Mark Fletcher

My name is Mark Fletcher. I’ve been with DS Howell for about 18 months and deal exclusively with Richard Madden.

I have several pensions through various jobs that I had in the past and I wanted to consolidate them into one drawdown pension. I felt that one company would be able to do that for me and consolidate everything into one pension.

I had several problems with the pensions that I’d had over my working life. Three of them were final salary pensions, and two were money purchase pensions. I wanted to get them all into one place, and have a drawdown pension to take out as much or as little money as I needed. The important thing for me was not to pay too much tax – I’ve paid enough tax through my life, and I wanted to make sure that I took advantage of the best tax position. Richard Madden has been exceptional in advising me on the best way to make the most of my money.

I heard about DS Howell through a financial advisor that my brother and a neighbour were using. Richard came to see me, and we got on very well. It’s important for people with several pensions, like myself, to trust somebody to make sure that what you actually want is what you get.

I picked DS Howell, primarily because of Richard. For any company, its best assets are the people who work for it. I was very comfortable with the company, based on what Richard told me he could do for us. That was enough for me to carry on with Richard and make the full investment through his advice.

I’m quite comfortable working with DS Howell on the basis that Richard is available to me at any time. It’s comforting to know that if I ring Richard and I can’t get him straight away, then he will ring back promptly. He will listen to what I want and what we need for the future, and through that we’ve made several investments that have been fine, even in these troubled times.

My financial future feels quite secure. The primary thing for me, as I said, was to actually get all my pensions into one place. The last thing I wanted was to have several pensions all over the place. Nobody wants to think about passing away, but I didn’t want my children to have to go to several different places to find out where everything was. I’m comfortable that everything is in one place and is easily accessible. My children’s future will be secure because of the investment that we’ve made.

The three words I’d use to describe the DS Howell are accessible, trustworthy and honest.

The best thing about working with DS Howell is that I have access to my funds when I really want them, and the advisors are easily accessible and quite responsive, which is important to me and my wife.

The best piece of advice that DS Howell has given me is around the initial investments that we made. All the portfolios have been put into one, but we did consider moving them around and taking it to a different investor. Richard looked at the marketplace and advised that we stayed exactly where we are. It’s more of a comfortable investment than a volatile one. Thankfully, that was good advice. We’re now glad we didn’t move it and we’re glad it was okay.

I would recommend DS Howell and I’ve actually done so. I have several colleagues who were in a similar position to me in the company I worked at. I recommended DS Howell, and fortunately they’ve all made a similar investment to me. Again, it’s all going very well, and they’re very happy with it. A great investment.