Hi, I’m Robert. I’ve been a client of Focused Financial for eight years, and I work with James Etheridge.

By 2016, I had been working in London for about 25 years. Most of those years were spent in fairly high-pressure jobs, and I was getting a bit tired, a bit jaded. I saw that there was an opportunity, potentially, to retire early, and I wanted to explore and understand what my options were; that’s when I started to look for a firm that would be able to help me with that.

I knew that I had about six or seven different pension schemes; what I didn’t know was the value of those pension schemes and how to bring them all together. So, I needed some financial advice. I needed somebody who could help me with that.

I was looking for a firm that was relatively close to where I live. I didn’t want a London-based firm. So, I did some research and came across Focused Financial, and my initial conversations with James were very positive. So, we moved forward on that basis.

The thing I think that makes James unique is he really takes an interest in you. He asks questions, he engages with you, and he particularly looks at what your goals and objectives are, and I liked that. I thought that was a very positive way to move forward.

Focused Financial have given me a lot of confidence in my finances. I’d like to know that I’ve got enough money, and James provides me with not only that reassurance as an individual but also looking at the funds and how those funds are deployed, and the returns on those funds have given me a lot of confidence.

They have explained to me what my life expectancy is, how much money I’m currently spending and where that would go, and then potentially, at this rate, how much my funds would be as I get closer and closer to the end. That gives me a huge amount of confidence to know that I can live the life that I want to live in the way that I want to live it.

They’ve taken me from a point where I was worried about continuing to work and not having the freedom to retire early, particularly helping to look after my parents as they were getting elderly and less well but also having the opportunity to spend time with my young granddaughters and start to see them blossoming through life. If it wasn’t for James, I don’t think I would have made those decisions. He encouraged me but didn’t pressure me, and I’m absolutely delighted that we’ve ended up in the position we have, where I have financial freedom, but more importantly, my life is everything I want it to be.

The three words that I’d use to describe Focused Financial are personable, professional, and relatable.

The best piece of advice I got from James was in the early days when we were starting to set up the individual pension plan. He suggested that I look at Inheritance Tax, and so we built a tax framework around the pension scheme that effectively means it’s held in trust for the benefit of my children in the future. I really value knowing that that has got that protection.

I would highly recommend Focused Financial. Not only James, although James is the figurehead and provides the majority of advice, but also the rest of the team have been integral in supporting my journey. And it’s a journey that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed so far; I definitely would find a way of recommending them to anybody who’ll listen.