Monenti Partners news update – a day out of the office, meet Charlie Dashfield, and Ollie Dennis on his marathon challenge

Welcome to your latest update from Monenti Partners. 

This month, we held our fifth annual offsite day, spending valuable time learning, collaborating, and enjoying some team-building fun. Plus, meet Charlie Dashfield – our newest client associate, who is doing a sterling job supporting our team of financial planners. 

And finally, find out how Ollie Dennis and his friends got on as they ran, drank, and ate their way around the Marathon du Médoc route in Bordeaux.

The Monenti team gathered together for our 2026 offsite day 

2026 marked our fifth annual offsite – an opportunity to bring the whole team together away from the normal working environment.

The day is an important part of our commitment to continuous improvement. It gives the team time to step back from day-to-day office activities, learn more about one another, and consider how we can continue developing, both individually and collectively.

While each year has a slightly different focus, there’s always an emphasis on the continued development of the team and the business. Events combine team development and discussions about our shared goals with various activities to strengthen how we work together. 

This year’s offsite took place in London

Facilitated by an external consultant working alongside members of the Monenti leadership team, the day created space for open discussion, shared learning, and simply spending time together as a whole team.

It included exercises to help us better understand different behavioural and communication styles, alongside practical discussions about personal development, teamwork, and how we can each contribute most effectively.

Following the daytime sessions, we also enjoyed some informal team-building activities.

A key highlight was giving everyone time to reflect on how they work at their best and how different working and communication styles can complement one another.

The day may be over, but we carry the learning forward

Now, we’ll all turn our takeaways from the day into practical development commitments. Follow-up sessions will help maintain momentum and ensure the ideas explored during the offsite lead to positive and lasting improvements.

Investing in our people helps us provide clients with a consistent and joined-up experience

By improving how we communicate, collaborate, and support one another, we can continue to enhance the service and long-term planning we provide to all of our clients.

Meet Charlie Dashfield

Charlie transitioned into financial services following an early football career. Aged 16, he earned a professional football scholarship with Cheltenham Town FC, after which he competed as a professional footballer, teaching him the importance of teamwork and discipline.

While he continues to enjoy semi-professional football, he’s already gained his Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning and is well on his way to achieving Chartered status.

Charlie took a few minutes out of his day to tell us about his work as a client associate and what he loves about being on the Monenti team. 

Can you tell us more about you, your role, and what you do?

As a client associate, I support our advisers throughout the financial planning process, from preparing client reports to carrying out technical research.

What are your specialities? 

My main areas of focus are pensions, investments, and tax-efficient financial planning. I’m particularly interested in retirement planning and in presenting complex information in a clear, straightforward way.

What is your favourite part of your role?

Seeing all the research and planning come together into a recommendation that helps a client feel more confident about their future. I also enjoy the variety, as every client’s circumstances and objectives are different.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to work in the financial services profession?

Be inquisitive, get your exams completed, and say yes to new opportunities. Put yourself forward, try different things, and take every chance to learn.

What do you love most about being on the team at Monenti Partners? 

I really value the wealth of knowledge across the team and the shared desire to keep improving. There is a genuine commitment to helping individuals develop and grow alongside the company.

What is the most valuable piece of financial advice anyone ever gave you?

Know where your money is going. Review your spending at the end of each month to see where you can cut back and where you can afford to enjoy it.

“By all means enjoy it, but enjoy it by being disciplined.” – Neil Warnock 

What three small things always make your day better?

Being with my friends, seeing my dogs, and Bristol City winning.

3 quickfire questions

Favourite food? Anything sweet: biscuits, sweets, doughnuts, cookies…

Top of your bucket list? Have a Land Rover Defender, live on a farm, and have a mini Saint Berdoodle called Goose. 

What are you listening to right now? Any Adele song (seeing her live is also on the bucket list).

Ollie Dennis returns triumphant after completing the Marathon du Médoc

You may recall reading about Ollie’s preparations for the Marathon du Médoc back in May when he was in early “training” for the event with his group of friends.

Here’s Ollie’s post-race report…

To take full advantage of Bordeaux’s many lovely bars and pubs in preparation for race day, my friends and I all arrived on Thursday evening. The next day, we went to collect our bibs from the race village – which was more of a wine festival than an athletes’ village. 

The race kicked off at 9.30 am on Saturday 5 September

This meant an early start – and the pre-race breakfast consisted of actual hydration (water, not wine!) and pain au chocolat to fuel up for the big day.

In line with the event’s 80s theme, a band played 80s classics on the start line in Pauillac to get the party started.

Our group of seven were among approximately 9,250 participants, and there was a broad mix of nationalities taking part. 

We stood out in our 80s football get-up. 

There were a few Michel Platinis knocking around, which is understandable given he is a French footballing legend, but only one other Terry Butcher. I’m pretty happy with that, especially given my shirt was more historically accurate!

As you might expect for the 80s, there was a lot of neon, leg warmers, and, believe it or not, Rubik’s cubes. The Baywatch/lifeguard costumes were also well represented. 

While the weather started out a little overcast, the clouds quickly gave way to a very hot and cloudless 32°C for most of the race.

And they’re off

We started strong, though we spent far too much time enjoying the early wine stops. 

This put a little pressure on us about halfway as the “broom bus” (denoting the end of the race and cut-off) swept into a busy wine stop where we were enjoying a live band and not planning the second half of the race.

Other than that, we kept up a good pace between wine stops; over the course of the race there were about 22 of these. 

Breakfast was the first stop at 3km, where we enjoyed a selection of pastries and cakes. The first wine stop was 7km in, and these kept coming. Any attempt to track what châteaux we visited went out of the window early on. 

That said, stop two at Château Lagrange was my favourite – though I do wonder if it perhaps stuck in my memory because it was early on.

The last 10km was very tough in the blazing sun, and the stop-start nature of the race presented its own challenges with a little knee injury.

I suspect it was fortunate (and also very well planned!) that the food stops were mainly at the end of the race. I hadn’t realised how good steak and oysters would taste around 30km into the race. 

We completed the race in 6 hours and 50 minutes 

The usual cut-off is 6.5 hours, though this was extended due to the heat. 

I’ve been informed that we were running for 5 hours and 13 minutes of that. The rest was spent at the wine and food stops!

As much as it was enjoyable, it was very tough

We’re all incredibly grateful for the support and the work the volunteers put in to make it a great event.

As well as a finisher’s medal, we came home with some Riedel wine glasses, a bottle of Médoc’s finest wine, a top, and a backpack. 

Round two in 2027 may well be on the cards

If not, we may organise our own half marathon version around London instead. 

Whatever happens, I’m hoping to get one or two things booked in for next year, so if anyone has heard of any similar challenges, please reach out!