Mulberry Bow Financial Advisors

“The biggest thing by a mile is just the response times. The response times compared to emails are so much faster.”

Andrew Towers, Managing Director, Mulberry Bow

Mulberry Bow is an independent Chartered financial planning boutique advising entrepreneurs, high-earning professionals and families across generations. Founded by Simon Bullock 11 years ago, the business has grown organically, primarily through client referrals, reflecting the strength of its relationships and the trust clients place in its advice.

The firm combines a highly personal service with a forward-thinking approach, embracing technology and new ideas to enhance the client experience. Financial planning comes first, with structures and investments built around each client’s circumstances, priorities and ambitions.

Just over a third of its clients are entrepreneurs, ranging from founders navigating their first business sale to serial entrepreneurs. Responsive communication and the secure exchange of sensitive information are essential to supporting these relationships.

Andrew Towers joined as Managing Director after Qwil had been adopted. Having previously worked in private banking for over a decade, he quickly recognised the difference it made to everyday client communication.

Qwil Messenger has become a natural part of Mulberry Bow’s service, combining the familiarity of instant messaging with a dedicated platform for professional conversations and document sharing.

For younger clients, messaging their adviser feels instinctive. Having only known this way of communicating with Mulberry Bow, many assume it is standard across the industry. Older clients also appreciate its simplicity and familiarity. For the Mulberry Bow team, Qwil makes it much easier to maintain a close dialogue with clients, answer questions promptly and turn planning conversations into timely action.

Moving beyond password protected email

Before Qwil, email was the firm’s primary channel, with documents encrypted or password-protected as appropriate. Clients, however, did not always respond through the same channel.

“Before Qwil, email and having to password-protect docs was the primary channel, but then you'd have clients inadvertently texting.”

Andrew also recognised the administrative burden from his previous experience in private banking. Preparing documents, applying passwords and managing their delivery added time to otherwise straightforward exchanges.

“The actual processing of passwords for those various documents could take an unnecessary amount of time.”

The appeal of Qwil was the combination of familiar messaging and a platform designed for professional client communication.

“It had that feel of WhatsApp-type messaging with the security element. That was crucial for Mulberry Bow. And that’s what Qwil is.”

Familiar to use and straightforward to adopt

For clients and colleagues, ease of use helped Qwil become embedded in the firm. Documents could be shared directly within a conversation, while clients had a clear place to ask questions and respond.

“From a client perspective, it just solves so many problems. The fact that you can just drop in the documents into Qwil, send them out, it's secure, and the two-factor authentication is easy to set up. I think all those things combined really helped to embed Qwil quickly into the business.”

That familiarity matters. Clients already use messaging apps to stay in touch with friends and family, so communicating with their adviser in a similar way feels natural.

Faster replies and quicker progress

Asked about the biggest difference Qwil has made, Andrew’s answer was immediate: response times. In his experience, clients reply more quickly through Qwil than through email. A short message makes it easy to answer a question, acknowledge an update or arrange a call.

“The client gets an email, and maybe it's not at the top of their to-do list, compared to just a message coming in, and then they might just send a thumbs up, and then, right, let's have a call tomorrow. So it's much easier.”

That responsiveness also helps when documents need a client’s attention.

“When we've got suitability reports, when we've got client agreements to send ... we can send them straight via Qwil, to get dealt with very efficiently. Normally the turnaround time is really fast, much faster than my experience with emails.”

For Mulberry Bow, the benefit is practical: fewer delays in the exchanges that keep a client’s financial planning progressing.

Part of the relationship from the outset

Mulberry Bow typically introduces Qwil during its second meeting with a prospective client. This meeting explores cash-flow planning and the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities within the client’s existing arrangements. It is also a natural point to explain how the firm will communicate and exchange the documents needed to progress.

“We'll normally talk about Qwil in that meeting anyway, because we need certain documents, like letters of authority and client agreements signed, to move forward.”

Where the prospective client wishes to proceed, the team can send an invitation during the meeting. Meeting notes and presentation materials can then follow through Qwil, allowing the conversation to continue soon afterwards.

For Andrew, that continuity strengthens the relationship at an important stage, while the prospective client is still getting to know the firm.

“The ability to then be communicating with them after that meeting, because they’re messaging us via Qwil ... is a real enhancer, 100%.”

Communication across generations

Adoption has extended well beyond younger clients.

“It's amazed me just how quickly it's been adopted by clients in their 70s, 80s, just because it's so straightforward for them to communicate with us.”

For younger clients, messaging their adviser often feels entirely natural. Many have joined Mulberry Bow with Qwil already in place and regard it as a normal part of the service.

The platform also supports conversations involving more than one generation of a family, where appropriate permissions are in place.

“We use it for client communication, short-form chat, and sometimes we'll have family groups with clients when certain family members are allowed into the chat as well.”

This is particularly useful for a firm whose work frequently involves family wealth and planning across generations.

Supporting the team behind the advice

Qwil also forms part of Mulberry Bow’s internal communication. Advisers and colleagues use group conversations to discuss cases and coordinate work within their teams. Having a familiar channel for these exchanges helps colleagues stay connected around the clients they support.

What has changed for Mulberry Bow

Andrew highlights six practical benefits:

• Faster client replies compared with his experience of email.
• Straightforward document sharing, including suitability reports and client agreements.
• Early engagement, with prospective clients introduced to Qwil during the onboarding process.
• Adoption across generations, including clients in their 70s and 80s.
• Family conversations, with relevant family members included where authorised.
• Internal coordination, through conversations between advisers and their supporting teams.

Qwil has become part of how Mulberry Bow delivers its service: keeping conversations accessible, helping clients respond and maintaining momentum between meetings.

Andrew’s recommendation to other advisers is characteristically direct:

“Why aren't you using it, if they're not using it already? Simple as that.”

‍