From saving for your children's future to putting aside money to enjoy in your retirement - those are just some of the ways in which Argus Financial Limited's (AFL) new senior wealth manager Felicia Rickards will be helping people with their investments.

Mrs. Rickards will provide investment advice to a range of private and institutional clients based on fundamental analysis and independent research.

And the Bermudian is keen to get people into investing at a younger age to reap the rewards at a later age.

AFL is a local financial services company that provides investment solutions to private investors, businesses and global institutional investors and invests the Argus Group's money. Mrs. Rickards joined after nine years with the Argus Group as a senior account representative in the sales and marketing department.

She holds a BSc degree in Psychology from Indiana State University and a MA degree in Business Management and Human Resource Development from Webster University.

"For the past nine years I have worked for the Argus Group in pensions investment and the employees benefits side, so that was my way into wealth management really," she said.

"I also have an educational background in human resource management and my clients appreciate that because they feel that I have a broad perspective of their business challenges.

"Wealth management actually includes helping clients manage all aspects of their finances from debt and rick management to capital return and helping individuals grow their investments and even retirement planning."

And she believes her background will stand her in good stead for assisting customers to meet their financial goals and ambitions.

"Although I am new to this position, every aspect of wealth management I have handled in past job experiences, so this is an excellent opportunity for me to include each of these areas in this role," she said.

"I was in sales and marketing investment and one of my key roles was to sell employee benefits and insurance and through that my relationship with AFL grew based on selling the pension product."

Her day-to-day role will be primarily focused on providing client services, starting with an initial meeting to find out about their background and requirements and following that up with regular updates to analyse how their chosen investments are performing.

Her job can include everything from helping parents to save a nest egg for their children's education or future to providing for their own future in terms of a retirement fund.

"Most parents have high hopes for their children and that includes sending them to college or further education and it is much less stressful to manage their investment towards that if their child is two rather than 16, so it is about getting individuals to focus on what happens in the future and what their objectives are for the future," she said.

"With the high cost of living in Bermuda, some people might not have accumulated a sufficient amount of money for retirement and I have to help them play catch up with their investment to pay their utility expenses and if they want to travel the world at that stage of life because retirement for many people is 20 to 25 years and that is a long time to not have a salary income coming in.

"Forward planning is the key to assist people to be more comfortable with their investments at the end of the day.

"Each person or each company is at a different stage of development and the first meeting with them is a detailed client analysis to look at where they are and want to go with their investments and once we have helped them with what to focus on, we look at a specific plan.

"The younger you are, the more interested you are in what is happening in the near future," she said.

"For example, when you are younger and living for the moment the important things may be what trip you can take next month or what party to go to next week, but we try to point out that a monthly commitment is the best way for any young person to approach saving for the future.

"We find one of the best ways to demonstrate that is showing them the growth of a dollar over time."

"But, the biggest issue by far is retirement planning - individuals really want to enjoy life more and gone are the days of traditional retirement where you sit at home and watch the soaps, people now want to travel and meet their relatives and friends around the world, but that is more difficult to achieve, especially due to the additional costs of healthcare."

One of the most important things is keeping a track of people's savings, according to Mrs. Rickards.

"The key when an individual is trying to determine the safety of their money and the financial stability of the company and how accessible it is to review what is happening with your money," she said.

"What we find is that quite a few Bermudians have had bad experiences from investing their money in the past and we have to re-educate them about the investment process and when we help them meet their objectives, then they are comfortable working with us."

"We are delighted to have Felicia join our growing team," said Henry Perren, chief operating officer of AFL.

"At AFL our greatest strength lies in our experienced and dependable investment advisors who work diligently to provide objective advice to our clients' individual needs and expectations."

Gerald Simons, president and CEO of the Argus Group added: "After nine years of working with Felicia in the sales and marketing department, I am confident that her extensive experience will have a positive impact on AFL's ability to deliver superior and unique management solutions to a vast array of corporate, institutional and private clients."