My husband and I had our second meeting with Mark on the 8th May 2014, as, in our previous meeting with Mark a year ago, he encouraged us not to hesitate to contact him further should our circumstances change, as indeed they had. In both meetings we found Mark advised with upmost professionalism. We found him very friendly and approachable, explaining quite complex scenarios in terms we could easily understand, his knowledge of Financial Planning advice is clearly extensive , as he was able to advise on a variety of issues we raised. We would have no hesitation to contact Mark in the future and would definitely recommend him to friends and colleagues.

As I was considering early retirement last year and wanted some independent advice, I signed up to attend the one day advice session arranged by my workplace. Part of this day included a Pre Retirement Workshop delivered by Mark Russel.

His friendly approach really helped to create a relaxed atmosphere in a room full of colleagues all of whom were somewhat apprehensive and who had many questions. From start to finish Mark was able to explain and answer questions with confidence and a clear knowledge base of the specific subject matter. He was able to judge when to intervene and when to let the discussion flow so that everyone felt they had been given the opportunity to have all their questions answered.

The most helpful part of the presentation was enabling us to evaluate what exactly our needs were and what they would be if we did indeed take the opportunity to retire early.  Through discussion and clear examples of how our money could be utilized to work for us Mark was able to suggest ideas and ways forward on an individual basis.

This has been invaluable on a personal level during the last year since I did make the decision to retire early last July.

“We were not pressurized to sign up to anything and indeed the follow up meeting offered after this session was really useful as it allowed time to digest all the information given and really think about what is a major decision for anyone.

Mark has continued to touch base with email information and many more colleagues have taken the opportunity to sign up for what was an invaluable session.