Stephen and Sue

Steve

Hi, I’m Steve Burrows, this is my wife, Sue. We’re clients of Portcullis, we have been for quite a long time, and I’m a retired police officer.

Sue

We got in touch with Rob because he was part of the police mutual benefit that we had with Steve being a police officer. It was at a time of Steve’s career where we needed to start planning for the future and what was best to do with our money and investments.

Steve

The way that we ended up dealing with Portcullis was simply that Rob Blount moved from the police mutual to Portcullis, and we trusted him and we’d been dealing with him for a long time. So, when he asked whether we would go with him as clients, we did.

Sue

We just felt quite happy to move to Portcullis with him, because we built up a very good relationship, so much so that he either comes to our house or we go to his office; we sit down with a cup of coffee and have a chat. He gives us really good advice, he’s very easy to understand, and he’s happy to explain everything to us to make sure that we know what we’re getting. And the fact that he’s almost like a family friend now.

Steve

When I retired, I received a fairly substantial lump sum, more money than we’ve ever had in our whole lives. It’s nice to have a lot of money, but it’s also quite a big responsibility when it lands in a bank account, and you think, “What are we going to do with this? We’ve got to make the most of it!” But we’re not great spenders, so we wanted to be careful. I retired at 55, and there’s a lot of life left to go when you retire at 55, and Rob was very helpful. He didn’t tell us what to do; he advised us.

Sue

I think the best thing about working with Rob is that he looks into your finances as an individual, never tries to sway your decision, and is happy for you to think about what you want to do and work with you. We trust him implicitly. He always gives good advice, whether it’s a minute detail or something larger, and he often knows people to whom he can go to ask questions and come back to us with answers if it’s something that’s not part of his remit. So, always good advice and easy to understand.

Steve

Three words I’d use to describe Rob are trustworthy, expert, and friendly.

Sue

We know what our money is doing, we get updates to tell us how it’s working, and we also know that if there are any issues, either worldwide or more locally, he will let us know and keep us informed.