A FORMER Llandovery College pupil is part of a trio of young financial advisers who will be the next generation to lead a well-respected wealth management firm.

Gwyn Edwards, 29, has been appointed as a Director at Wrexham-based Hadlow Edwards Wealth Management Ltd with his colleagues, Ben Gittins, 27, and Tom Hadlow, 30, as part of a long-term strategy to ensure the continued success, direction and longevity of the firm.

Existing senior board director James Parry has also increased his stake in the business.

The company, which was set up by founding directors, Warren Hadlow and Medwyn Edwards in 2000, moved their rapidly expanding team into the former Wrexham Lager Old Brewery building in the heart of the town just over a year ago.

Their firm now has 26 employees and looks after the financial plans for nearly 3,000 clients. The business is continually looking to recruit both experienced advisers and support staff.

It is a representative of St. James’s Place Wealth Management, a FTSE 100 company which is one of the UK's largest wealth management organisations.

Gwyn Edwards, 29, who is the son of Founding Director Medwyn, joined Hadlow Edwards three and a half years ago after graduating from St. James's Place Academy.

He heads up the firm's London office and his new directorship follows the news that he has just been made a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) – the highest accolade there is in the industry.

He said one of the main focuses for his new directorship would be to drive forward the development of the business in this region.

Gwyn, who won a prestigious scholarship to Llandovery College due to his prowess on the rugby field, said: “Since we set up the London office in 2016, it has been going from strength to strength and we are not too far off being at a point where we will need an additional adviser there to help with the volume of work. It’s my goal to push forward and increase our presence in the area.”

Gwyn, who lives in West Hampstead and got married in August to Nia, added: “I feel very proud about gaining the directorship and being trusted by Warren and Medwyn to help look after what they have been building over the last 19 years.

“I think we are a great team with different strengths and we will all bring something different to the role which will be of terrific benefit to the firm and its long-term strategy for going forward whilst continuing to look after all our clients to the very best of our ability.”

Warren Hadlow, founding director for Hadlow Edwards, said: “This is all about ensuring the longevity of the business.

“Medwyn and I are now in our 50s and pride ourselves on the fact that much of the success of the business has come from the long term, trusted relationships we have developed with our loyal clients.

“But we are not going to be here for the next 30 years to carry that on with the younger clients coming through, often the younger generations of the same families who we have advised for many years.”

Warren went on to explain how welcoming younger people to the business had helped his firm to evolve and innovate. He said: “What the younger people bring is an energy, they bring a lot of innovation and fresh ideas, particularly around the use of IT which has been very important to embrace in order for us to stay current.”

He also stressed that nurturing this fresh talent was not exclusive to the adviser roles and how his firm has taken a similar approach to those in the administrative team too.

He said: “We have been fortunate to recruit some excellent staff on the administrative side too with four of them now in charge of running the office for us. They have grown through their time with us from junior clerical positions to defined management roles.

“This again helps to ensure the success and longevity of the business because the financial advisers are all supported by an experienced and talented team who know the business inside and out.”