BUSINESS is a family affair for a Tees Valley financial advisor.

Michael Coates, 34, managing director of Chestnut Finance, in Darlington, knows he can trust his workforce because they are all related to him.

His father, Colin, 60, runs the company for him, his mother Christine, 57, is office manager and his wife Claire, 34, works part-time doing administration work.

Michael, an FSA authourised finance broker, said: “I trust them implicitly.

When I am not there I know that the work will be done to a certain standard, and will be given the care that is needed.”

And father-of-two Michael said that having family members working for him at the Borough Road-based business did not detract from a professional environment, adding: “We go there to work, it is rare we end up talking about what we did over the weekend, and at weekends we don’t talk about work. It is a job and we know we have work to do.”

The company does a wide range of work from individual remortgages, to commercial deals and can be contacted on 01325-359800 or at chestnutfinance.co.uk