Professors J & D, Sheffield

Clients since March 2020

Professors J and D are husband and wife academics who both work at a local university. J is in his early 60s and was considering taking advantage of university flexible retirement options, whereby he could still work part-time for another 10 years but draw down on his pension, and then fully retire when his wife D also reached retirement age. They write:

“We were a bit apprehensive when we approached Fyfe Financial. Academics rarely consult financial advisors and colleagues warned against corporate management speak and getting locked into expensive annual fees. But Richard and Caroline immediately put us at our ease, and listened to what we wanted. We’d always dreamed of buying a villa in the south of France, where we could spend some of the year, but were worried if we could afford it. Our pension scheme is a good one, but seemed incredibly complicated to us, with so many different elements and options. We felt we needed qualifications in financial management just to understand them.

Richard immediately proposed a fixed fee for a specific piece of work, and he looked into the scheme for us, making clear recommendations for the lump sum vs pension balance, taking account of the tax implications and our goals. We were given plenty of opportunity to ask questions, but within 3 months J has applied for flexible retirement under a very good arrangement, and we’re now planning a trip to France to view properties.

Richard gave us the confidence to go ahead and achieve our dream. When we hear colleagues bemoaning that they can’t afford to retire we appreciate how valuable taking professional advice is – and having seen how Richard’s advice has benefitted us we’re anticipating going back to Fyfes for investment planning in a few years.”