Colin Prestwich

My name is Colin Prestwich, and I’ve been a client of Carl’s for about six years now.

I was coming to the end of my working career and thinking about retiring. I decided that financial advice on what I did with my pension or lump sum was quite important.

I noticed that Fletcher Associates had been advertising for some time in a local magazine. So, I decided to look there and see what services Fletcher Associates offered, and after a long discussion with Carl decided that was the best way forward.

When we first sat down, we really discussed my personal circumstances. So, he could find out what I was going through at the time, in terms of financial decisions that we needed to make. So, we looked at pensions, we looked at my savings. We also looked at future plans, odd little things like, I’ll need a chunk of money that I can access quite quickly to buy a campervan, issues to do with both sons going off to university, and other issues to do with savings and how quickly I wanted to access savings. Things that were important to me, one of the reasons why I was quite taken at that point of the interview.

I am also quite a cautious person. That aspect of the investments was looked at quite thoroughly. I was quite impressed with that, because there was there’s no hint of any suggestion that my caution was an issue or a problem. It was done in a friendly atmosphere and supportive atmosphere, I didn’t feel rushed, which was actually a very positive experience.

The best thing about working with Carl really, I think, his openness. Quite recently, I asked a question about something to do with one of the investments, he gave an immediate response. Then about two or three hours later, I got a much more detailed response in an email, about what the actual situation was. He took the time to really consider carefully what his answer should be and he got back to me and saying “Right, here is much more detail, this is what has actually happened.”

The words that I would like to describe Carl with are calm, informed, and knowledgeable.

If you’re thinking of retiring, you’ve got lots of decisions to make about you and possibly your family to do with finances. Now, first of all, I would advise people to make sure that they have a plan. That they discuss the details with somebody who understands the what’s going on and can actually support you.

An independent financial adviser seems to be the most appropriate person for me to help with that. Just make sure that you have a plan and that you take it out with someone who you trust and who you make sure that you contact regularly or however often the agreed plan is, to ensure that you feel comfortable with what’s happening.

I would recommend Carl and Fletcher Associates to other people. Go along, have a long chat with him and see if what he offers suits you. It certainly suited me.