Chris Rhodes

My name is Chris and I’ve worked with Chris at Advice Matters for about a year and a half, although I have known him for longer than that.

I first got in touch with Chris because I needed help transferring my ringfenced pension from a previous employer. I was looking at moving it into a vehicle that would work better for me in retirement and combining it with my existing employer’s pension when I came to retirement, which has now happened.

Chris has helped me by putting my pension into a vehicle that confirms to me that things are safe, as non-risky as possible, and allows me to plan forward for my family beyond my pensionable life.

Working with Chris has given me the confidence that I would be financially secure in my retirement, and the continual updates that we have reinforce that. Bringing my wife and her pension into the picture has made things even better because the two of us can rest easy. With the continual updates, we can look at things and be sure that “Yep, things are going in the right direction” and we’re happy.

Without Chris’s advice, I think the two of us wouldn’t have the same confidence going forward, because we wouldn’t necessarily understand the position we were in. If you’re in a company pension, then that just moves over into retirement. Well, I’ve not been in that position, but I would assume that you wouldn’t know that things were okay and that things were looking okay going forwards. So, yeah, I’m pretty happy.

For me, “retirement”, the word, doesn’t really mean anything. It’s moving on to another chapter, allowing me to have time to do the things I enjoy doing, to do jobs that I want to do – paid jobs, as well as unpaid jobs. It’s just given me the freedom to do things while I’m fit and healthy enough to do them. I don’t want to reach a position where I look back and wish I’d known more and that I could have retired earlier. Or that I could have retired at the age that I have, but not realised it until 5-10 years further down the track.

My wife has taken advice from Chris, too, and she still works part-time, although that is now going to stop because working interferes with some of the trips and things that we want to do. So, we’ve gone back and spoken to Chris, just to reassure ourselves that “Yes, I’m in a good position and, yes, she will be in a good position, and we can do the things that we want to do. Or bring the plans or the funds forward”. So, we’re happy that we’ve spoken to him and that we’re with him. If we were probably at our old company pensions, we wouldn’t know that without digging around quite a lot. Now, to be quite honest, I’m not really sure who else we would speak to. We’d go full circle and would end up coming back and speaking to somebody like Chris. So, I’m happy with where we’re at right now.

I think the best thing about working with Chris is essentially that if you’ve got any concerns whatsoever, no matter how trivial it may appear, he’s always there to answer the questions, or the back office are there if he’s away. I’ve just got the confidence that I know where I am, which is good. I know where I’m going. I’m happy with the choices I’ve made. And if I needed to change anything, he’s a phone call or an email away.

I think the three words I’d use to describe Chris are: reliable, informative, and available.

In my discussions with Chris, one of the things that’s left me very happy is the fact that I’ve discussed my two children and how they can benefit from my pension when I’m no longer here. I’m also happy with how he can advise them on their future pensions, because it’s important to start at a young age to benefit when you’re at the age that I’m at. That has been very, very important to me and to my wife and makes me rest easy at night.

I would recommend Chris and Advice Matters wholeheartedly. When I’ve needed to speak to Chris or I’ve had any concerns, he’s either been readily available or he’s come straight back to me. If I’ve needed to deal with the back office, and have asked a question, there’s always been an answer or he’s been contacted to clarify. I feel that if I need to speak to someone at Advice Matters, there’s someone there that I’ve spoken to before who I can deal with.