David Cook

My name is David Cook, I’ve been a client of Chris now for 18 months.

The reason that I needed financial advice was looking at my longer-term future, seeing when I could retire, what my options would be, and how I could best use my finances in retirement later on.

I think I was worried initially. You hear stories, you really need somebody to trust when you’re taking financial advice. Particularly when it’s around such a big decision as your future pension requirements into retirement. For me, it was all about trusting the person, trusting the company and making sure that they were working in your interest.

Initially, an introductory phone call to find out what I was looking to do, what my priorities were, what I actually wanted him to look at for me.

Chris was very reassuring, professional all the way through, and gradually eased my fears about actually taking such a big step.

During the planning process, Chris went into each element in real detail with me. I like detail, I like to know what I’m doing, when I’m doing and what the possible outcomes are. Chris was very reassuring all the way through, and a pleasure to deal with.

Now that my retirement plan is on track, I’ll be honest, it’s a relief. We go through many years of thinking, oh what will happen? What will happen later and actually knowing that I’ve got the financial capability to live my life, and making my own choices is really important, so I’m very relieved, pleased and it’s nice to have a plan.

My three words that I would use to describe Chris are honest, integrity and balanced. What I mean by balanced is, when I went into this process, one of the most key things to me, was not losing money. The risk side of things was really important that I could achieve what I wanted to do, but in a low to medium risk environment. Chris was very good at explaining not only the way that the holding company operates, but also giving me confidence that my money would be safe long term.

The best thing about working with Chris over the last 18 months is he keeps me informed, not too much, but keeps me informed. I feel that if I need anything, he’s there and he would drop everything to speak to me. Which I think is really important, it’s a real personal touch.