“There’s retired, and there’s being pensioner – my job is making sure you get to choose.”
I grew up in Tenby, a small seaside town in South West Wales, where earning money meant earning it properly. At ten years old, I was a Saturday boy – doing odd jobs, running errands, taking home a pound an hour. Back then, a pound was a paper note. I knew what it had cost me to earn it, and that’s never left me.
More than 30 years later, I still think about money that way: not as numbers on a screen, but as something people have worked hard for, sacrificed for, and deserve to protect. That outlook shapes everything I do as a wealth management consultant.
I’m passionate about pension planning and Inheritance Tax (IHT) planning – the two areas where good advice makes the most tangible difference to people’s lives. Pension planning has changed enormously since I started out. The shift from final salary to defined contribution schemes means that what you end up with in retirement isn’t guaranteed – it depends on the decisions you make along the way. That’s where I come in.
I had a conversation recently with a client in her late 50s. She was exhausted by work and came to see me not sure whether she could afford to stop. We sat down, looked at everything, did the cash flow modelling, and worked it out together. The answer was that she could retire – properly retire, not just scrape by. I explained the difference I always draw for clients: there’s retired, and there’s being a pensioner. To me, a pensioner is queuing outside a post office on a Wednesday morning, retired is living life on your terms. She left knowing she had the first. You could see the weight lift from her shoulders as we talked.
That’s what drives me. Not the spreadsheets, not the technical complexity – though I take all of that seriously – but the moment when someone realises they’re in a stronger position than they thought. When the anxiety eases and when the future stops feeling like a threat.
Most of my clients come through referrals, and some I’m now advising into the third generation – I dealt with their grandparents, then their parents, and now them. I think that says more about this job than any qualification could. It’s built on listening, on remembering what matters to each person, and on being someone they can trust to stay alongside them as life changes.
I also enjoy IHT planning – helping families understand how to pass wealth on in a way that reflects what mum and dad actually want. Seeing the next generation benefit from that planning, knowing it was done thoughtfully and with care, is genuinely rewarding.
Outside of work, I’m married with three grown-up children. I enjoy holidays, time with family and friends, and – as any proud Welshman will tell you – rugby. I’m someone who understands that money is hard-won, and worth looking after properly.
