Mark

My name is Mark, and I’ve been working with Mark for about 10 years.

Since I’ve been working with him, he’s advised me through all of my financial investments for my pension planning. When I joined him, my pension pot was not particularly large. But over the years, thanks to Mark’s input, we’ve now been able to successfully grow it into a reasonable pot.
I actually retired just over a year ago, at the end of February 2020, so the timing wasn’t great. As a result, I haven’t been able to carry out my intended plans for retirement so far, but hopefully that will change soon.

With the assistance that Mark has given me, my view on retirement obviously changed the nearer I got to the actual retirement date. For example, we’ve had more frequent interactions as my retirement day got closer. We were beginning to think of the sort of avenues I might go down for drawing down from my retirement fund, which I haven’t yet needed to do. Mark was very clear in showing me my options and the sorts of timing issues we might be thinking about.

Having just retired, my financial future is pretty good. I’ve got two adult children, and my wife and I are hoping to be able to help them with some funding for the things they want to do. Overall, I’m very happy with where I am regards my available funding, and the planning that Mark and I have done regarding when I might draw it down.

If I wasn’t with Mark, I’m not sure I would feel as confident about retirement. Before working with Mark and his father, Owen, I was with another financial adviser from a much larger national firm, where I didn’t feel I was getting the sort of the input and response I was looking for. If I had not gone through Owen, and now with Mark, I don’t think I’d have been in quite as good a position as I am now.

The best thing about working with Mark and 3-S is their responsiveness, in the sense that he understands the issues that matter to me, and we can talk through the various options.

The benefit of working with a small firm, as compared to a larger firm, is very much the personal service you get. I also worked on a one-to-one basis with an adviser at that previous larger firm, but I didn’t feel they had any real interest in me. Whereas Mark and 3-S are very much engaged. You get a personal service – you feel they know you, and that you’re not just another client on their list.

I think the three words I would use to describe Mark are: attentive, responsive, and understanding of the objectives I’m trying to achieve.

I would certainly recommend Mark to others. Recently, a close family member was looking for some advice and I referred her to Mark, so he offered her a Zoom call to chat through her issues as an initial consultation. Why am I happy to I refer him to my relatives or, indeed, to others? As I say, simply because of the personal service Mark provides, his responsiveness and understanding of the issues related to achieving my objectives.