My accountant recommended we meet Geoff because we were unhappy with our pension provider. When I set up my business in 2001 I found that I needed pensions advice, so used the one that had been recommended at David’s work, but after a few years we felt that the pension adviser was looking after his interests rather than ours and as we saved more we noticed very heavy upfront charges, especially if we put aside a lump sum.

To start with, they rationalised the pensions that had been set up for us and minimised the charges so we benefitted more from our savings and investments. Then as my business grew and proved financially successful, we needed a wider range of advice on pensions, savings and investments for the surplus cash in the business. We love where we live and so didn’t want to do the typical thing of upsizing our house. That meant we needed to be confident that our savings would be safe and would grow. We wanted to be able to look to the future and know that we could have a good retirement and be able to give our sons some financial support while at university. When David retired from full-time work, we needed financial advice on how best to manage our investments to ensure we had the income we needed to make up for the difference between his salary and pension so we could enjoy ourselves.  Geoff helped us organise things so we could confidently splash out on a VW campervan for expeditions around Europe.

We trust Geoff and Global Financial. He takes his time when seeing us to find out what is important to us, now and in the future. The approach of annual reviews and discussion on ‘how do you want to use your money to enjoy life and achieve what is important to you?’ is very helpful. I am now at the stage of wanting to downsize my work commitments but find it difficult to say no to clients and new opportunities. Geoff suggested setting goals to reduce my annual turnover which has made a big difference. When you are a business owner you tend to focus on ensuring that your turnover is going up! 

Neither of us has any interest in investments so it’s the reassurance that someone who knows what they are doing is looking after and growing our investments.  This was especially important to us having had a bad first experience. No one knows what the future holds, but it is liberating not to have to worry about whether we will have enough income to enjoy our retirement. I have friends of the same age who are not so lucky and can’t afford to retire. This is partly about saving in a disciplined way from an early stage, but it is also about having an expert helping you to make the right choices at the right times about pensions and savings.

See them early on in your savings journey! Be open about what is important to you and they will do their best to help you achieve it.