could have anticipated. With a tonne of hard work and an influx of new recruits, we’re finally finding our feet again, and this year we’re focusing on innovating our services and the way we deliver them, to ensure our world class service continues to thrive and remain the best in the industry.

Over at Apricity Compliance, we’ve spent the last 3 years working to change the industry’s perception of compliance, creating our own fresh approach and building unrivalled, bespoke technology for our clients. It’s been a learning curve and those lessons have certainly paid off (check out some of our highlights here). Our team is strong and ever growing, and our clients are happier than ever with the services we have to offer. Therefore our aim for the year is to continue to work in partnership with our clients to support them to be the best they can possibly be.

The Art of Finance was the most impacted by covid and has therefore had the biggest face lift over the last year and to be honest, if we listed all the changes, improvements and innovations we have made recently this would be one long blog! But with a brand new look and a sexy new website filled with new training support opportunities, we’re well set up for an exciting year of new content and support for our lovely students.

And finally it’s our turn! The Verve Group has gone through a huge transformation over the last 12 months – what was once simply just a brand to pull together all our individual companies, is now a fully functioning business with its own services, its own team and a boat load of new ideas and developments in the pipeline to support advisers and their businesses to thrive – so, watch this space! Not only that, but we finished off the week with the launch of The Verve Awards, where we’re hoping to really shine a spotlight on some of the amazing people and initiatives that are happening in financial services, that are rarely in the headlines – and really should be! Check them out and submit your nominations here.

And so we stand here today, on the other side of Covid, not only having survived the pandemic, but on strong foundations to build on in the future and that all comes down to the support of our team and our clients, and we couldn’t be more grateful. So, thank you all, and cheers to another year of changing the face of finance…