Lisa AND ALAN’s story

My parents had been clients of JJFS for over 20 years, so when my husband and I decided it was time to get our finances in order, we went straight to Jimmie. 

We were entering a new phase in our lives, our family was growing up and we’d done a lot of investing, saving and spending to cover all the things that come as part of a family growing up.

We wanted someone to join all the dots and make sure that everything we’d done so far was right. We soon realised we didn’t know about basic things like the fact that we’d exceeded the pension allowance, which meant we weren’t getting the right tax benefits.

Jimmie has put all our pensions together in one place and shown us that we’re going to be ok in old age. This has meant we’ve been able to start making big decisions that we couldn’t have made previously, because we didn’t have the knowledge and confidence to do it. 

A life changing opportunity

The biggest decision has been that my husband has been able to change careers, going from a highly paid, stressful job to something he’s passionate about doing. 

For years he’d talked about wanting to become CEO of the County Cricket Club. When the opportunity came up, we spoke to Jimmie who did the numbers and said that things were in pretty good shape. So instead of us having to decline the opportunity and say “No, he’ll have to do another 10 years at his current income,” he could completely change his life.

He’s been able to start a new career at an age when he can develop it. If he’d done this in his 60s it would have become a retirement role, but it’s a whole new world and a new career by choice.

From a lifestyle point of view, it’s been huge. Not just for my husband, but for me too. One of my big fear factors in life is not having enough money. I’m a super cautious person and have always been anxious about making sure we’ll be ok in old age. But I can now sleep at night knowing we don’t have to worry. 

A trusted partnership

What’s different about JJFS is that I never feel as if I’m being sold a product or being cajoled into something I don’t particularly want. Unlike other financial encounters we’ve had in the past, Jimmie doesn’t work on fear. 

The pricing structure has always been very fair too.

Because of the family history we have with JJFS the trust has matured over a long period of time and now it’s going from generation to generation with my children seeking advice from Jimmie too. What really stood out for me was that both Jimmie and John came to my dad’s funeral, which meant so much to the whole family.

You feel like an equal

What we like most is that Jimmie speaks to you as an equal and he’s very patient. In finance there’s lots of chat you can’t really understand. But with Jimmie you get a clear outline of what’s going on and if there’s anything you’re not sure about you feel you can ask about it.

This is particularly important with how the markets are today – everything is so different now to how it was, which means it’s very reassuring to have someone who knows everything about what’s happening rather than us just guessing. And Jimmie is very honest – if he doesn’t know the answer he’ll tell you – but he’ll find out.

JJFS are honest, open and loyal and we would recommend them to others without any hesitation.