What our clients say

David advised me on consolidating my defined benefit and defined contribution pensions into one fund. It was a very complicated technical exercise which David guided me through with the utmost professionalism and integrity. He dealt with all the parties and kept me informed along the way including explaining deeply technical issues in a straightforward, understandable manner. I have no hesitation in recommending David.

Mark H

David manages my investments in a pension fund which is not my area of expertise, it's extremely reassuring to have found a financial advisor I can trust implicitly. I find David extremely approachable, knowledgeable and completely up to date with all the complexities that surround pensions and investments. As he says, 'no question is a stupid question', I feel completely at ease to ask him anything or express any concerns I might have. I always come away from my annual review feeling informed and reassured that my investments are in the best possible hands. David's office is a welcome beacon, relaxing and he makes a great cup of coffee!

Janey G

David has managed our financial affairs and investments for many years and we could not have chosen a better independent financial advisor. He is always available to answer our questions or give advice and we come away from our annual meeting knowing our investments are in safe hands. We cannot recommend Ferry Financial highly enough.

Mick M

David has been our financial advisor for 15 years and we have always been very pleased with his handling of our finances. He is always at the other end of the phone when we need him. I have no hesitation in recommending Ferry Financial.

Denise M

David has managed my investments for a number of years. The advice given by David is always clear, concise and understandable. He has a in-depth knowledge around the complexities of pension management and is happy to spend time talking through different scenarios. David is always available to answer any questions I may have and I come away from our discussions with a clear understanding of my options moving forward. As well as his technical expertise David is just a nice person to do business with and that makes a big difference in my book. I would be certainly be happy to recommend David to any of my friends or colleagues.

Kevin L

David helped us to consolidate our various pensions into SIPPs so we now have a greater understanding of how much we have in our retirement funds. David offers a first class service – he is always readily available to talk and deals with our requirements promptly and efficiency. It is very refreshing to have a personal service which is sadly lacking in the current culture of call centres. We have known David for over 12 years and we highly recommend him as a trusted Advisor.

Brendan and Jayne B

What’s it worth?

Date Published:16/04/2009
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Over the past few days, whilst we were all preparing to ‘shut up shop’ for Easter, I noticed a thought provoking story in the press.

We have all been advised that the value of fake One Pound coins in circulation could be as high as £73,000,000, or one in every twenty.

There are numerous ways of checking if the coins in your pocket or purse are real or not. I’ll leave you to find this information.

This information made me think about an often forgotten fact when considering investment returns.

The longer your money is not accessible to you, the greater the return must be in order to compensate you for the lack of access to your own money.

It’s really easy to see this happen in practice when you look at the different rates available from bank and building societies.

You will generally receive a lower interest rate for instant access than you will if you are prepared to deposit your money for a fixed term of 12 months.

Very often this fact is forgotten by many when considering where to place their investments.

We can all see that investments such as fixed term or notice deposits are less liquid than instant access accounts.

However, have you considered other investments you may hold such as property funds, investment properties, hedge funds, guaranteed stockmarket investments or any other investment where there is even a remote possibility that encashment of your investment could take some time.

There are investors who have been waiting to receive their sale proceeds many months after instructing a sale of their holding. These same investors have not been rewarded for having their money tied up.

For me, one of the main considerations when assessing any investment for clients is, how marketable is this investment, how quickly can it be sold?

I would urge investors to consider this, and read the small print of any potential investment, prior to investing your money. Don’t wait to find out when it’s too late.

Make sure that your investment advisor is doing this too and really is acting in your best interests.

We have also recently seen that the UK Government seems likely to continue to protect account holders in banks to the maximum of £50,000, under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Investors should be aware that not all deposits in non-UK banks are covered by this scheme and also that the £50,000 maximum also includes any interest due but not paid on your account.

My suggestion is to make sure that you don’t exceed the £50,000 and also that you make an ‘allowance’ for the unpaid interest on your account.

Make sure you don’t lose out but don’t forget that there are many overseas banks that are far more secure than many British banks. You may remember me telling you that the World Economic Forum places UK banks 44th out of 134 countries for soundness and that this places UK banks behind those in Peru and El Salvador.

After all the Easter chocolate, I hope this is food for thought!