Diversity of thought is particularly important to them in an industry where "all providers tend to look and sound the same and say the same things, and be from similar backgrounds."
Tackling HNW advice gap
Since launch Six Degrees has already grown faster than anticipated and is halfway along its goal for this year when it comes to client base.
It was partly set up to tackle what the pair identified as an advice gap for HNW investors, those with more than £3mn to invest, which are its target clients.
Saiman says: "For high net worth individuals, so those with more than 3mn pounds of investable assets, their first conversations typically take place with the big banks. And banks are good at lots of different things but at the end of the day they are utilities, and the conversation around wealth management tends to become very product focused.
"And so high net worth clients are immediately disadvantaged, because they go into this environment and they think that the wealth conversation is an investment conversation."
Waller explains this means the sense of purpose, which tends to be so prevalent in the businesses those HNW individuals set up and run, tends to get lost when the business is sold and the wealth created.
She says: "Most of these individuals have had a purpose driving a business. There's values and a culture in that business that they have typically bred and created.
"And so what then happens is a liquidation event takes place and that purpose loses its way in the conversation."
It is exactly this gap which Six Degrees is trying to bridge.
Saiman adds: "It is a solution at the end of a long process of discovery and understanding.
"And we are aiming to influence the industry towards this way of thinking, because we think there's no other way to do it."
carmen.reichman@ft.com
