My name is Kala, and my financial advisor is Danielle Fagot (now Taylor).

Over the 20 years working together, Danielle helped me with setting up my various pensions. More recently, I had a company pension and needed to amalgamate it with the others.

I’m at my last job now, which I’ve been in for the last 10 years. She advised me on my current work pension, even though it’s with my company. Now I’m at the point of retiring, let’s say maybe in two years’ time, with the projections in mind, I wonder do I have enough funds to retire? Do I have enough money for the next 20 years? Who knows? Let’s hope I live to be 80!

I think retiring is a big journey in some sense. It’s a new part of your life and getting advice from Danielle gives me reassurance that I do have enough funds behind me to retire. Rather than waiting for the State Pension Age, I could, in fact, retire now at the age of 62. This reflects on the investments that Danielle has helped me with, and the good advice I’ve received from her.

I think working with Danielle on a regular basis, whether that be consultations or just being able to pick up the phone if I’ve had any issues or challenging circumstances, has changed my life. It has definitely helped build my portfolio for me to be able to retire when I want. I now have that choice, and I don’t think many people would be able to say that.

The words I would use to describe Danielle: firstly, she’s my friend, and we have become close over the last 20 years. I have every confidence that she is looking after my interests. We talk about what changes we want to make to my portfolio, wrappers and savings, and I know her advice always puts me first. Having her in my corner has been really wonderful.

The best thing about working with Danielle is that she’s honest and reliable. She always ensures that you know she’s made the appointment, and that she’s always there. More importantly, I can just pick the phone up and say: “Danielle, help!”.

I would definitely recommend Danielle, which I have already done to colleagues at my current job. Danielle has, in fact, come back to me to thank me for introducing a new person to her. Even my work colleague has highly recommended Danielle to people. Whatever she’s doing, she’s doing a really good job.