David Smith

David started working in Financial Services back in 2011 and started his career at Barclays Bank. This is where he discovered his passion for helping people with their Finances and realised that this was the Profession he wanted to be in.

He left Barclays in 2014 to further his development in Financial Services and enrolled with the University of South Wales to study BSc Finance & Investment. Whilst in his first year at University, he approached Penguin for a Part-time position to complement his studies.

Upon successfully completing his Degree, David joined the Penguin Team on a full-time basis in 2017 as a Paraplanner where he was responsible for undertaking research to identify suitable solutions to meet our Clients’ individual needs, as well as dealing with the implementation of any recommendations.

David is now a fully Qualified Financial Adviser, however, the studying still continues, as he is now working towards becoming a Certified Financial Adviser.

In his previous role, David was responsible for the technical side of our Ethical Investments and a few years ago spent a lot of time researching and implementing our Ethical Portfolios. He is still very passionate about this area and enjoys discussing Ethical Investment Planning with our Clients.

He also enjoys working with Employers and frequently spends time within their Workplaces engaging with their Employees and educating them on their Financial positions. His biggest satisfaction is engaging with Employees, who would otherwise not seek Financial Advice & helping them “Make Smarter Financial Decisions”. David firmly believes that our service provided to Employees is one of the best employment perks a business can offer their staff.

His biggest passions away from work are football & music, in particular, Newcastle United & the Arctic Monkeys. He is also the former President of Novus which is the is the Chartered Insurance Institute of Cardiff’s Young Professionals’ Group and specifically looks after the needs and interests of newer members working in Finance & Insurance.

Quickfire:

1. What’s the craziest thing you’ve done?

Whilst at University, myself and a friend decided to use our Summer Break to go Inter-Railing across Europe – exploring 11 countries and multiple cities all in the space of 3 weeks. I fell in love with Croatia & Slovenia on this trip!

2. What’s the best thing you’ve spent money on? 

Definitely feel very fortunate to own my own home – although, this does lead on to the next question too… as it seems to be the only thing we spend money on at the moment!

3. The worst?

Cheap Tradesmen. We recently hired a plumber who’s quotes came back well below everyone else’s to do some odd jobs… we woke up to a flooded living room the next morning and paying a lot more for someone else to sort out the mess! Lesson learned!

4. What’s your favourite book? 

The Great David Attenborough’s book ‘A Life on Our Planet’

5. If you’re not working, where will we find you? 

Exploring the Welsh Countryside with my little family… unless it’s raining, in which case, we will probably be binging a Netflix series!