Justin

We found a plan that balanced tomorrow's uncertainties with the life we want today

Hi, my name is Justin. have been with Hansford Bell for just about seven years now, and I’m looked after by Ross Biddiss.

I first got in touch with Hansford Bell because I was a year off retirement, and I had that usual concern about whether I would have a reduced income and how I was going to manage it. So I started to look around for someone who could give some good advice.

I had what appeared to be a good occupational pension. But, as always in these situations, your salary and your pension don’t quite seem to match. So it was about, okay, how do we bridge the gap? And that was sort of an opening gambit with Ross.

I found Hansford Bell in a couple of major ways. So you do the normal web search, but actually Hansford Bell have a very visible presence in Tavistock. You know, I think over the years you’ve been used to going up little back stairs and seeing a financial adviser, but they actually have a very visible, let’s call it a shopfront, and they have the words “lifestyle planning” on it, so I was intrigued.

It became apparent that his focus wasn’t just on investment portfolios, but his focus was very much on me, my lifestyle and more to the point, my lifestyle ambitions post-retirement.

So a different approach to the, you know, I’ve been used to maybe working with large companies who sell their products, like ISAs. This was fundamentally different, and this was about discovering me, which was quite illuminating, actually.

Hansford Bell had an approach with me because I have a wife with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). So my challenge is I potentially have care overheads that I don’t know the size and scale of. And I think what Ross and I tried to do was say, okay, how do we account for that? But at the same time, not, you know, make your lifestyle so restricted because of that.

So it was trying to get that balance between some quite undefinable needs in the future. But, okay, let’s live for today as well. And I think that’s where Ross was really great in the way he approached our conversations.

What they’ve done with my final financial future has given it some clarity. As you know, we understand where we are today, and none of us really understand where this world is going to be, either for me personally or perhaps the whole globe, given what’s going on in the world at the moment.

But, you know, with them I have a degree of confidence that we’re doing what we can, and I’ve got good visibility of where I am at any given time. And I don’t think you can probably ask for more than that, given the volatility we all deal with at the moment.

The best bit of advice I’ve had from Ross is: “you’re in a good position, be reassured and spend a bit.”

You know, as you approach retirement and you get that last salary, you think, oh my God, how am I going to survive? And I think working with him, you said, no, actually you’re not in a bad position at all.

I would definitely recommend them. I mean, I think everyone who’s approaching retirement, you know, has some maybe preconceived ideas about what it will be like and what they want to do.

I really recommend that they perhaps unpick that with, you know, a company like Hansford Bell and Ross, who could help them either, you know, confirm their forward look or perhaps rearrange it slightly.