Laura Wellington

Laura Wellington

After ten years in the education sector, I was ready for a new challenge—one where I could continue helping people but in a different way. I transitioned into the financial services industry with a clear purpose: to ensure that more young people, families, and individuals understand the value of insurance and how it can support them across every stage of life.

Starting in an Adviser Support Role with Advice Plus, I have built experience in all the necessary aspects to transition to being a Financial Adviser. I enjoy working with a wide range of clients, each with their own goals and life stories, and I thrive on finding personalised solutions—whether simple or complex—that truly fit their individual needs.

My approach is all about education and empowerment. I want my clients to walk away feeling confident, supported, and secure in the knowledge that their future plans are protected. I value honesty, empathy, and thinking long-term—to me, protecting people isn’t just about having cover, it’s about understanding people, and what matters most to them.

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Nick Lawson

Nick’s early career started in academia working in a science based tertiary education role for the University of Otago. During this period, Nick gained his Masters in Biochemistry, writing a thesis on Alzheimer’s Disease.

After a 2-year OE living and working in the UK, Nick moved back to New Zealand with a determination to shift his career focus to a more client facing role. Nick’s analytic and medical background provided an excellent pathway into providing advice to protect people’s finances from the impacts caused by premature death and disability.

Nick started with Advice Plus as a Paraplanner while on his journey to becoming an adviser. This role helped him to understand the different insurance products available and how they can work in combination to best fit a client’s specific needs. Using Advice Plus’s unique model to calculate a client’s needs, Nick has now transitioned into an advisory role.

Nick’s analytical and communication skills compliment the Advice Plus ‘client first’ approach to understanding clients’ needs.

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Jonathan Lockyer

Following a successful career in recruitment in both London and Auckland for more than 16 years I was looking a new challenge where I could make a difference to New Zealanders. As a very proud father and husband, protecting business’s and families through insurance advisory appealed to me.

After 18 months of meeting various broker business’s in the Auckland area, Advice Plus was recommended to me as a new wave of insurance advice that the industry was crying out for. Their professional advice approach was exactly what I was looking for.
My personal strengths of trust, empathy, integrity and enduring relationship management will set me up to help deliver the right solution to my customers. By looking at the whole picture and following a robust and quantified analysis I will be able to provide the best advice possible to best meet my customer’s needs.

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Heath Cleland

After 8 years as the New Zealand Operations Manager for a multinational provider of business credit information and collection services Heath was seeking a new challenge. In 2003 he joined the financial services industry as an insurance adviser, before establishing his own insurance broking business in 2005. Heath and Jamie merged their businesses in 2007 forming the very successful business partnership they currently operate. Heath’s strengths are in establishing and nurturing relationships, and he is passionate about providing the best quality advice, service and support for his clients. Heath strongly believes that: “The quantified analysis and advice we deliver is truly appreciated by our diverse range of business and personal clients. Knowing that our process and service puts our client first makes what we do very satisfying”.

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Jamie Lester

Having completed an Economics degree at Waikato University, Jamie’s interest in the benefits of insurance for family protection led him to join the insurance industry in 1996. Jamie quickly identified shortfalls in the industry regarding training and joined a consulting company for two years providing business planning and marketing training to tied advisers transitioning into the unaligned broker structure that exists today. Working in various development roles within Sovereign for six years, Jamie was able to get a clearer understanding of how the industry functioned and observed a broad spectrum of advice through day-to-day work with adviser practices across the Auckland and Waikato region. In 2004 Jamie took the plunge to start his own business and specialise in the area of business protection and quantified personal advice. Joining forces with Heath Cleland in 2007, he has achieved a common vision of building a well-established business with a large and loyal clientele.

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