Consolidating pensions
Ed & Sinead’s Story
My wife and I had both worked in various different jobs over the years, and so we both had two to three pensions each, which meant it was a minefield – we had a table full of paperwork and no idea what to do. But Jon made everything very easy.
We very quickly felt informed and reassured - he was the light coming out of the fog!
I wanted to plan a ‘phased’ retirement by going down to three days a week initially, with the aim of fully retiring in 2020. Jon planned all of that out and showed that what we wanted to do was feasible. We’re not worried about retirement now because we know what we’re doing and what’s coming in.
A NEW EXPERIENCE
Before we met Jon, we didn’t know how working with a financial adviser would pan out. We spoke to a solicitor a few months ago, but other than that we’re not really familiar with professional services people. It can feel quite strange.
But we soon felt that it would work out well with Jon. He’s such a gentleman. So relaxed and informal, but still maintains a professional air. He comes to our home for meetings and we just chat, which makes it a nice, relaxed experience.
The way we pay for his services is very transparent – we pay as we go along for each individual piece of work, which means we’re not expecting a massive bill to drop!
We also know that if we ever feel in the dark, we can pick up the phone or send him an email and he’ll come back to us straight away. For example, one weekend we decided to buy a caravan and bought a bigger one than we were planning. Jon reassured us that the money was there and that it’s something we should use to enjoy our retirement. I would have been panicking about this without Jon’s reassurance.
COMPLETE PIECE OF MIND
Retiring is something we’ve never done before! It’s a big thing and can feel very daunting because you’re no longer going to have a lump sum coming in every month. You’ve got all these pension pots, but how do you approach them? What do you do, what do you say? There are so many different options with lump sum and investments that you need someone to guide you. Jon took the hassle out of everything and gave us complete peace of mind.