IFA Magazine wishes to add our sympathies and condolences to all those who are mourning the very sad loss, this week, of Carolyn Gowen, recently retired principal at Bloomsbury Wealth, following a battle with cancer. Carolyn was very well known and loved within the UK financial planning community and will be sadly missed by all those who had the privilege to know her.
Having worked with Carolyn myself many years ago, at Chartwell Investment Management in Bath, I know that she was a financial planner who always put clients’ needs first. She was always so passionate about standards of advice and was a driving force in inspiring others to ensure that their focus was firmly on helping clients to achieve what they wanted from life. It’s so sad that her life has come to such a premature end in this way. Rest in peace Carolyn.
The team at Bloomsbury Wealth paid a touching – and very fitting – tribute to her as follows:
“In this profession there are many giants who quietly strive to improve their clients lives and help build a more inclusive profession. Carolyn was just such a person, known professionally throughout the world as a passionate CFP professional. Behind the individual who built fantastic relationships with clients was a steely determination to do the right thing and to ensure that they were in the best position they could be to live their lives to the full. From the many moving tributes that we have received from clients and others, it is clear that she was held in very high regard
“She moved to France in 2007 with her husband Eddie and a menagerie of horses, goats, sheep, dogs and cats. Even though a dispute with the vendor left them sleeping in the barn for a couple of nights until it was resolved, she never lost her enthusiasm for the place and over the next few years she and Eddie gradually restored it to the wonderful condition it is today. She was famed within Bloomsbury for her ability to collect exhibitor ‘swag’ at conferences and we suspect that she collected so many notebooks that there were enough to roof most of the farmhouse. Her love of animals meant that she often went off to look at potential additions to the farm, occasionally returning with an unplanned horse or donkey!
“She read prolifically in her efforts to understand more about the world, often getting up an hour early to read while looking over the countryside and she also started a local book group in her village to encourage others to read more too.
“Carolyn also loved Liverpool Football Club and her enthusiasm for all things LFC was an important part of her life, with Thursday morning team calls often starting with a discussion of the previous night’s match.
“Carolyn, you’ll never walk alone.”
