Peter & Sue

Sue  
Hi, I’m Sue and this is my husband, Peter. We’ve been with Nick for eight years.

Peter  
I was a main board director at a large corporate company for over 15 years and I was also trustee on the pension fund. So I knew about annuities, drawdowns, spreadsheets. Did I need a financial adviser? When I’m in the greenhouse, I want to worry about greenfly not bonds, stocks, and shares; so, yes, I did.

Sue 
We chose Nick because we had been researching to find somebody who would look after our interests and looked up Nick and found all his credentials. As soon as I met him, I just felt at ease. I felt I could talk to him and he would be someone who would be able to explain things in layman’s terms and I found him very approachable and trustworthy.

Peter  
If we weren’t working with Nick, all of our money would probably go to Inheritance Tax, because it just sat there. I have trouble spending money because that’s what you were taught to do at my age. But he’s taught us that we can spend money and he’s shown us that over the years we’ve got left on this planet, we’ve got enough to survive and look after the kids and go on lovely holidays. So Nick has released us really, he’s given us a second life.

Sue  
As soon as we met Nick, we walked into the office and saw the bucket list poster on the wall and I just thought “This man is the man for us.” He is very reassuring and even something like a holiday, if we’re not sure whether we can afford it or not, he’ll just say “You can do this.” And it just gives us reassurance to know that he’s there looking after us.

Peter  
Since we’ve retired, we’ve been on quite a few cruises, which is nice, but this year is the one! We’re off to Japan in October. It’s quite a bit of money, money that I would not have spent and we’ve just had our meeting with Nick and he said, “Just go for it mate, you’re only here once, do it! This is it.” So yeah, we’re off to Japan in October. I can’t wait!

Peter  
The first time I met Nick, I came along to this very room, I had a pile of paperwork and I could have told you what Sue spent on her last cup of coffee. But for an hour and a half, we did not talk about finance. Nick and I just spoke about what I wanted out of retirement, what I wanted out of life, for Sue and the kids. And that told me he was the right man, there and then. The reason I found that important was because it proved to me that Nick wasn’t a faceless man in a suit in a big tower block. He was actually interested in mine and Sue’s life and the welfare of our kids going forward.

Sue  
The best thing about working with Nick is the peace of mind. That sums it up for me. I am quite a hesitant person where finances are concerned, anxious and a bit worried about it, but I trust him implicitly with our finances.

Peter  
I would describe Nick as a trusted friend that I can talk to about anything in our personal lives and our money. You can’t talk to friends about your money situation but with Nick, we can talk about anything. It’s quite helpful when you’re at this stage of your life.

Sue  
I think the best piece of advice Nick’s given us is to relax about our money situation. He looks forward to when we’re in our older years and gives us confidence that we’re on the right track.

Peter  
When Nick’s not around, which is quite rare, and we get lots of warning that he might be going on holiday for a week, it’s never longer normally, we’ve got Julia to fall back on. We very rarely ring Julia, but it might be something very minor because the things are covered for the year. We just get on with our life, but knowing that there’s someone there to talk to is very reassuring.

Sue  
I’d definitely recommend Nick to any of my friends or family because I totally trust him. It’s lovely to come to meet him just on a one-to-one basis every year. Julia is a massive support to him, and we can also contact her. So, having the two of them working together on our behalf, to me is just priceless.