Dr John Robinson

“Helpful, friendly and very responsive”: that’s the way Dr John Robinson sums up his experience of working with Birchwood.

John had been working in business development and sales for a contract research organisation for almost 16 years when he was made redundant early in 2011.

As part of the company’s support for affected employees, the company provided a workshop on financial planning, led by Birchwood Investment Management’s Becky Haslam, who made a positive impression on John.

He said: “She was likeable as a person and came across as open, honest and helpful. I also liked the way she was open to questions and discussions.”

As a result of that initial meeting, John arranged to meet Becky on a one-to-one basis to look in more detail at his financial arrangements, which until that point had been limited to some steps taken via his bank, using the bank’s own products. By working with Birchwood, which is able to access the whole financial market, John had the opportunity to consider a much broader range of options

Together they explored what financial planning steps John wanted to take and, equally importantly, what was feasible. As a result, Becky has helped with issues including sorting out personal pension arrangements and the transfer of ISAs to products offering more favourable rates.

John likes the way he can talk to Becky whenever he needs to and also rates the value for money that Birchwood provides highly. In fact, he says he cannot think of any ways in which Birchwood’s service could be improved.

With his financial arrangements in good order, John is now looking at doing some consulting work in his specialist field – agrochemical and chemical development – as well as keeping busy with gardening and decorating.