My story

We originally approached Paul when my husband needed some advice about his pension, but we very quickly saw the benefit of looking at our entire family finances with him too. We knew we wanted to get to the point where we felt financially secure; that was our aim.

Paul gave us clarity and a sense of certainty. He makes you feel like you have everything organised. We told Paul we weren’t big risk takers. We had worked hard for our money and he immediately made us feel at ease that he’d help us make investments that worked for our risk level.

When I met Paul, I was working in healthcare communications and not long after that I set up my own business. While I had accountants to deal with the business finances, Paul was involved throughout that time, right up to me subsequently selling up the company, guiding me to keep our life plan on track. He ensured the plan was flexible enough that it could be adjusted as our situation changed, which was what was needed as once I sold the business, our finances were in a different place. Our goals changed and our financial plan changed to reflect that.

What I really like about Paul is that he won’t let you pretend something isn’t an investment if it isn’t. He’s straightforward with you. If you want something, he’ll say that’s fine, you can have it, but it’s not an investment. He’s helped us explore other avenues for investments, for example in property, which is something Paul is very knowledgeable about. He’s been really helpful in educating us on other ways we can invest your money.

The service you get from the team at Aretian is quite old school in a sense; they really take the time to get to know you as a person. Paul knows us, our family, our careers, aspects of your life and what’s important to us. He takes notes and never forgets a thing.

He’s helped us plan for our children’s futures. He advised us on school fees, how to plan for our children going to university, and we’ve gone through all life scenarios and said, in each one, are we secure? What do we need to do to ensure we would be secure in that situation? He’s great at that.

But he also plans in luxuries. We said we wanted to have nice holidays and not feel guilty about that. So, we asked if he could help us secure a certain amount every year as a holiday fund. When you’re working crazily hard, trying to pay your mortgage and take care of your children’s futures, you feel a bit guilty taking money out of the plan for holidays. But Paul will say, it’s a luxury, yes, but you can afford it and if it’s important to you then let’s add it in to the plan.

Paul has helped us with retirement planning, investments, and a lot of admin. He was extremely helpful with the consolidation of multiple pensions. I’ve recommended Paul to numerous people and they’re all so happy. Paul just organises everything for them and they all feel like a weight’s been lifted. He does all the heavy lifting. He really does go the extra mile with the admin. He does as much as possible. I’ve had times when he has actually come to my office and placed a document in front of me because it needed signing and he’s wanted to take as much of the work from me as possible. It’s service on another level.

The team at Aretian are very different from your traditional financial advisers. It’s the way they get to know you over time that sets them apart. We could just sit for hours and chat. It’s not false; it’s a natural relationship that we’ve built over time with them.

They’re just really nice people who you like to hang out with but are also incredibly good at sorting out your finances.