A former Llandovery College student has become one of the youngest in the UK to achieve a top qualification known as the gold standard in his profession.

At the age of just 27, Gwyn Edwards, of Hadlow Edwards Wealth Management, has passed his Chartered Financial Planner exams.

Gwyn runs the London office of Hadlow Edwards which is a Principal Partner Practice of the FTSE 100 Company St. James’s Place Wealth Management, one of the UK’s largest wealth management organisations which looks after client funds of £83 bn.

It’s a mark of Gwyn’s achievement that according to the latest Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) figures, which oversees the Chartered Financial Planner qualifications, only 17 per cent of the 25,000 financial planners in the UK hold the title. The average national age for achieving the qualification is 47.

He also has the distinction of being part of only the second father and son duo within St. James’s Place to have the prestigious qualification.

His father, Medwyn Edwards, who founded Hadlow Edwards in Wrexham, North Wales, with joint owner Warren Hadlow in 2000, already holds it.

Gwyn, who won a scholarship to Llandovery College due to his prowess on the rugby field, heads up Hadlow Edwards’ Mayfair office which was opened by the firm last year because of increasing client numbers in the capital and south east region. He still plays rugby for a side in West Hampstead where he now lives.

“I began working towards the exams for the Level 4 Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning in 2013,” said Gwyn.

“At the same time I was studying for the qualification I was also working as a trainee financial adviser, which at times was quite demanding but I achieved it about a year later.

“In the summer of 2015 I then began studying for the next stage, which is the Financial Planning Advanced Diploma. That took the best part of two years and involved four exams, the last one being in April this year.

“I passed the exam and now have the title of Chartered Financial Planner.

“I know that most people in the industry who have the qualification get it in their thirties and forties and at the stage of having families and children, so I can imagine how hard it was for them doing all the necessary studying on top of having a full-time job.

“Given my age I think being a Chartered Financial Planner will help give me a bit more authority when it comes to dealing with clients and help them to feel more comfortable with me.

“It’s also good that both my dad and I now hold the same title and that I got it at an earlier stage in my career than he did."