2014

With the number of Equilibrium clients growing the business needed more meeting space. We therefore bought Evolution House, a second building at Brooke Court in Handforth. This space provides dedicated meeting rooms for clients to be able to meet with their adviser on a regular basis.

Equilibrium was included in the New Model Adviser Top 100 – a list highlighting the best wealth management firms in the UK. We were also a finalist for the Best Company to Work For at the North East Cheshire Business Awards.

The year saw the launch of our new website which featured more videos, blogs and recent news to make the site more interactive and engaging for visitors.

Key events

• Evolution House at Brooke Court was purchased to expand our Head Office
• Equilibrium was included in the New Model Adviser Top 100
• We launched our new website!

What else happened in this year?

In finance…

Annual UK Inflation: 0.55% CPI
Bank base rate: 0.5000% since 2009
IHT threshold: £325,000 since 2009

In the charts…

• Pharrell Williams’ song Happy, which was released at the end of 2013, became the best-selling single of 2014, also setting records for the most downloaded song of all time.

On the screen… 

• The final instalment of The Hobbit, The Battle of the Five Armies, was released in December, concluding the prequel trilogy to The Lord of the Rings.
• Its success was however surpassed by that of the latest instalment in the Transformers franchise: Age of Extinction, which became the highest grossing film of the year.

Around the world… 

• 7^th February – The 22nd Winter Olympics open in Sochi, Russia. Great Britain went on to win 1 gold, one silver and two bronze medals, our best performance at a winter games since 1924.
• 3^rd November – Over 13 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, One World Trade Centre opens in New York.

In the UK…

• 18^th January – 16-year-old Lewis Clarke of Bristol sets a new world record after becoming the youngest person to reach the South Pole.
• 18^th-19^th September – Scotland votes No in the referendum for its independence from the UK, by a margin of 55.3% to 44.7%.