We were looking for help with pension planning because my husband and I both had private schemes from previous jobs, but having worked in the finance industry, we suspected that we probably weren’t getting the best rates from those schemes.
This was in 2016 when I was 64 and my husband Harry was 65. What we wanted was a flexible strategy that would provide us with a comfortable retirement and enable us to get a good return on our money.
We were referred to Pelier by a friend who’d worked with Jon for a number of years, and they were great from the beginning.
One of the first things Jon did was find a piece of small print in our pension paperwork that stated we could get a Guarantee 10% return on our pension. This gave us the option of cashing that money in there and then.
We’d never have picked up on that ourselves – we’re used to reading maintenance manuals, not things like this!
From there, Pelier created a focused retirement strategy that involved consolidating our existing pension arrangements and providing us with an active investment management approach that matched our appetite for risk.
The portfolio was designed with the flexibility we wanted in mind. We ended up with the best of both worlds - a guaranteed level of income as well as a more flexible approach to withdrawing income.
Working with Pelier we also soon realised we needed help with other things too. We needed to implement estate planning to ensure our wealth could be passed down to our children and grandchildren without them paying too much inheritance tax. We’ve worked all our lives for this money and didn’t fancy handing 40% of it back to the government on our death!
An inheritance tax solution was put into place, which meant that the money invested made the most of Inheritance Tax relief, but without having to put it into traditional gifts and trusts. This allowed us to maintain access and control over our portfolio.
This solution also included updating our Wills and creating a Power of Attorney, which means that should anything happen to either of us, we have a legal representative who can make decisions on our behalf. Jon introduced us to a solicitor for this and now it’s done.
No one really wants to talks about Wills or death, but now we don’t have to think about it anymore – we can relax!
Knowledgeable, professional, and thorough
Jon and Nigel really took time to understand our personal financial situation. They also always keep us well informed. What we like most is that they’re very accessible – if they’re tied up there and then, they’ll ring back in a matter of minutes. If it’s going to be hours, they’ll text to explain this.
One thing they haven’t got is an answer machine, and we hope they never get one! We don’t want to have to speak to an automated recording telling us to press option 1, 2 or 3; being able to talk to a human being in this day and age is hugely important.
They’re not some faceless big corporate company, it’s a 2-man job!
We also like the fact that they’re both younger than us, so the chances are that they’ll continue to provide us with the same service throughout our lifetime and to the many others we’ve recommended to them too.