The Firm
Helping bright people make informed choices.
Ashburn Wealth Management focus on providing long term financial planning and investment strategies to a select group of long term clients.
The firm was formed when Nick Millar, an award winning IFA, and a small team, left a large national firm to provide a focused personal service to our clients and professional connections. Based at Ashburn House in Darlington, we work with affluent clients throughout the Tees Valley, North Yorkshire and further afield.
As independent financial advisers, operating on a clear fee basis, we are retained by our clients to guide them in financial planning. We are answerable only to them, and take our responsibility for their financial well being very seriously.
The world is full of misleading and confusing information about financial matters. We are here to help clients make sensible long term planning decisions and to keep things on course in a tempestuous world.
Now, quite a few years later, he has a wide experience of investments, pensions, taxation, business and more importantly of life. As he says, “Having four daughters does that to you!”
He has a healthy scepticism about much of the world of investment; “I love numbers, but hate the way the press and some, so called, advisers misuse them to sell papers or policies. I try to save my clients from the barrage of misinformation”
His desire to test any investment proposition rigorously, led him to shun active fund management in favour of passive strategies and the evidence based approach that is core to the firm’s investment process.
Although he loves the technical element of the job, and likes nothing more than snuggling down with a “warm spreadsheet”, it is helping his long-term clients make good choices and plan for their future which is most satisfying.
Nick is proud to be on the board of the Credit Union and Kings Church in Darlington, both of which help bridge wealth divide in the town. Whilst not at work, Nick is often found on his bike chasing the “boys” in the team or on an Alpine Col imagining he is hunting the Polka Dot Jersey. He and Kate love the mountains and walk in the high Pyrenees most summers. Playing an eclectic mix from Bach to the Blues, whilst his guitar gently weeps, so too do many of his listeners.
Stephen’s first job after graduation was with an insurance company which led to an interest in financial services. In 1998 he took a job with a local firm of financial advisers, where he discovered that he enjoys guiding clients through the complexities of financial products and jargon to provide straightforward solutions that help them meet their long-term goals.
Since he comes from a scientific background, he was particularly attracted by the fact that the Ashburn Wealth Management investment philosophy and processes are thoroughly researched and evidence-based, and can stand up to the closest scrutiny.
Born and bred in North Yorkshire, David started his career in financial services in 1988 with ‘Home Service’ company Royal London, where he put his passion for customer service to good use for 13 years.
This led to working for a small national IFA firm where he developed a specialism for pensions and retirement planning. Following a buy-out by a larger company David decided it was time to make a fresh start.
He was introduced to Ashburn in 2011 and was pleasantly surprised to discover a company that put their clients first, with talk of targets nowhere to be heard.
“I decided I wanted to join Ashburn for three main reasons – the people, a mindset that puts client service above everything else and the investment philosophy,” he says. “Having worked for a company that believed in the perceived value active management of a portfolio could make, I found myself won over very quickly by the passive argument and the facts supporting investing on this basis. This approach, combined with Ashburn’s investment philosophy and process, gives clients their best chance to grow their wealth and enjoy the retirement they want.”
Away from work David follows most sports along with his twin sons, Matthew and Sam. At the forefront are golf and football, although cycling is elbowing its way in and David has a couple of “C2C’s” to his name at the time of writing.He has also completed two Edinburgh Marathons but definitely won’t be doing any more!
Originally from Lithuania, Dasha arrived in Edinburgh in 2008 to study Financial Mathematics at Heriot-Watt University. After four sleepless yet exciting years she graduated with an Honours degree. Her career in the world of finance took off as a Business Analyst in a financial software company in the Scottish capital.
Dasha took every opportunity to study how financial institutions operate through education and work experience. She felt that financial information is often presented to private investors in an over complicated manner. This always struck her as unnecessary and unfair. As Dasha joined Ashburn Wealth Management in January 2015 she was glad to find out that the firm takes a different stance. They have developed their own “reader-friendly” Investment Philosophy Guide and are putting every effort in communicating their vision to their clients.
