Second charge distributor Fluent Money has appointed Stuart Almond as group compliance director for the business, which now includes the new intermediary brand, Fluent for Advisers.
Almond joins Fluent Money from mortgage network, HLPartnership (HLP), where he was compliance director for over three years, having previously provided compliance consultancy services there since 2008.
He started his career with the Prudential in 1986 and latterly worked in a sales and management capacity for companies such as Liverpool Victoria, Wesleyan General, MGM Assurance and Mortgage Next, as well as running his own brokerage.
Kevin Hindley, Fluent Money’s chief executive officer, said: “We are delighted to welcome Stuart to the Fluent Money team. His experience running the compliance function for HLP, as well as his in depth personal knowledge of the advice world as a practitioner, means he is particularly well equipped to take over from our departing director of quality & risk, Nuala Wheeldon.
“Nuala has been responsible for building Fluent Money’s pre-eminence in its adoption of the highest compliance standards in the industry. She will be a hard act to follow. However, I am sure that Stuart’s network experience, allied to his personal knowledge of the intermediary’s role, will ensure that Fluent Money continues to lead the market in its ability to meet and exceed all compliance requirements in the future.”
Almond said: “I am looking forward to my new role. Fluent Money has been an important partner of HLP, so I know the company well. I was always impressed with their proposition. However, it was also the seriousness with which they embraced and built regulatory requirements into all of their processes, which was so impressive, made my job so much easier and meant that HLP’s members and customers were always in good hands.”
HLPartnership’s chief executive, Chris Tanner, said: “We would like to thank Stuart for his contribution to our network over the past eight years, and look forward to continuing our working relationship with him in his new role at our long-time partner provider, Fluent Money.”
