Sarah: I’m Sarah Price, I’m 63 and I live in Hassocks, West Sussex. I’m a nurse, retired now, I hung up my stethoscope about 10 years ago, I was a chemotherapy specialist nurse. I am also an exercise and dance teacher and I’m also a very amateur watercolour artist.

My late husband and his colleagues sold the company to an American company and therefore there was wealth that needed managing. We had an independent financial advisor then who carried on with me even after David died and after my parents died as well. But he then decided that he wanted to retire and recommended expert wealth management to me, which suited me fine because he was always David’s man and I wanted somebody that I could create an environment and a relationship with.

Dan (Expert Wealth): So when I first met Sarah she was going through a massive period of transition, obviously just having lost her husband and both her parents in quite a short amount of time. So there’s a huge period of uncertainty there for her, so I remember at the time her saying that she wanted to sort of wipe the slate clean and you know really get in control of her situation.

Sarah: I am fairly risk averse so I wanted to be with somebody who understood and was empathetic to me and who was very knowledgeable. That was the thing that came across, it was the honesty and integrity and I didn’t feel that they had their own agenda.

Dan: So we always start every new relationship with a period what we call discovery, so it’s really trying to understand at a deep level what is important to everyone that we work with. So with Sarah, you know some of the stuff that was coming out it was around the lines of I remember her saying she lives fairly prudently and she just wants to be able to keep the heating on but also a lot of what was coming through was how much she wanted to make sure her her son Will was taken care of. She even said at the time you know I see myself as a custodian for Will’s inheritance even though the money belonged to her.

Sarah: It’s given me peace of mind, I know that even if I live to a very ripe old age but also that Will will be able to be financially safe as well so there is that peace of mind as well but what it’s also done is it’s given me the permission to go and spend money. Dan’s always saying you need to spend some of this money so we did, I gave Will the money to buy his flat which is great. I mean there can’t be many people who can just buy a flat outright give their son the money for a flat to buy. I just think that’s wonderful.

Dan: Money comes with emotions usually so that could be good emotions you know like feeling secure, joy, relief potentially but there’s also negative emotions that come with it too so anxiety or uncertainty and not understanding the situation.

You know a good financial planner would really spend time understanding the emotions around money. Obviously having that professional behind you that really knows what they’re doing and really understands you can add confidence and cut through the jargon for you to really simplify things and ultimately that then leads to peace of mind. He made me realise that I am safe.

Sarah: What I need to be is I feel that I need to be safe and that I have enough money to last me until I die and that Will will be safe going forward and even plugging worst case scenarios into that algorithm proved that I’m okay and that is worth its weight in gold as far as I’m concerned.