Martin: My name’s Martin, this is my wife Philippa.

Phillipa: What we wanted to achieve was to set up some more financial security for ourselves and we also wanted to get an inheritance plan in place for our two children so we could set up some trust funds for them so we were able to get some money to them earlier in life rather than later.

Jonathan (Expert Wealth): The first thing I say about working with Martin and Philippa was that they’re a real inspiration because Martin had had a successful business. He’d recently sold that to a major PLC company.

Martin: And I was coming to the end of my contract but I still had quite some time to run on it and I decided I wanted to leave and Jonathan held my hand and helped me through negotiations with the PLC company with regard to the final payment.

Jon: There were quite a lot of complex decisions to be made. He had a load of share option schemes, he was given a payout by the organisation and I just wanted to really understand their position and how they were going to manage that. The most important thing about working with Martin and Philippa was really getting a great understanding of what their dreams were, what their wishes were, what their passions were.

Phillipa: We filled in a lifestyle questionnaire which basically addressed our needs and wants for the future. I think financial planning can be very stressful and as you’re ageing you want to eliminate this so we wanted to put in place a plan just to make sure that we had some sound investments for the future and we had some reassurance that the money we had was going to be invested well and the money was going to last as we aged.

Jon: And yes, there were lots of financial questions and things but at the end of the day we were only trying to solve those problems to those financial questions to ensure that they can do everything they love in life at the end of the day.

Phillipa: Financial security has allowed me to do things that I really enjoy in life and one of those is helping out in the community doing voluntary work which I’ve done in some shape or form for the last 20 years.

Martin: We play golf, we ski, we kayak, we cycle. I guess with Jonathan’s advice it’s given us the financial confidence to be able to book these holidays and we’ve been to some of the most fantastic places in the world travelling.

Phillipa: We live close to a river so we started kayaking together so we invested in two nice kayaks and we can just take them out on the river on lovely sunny days and enjoy the views and the wildlife on the river.

Jon: The big part of that work was also making that transition from actually working full time to sort of not working full time anymore and understanding how their money’s going to work for them in the future.

Martin: It’s a big shock when the salary stops coming and the bonuses stop coming and then you have to turn to your investments to live off. Jon does a great graph where I live to a grand old age and I’ve still got plenty of money and there’s money left for Phillipa and more importantly as well there’s money left for my children.

Jon: One of the things we commonly see is people often don’t understand their money so they’re fearful that they might run out of money and then sometimes they’ve found themselves in quite a privileged position and they almost need someone to give them permission to be able to do the things they would love to do. That’s part of our job is creating that sense of freedom for them to be able to make those decisions. I think working with Martin and Philip is a great example of how financial planning can really impact someone’s lives.

I mean for example the decision around giving money away to children is quite an emotional one. Just to be able to sit around the table and discuss the anxieties and fears and whatever that might be is just so valuable and I think that’s one of the key benefits of working with a financial planner.

Phillipa: Well the experience of working with expert wealth is predominantly one of peace of mind.

Martin: The financial benefit of somebody that you trust doing this for you is worth its weight in gold. They take you through the minefield of financial planning and you just can sit back, trust them and enjoy the fruits of their labour.