Mark Peston

35 years ago, I 'fell' in to the financial services industry having completed a degree in Agriculture at Reading.  Over these years I have worked with individuals and business's offering a broad range of financial planning services.

In the latter 25 years I started and ran my own chartered financial planning firm, building it into an award-winning firm which I sold to my business partner 2 years ago. We had hundreds of clients and looked after nearly £200M of their money.

Our focus as a firm was to offer financial planning advice to individuals who were considering retirement or were in retirement. We generally formed long term relationships with our clients to help them through the many considerations present in retirement.  We learnt that retirement planning is not just about the money and that a successful retirement involved the consideration of many aspects of their lives.  Staying active, having a purpose and sense of community were regularly discussed.

I've seen where people get things right and where things haven't gone so well.  I think we were often regarded as mentors for clients and sometimes their children, perhaps a voice of reason or sounding board. I'm grateful for the wisdom that the many client interactions have given me and would welcome the opportunity to share some of this knowledge with others in a relaxed, non-commercial environment.