Insurance found Teresa in 1997, when she joined a small broker in Leicester after a couple of years working 6½ days a week as a groom in all weathers became too much. Swopping jodhpurs & jeans for smart office attire and village life for the large city of Leicester couldn’t have been more different, but that’s when her career in the financial services industry began. A move to a larger broker a couple of years later saw Teresa working as Secretary to two Life & Pensions Directors in what was known as the Death Department†on the top floor. When the opportunity arose, she moved up to a position in pensions administration and eventually became a consultant when the brokerage was taken over by International Insurance Broker, Sedgwick Noble Lowndes. She had to master the art of juggling family life and a career as her two children came along during this period and she also started a bridalwear business in her home town of Melton Mowbray. The job meant she learnt the ins and outs of group pension schemes; looking after the likes of Weetabix, Wilkinson, John Deere & Florida Van-Dal until redundancy 16 years later. After a brief spell out of the industry, Teresa returned to Leicester to work for a one-man Financial Advisor until a move to Gloucestershire and a new life beckoned. It was when she joined a family insurance brokerage in Cheltenham that Teresa achieved an ambition of gaining a professional qualification and passed her Financial Planning Certificates in 2000/1 and her Mortgage Advice Qualification in 2003.
