Steve’s Story

As well as helping us through the mortgage process, Richard identified gaps in other areas of our finances and suggested we consider taking out life insurance. At the time, we decided not to go for it but since then, I lost a good friend very suddenly, which made us think about things more carefully. Especially since we’ve had a little boy. We thought, what would happen if – heaven forbid – something happened to one of us? 

We met back with Richard, and he put some quotes together for life and critical illness insurance that met our budget and gave us what we needed. Furthermore, we now have life and income protection insurance to cover the full term of the mortgage over the next 21 years. As well as family income benefit, which would pay £2K a month if either of us passed away. This means that the mortgage would be paid off, and it would also provide a regular amount to cover ongoing bills and outgoings. So, financially at least, things would remain the same. 

We valued Richard’s judgement with this – if it had just been down to us, we wouldn’t have known where to start. My wife and I are really busy, so we don’t have time to sit down and search through everything. Life insurance is something you’re committing to for a long period of time, so you need reassurance that you’ve got the right product.

There are off-the-shelf packages you can find on the internet, but we knew Richard would be able to get something that would be more competitively priced and give us exactly what we needed.

We’ve seen Richard take over from his Dad and seen the business go from strength to strength, and we like the family feel of working with Oakworth Financial Planning. It’s important because we feel they know us as people. The knowledge they have about us means we’ll be better advised.

For example, when I emailed Richard to ask about putting the life and income protection insurance in place, he was able to email straight away. He said, “If I remember rightly, the value of your mortgage must be this now”, and described roughly what I’d be looking for. 

Within a day or so he’d sent me some quotes with a breakdown of each one. Because he already had our background details, he was able to make the process more efficient and give us instant peace of mind. With others, we’d be contacting them out of the blue, and it wouldn’t have been so swift.

These are small things, but they have the ability to give you a feeling of security that really helps when you have a family and responsibilities.

The other great thing is that you feel you’re getting a very personal service. For example, last night, Richard dropped off some paperwork for us as we’d missed something off one of the forms. He’s also happy to pop round and do things face-to-face if need be.

Anything like that that reduces emails is helpful in my book!