Plain-speaking Lancastrian Peter Hargreaves co-founded independent financial adviser Hargreaves Lansdown in 1981 with his partner Stephen Lansdown.

He recalls stuffing envelopes in the front room of his Bristol cottage while the rest of the country watched Charles and Diana tie the knot in West-minster Abbey. Initially, the firm targeted accountancy businesses, as both founders were in the trade - Hargreaves an auditor at Whitbread and Lansdown at Touche Ross. But it was a newspaper ad offering direct-to-consumer guidance to the then newly fashionable unit trusts that got the firm going.

Har-greaves Lansdown floated in May 2007, valued at £60m. Since then, it has shrugged off market turmoil and is now valued at £1.3bn. Hargreaves has even witten a book, In for a Penny: A business adventure (Harriman House, 2009), explaining how he did it. His stake is worth £458m, he sold £75m worth of shares at flotation, and with earlier salaries and dividends (£30m-plus in the past 10 years), he is easily worth £520m after tax.