Not only is Irina new, but the venue is new too – we met at the Victoria Hotel in Canterbury as part of a less formal approach to some meetings during this presidential year. The informal venue meant Irina also had to give her talk without slides…but of course this was no problem for her!
As usual, President Rosemary Doyle welcomed everyone to the meeting and we had a thought for the day from PP Mike Talbot before Irina started her talk.
The first thing Irina said with a smile as she got up was “Please don’t ask too many tough questions – this isn’t Prime Minister’s Questions”. Irina then went on to tell us all about her work as a financial advisor – a role that she finds very fulfilling. Interestingly, she pointed out that women are greatly underrepresented in this area of work – yet female clients often feel more comfortable discussing their financial matters with another female.
As we’ve previously mentioned, Irina is originally from Transylvania in Romania. She told us a little about how the country has transformed over recent years and said that “the economy there is flourishing now”. We even learnt that King Charles has a house there. Describing Transylvania to us, Irina said “it’s wild, underdeveloped and very beautiful,” before adding “and the pound goes a long way there right now!”
Irina came to this country a number of years ago and her qualifications are from The London Institute of Banking & Finance. She now works as an independent financial advisor for Atram Financial, her company.
Irina spoke of some of the challenges of looking after one’s finances – “taxation is ever changing and investments have to take account of this,” she said. Irina told us that financial advisors are well placed to assist as they are properly regulated and educated; they have to pass exams that cover accountancy, law and finance. Moreover, professional development exams need to be passed every year.
Irina reassured us that when working with a financial advisor, “everything is done in confidence”. Her goal is to ensure that people are not paying too much tax, but also not taking too much risk.
Irina closed her talk by saying that “everyone should have a financial advisor, no matter the amount of money they have.”
Irina’s talk was received with a warm round of applause – and not surprisingly, she had a number of questions from the audience.
Picture: Irina starts her talk to our members at the Victoria Hotel. Picture credit: Rotary Club of Canterbury.
