Busy anaesthetist

Dr Maggie Cobley is an anaesthetist at the University Hospital, Llandough Nr. Cardiff.

She and her husband had been with another financial adviser for several years but he was retiring. Then her husband died prematurely. ‘I relied on my husband’s view when it came to managing my finances,’ says Maggie. ‘I wanted a financial adviser who would look after me through my working life and into retirement.’

In 2001, she became a client of Stephen Willis, who offers financial planning advice in Cardiff. ‘I liked Stephen immediately. I also liked that he was completely independent, and more importantly, that he didn’t push me straight into pensions and investments. I’d done a little research, and was reassured that Stephen wasn’t just “out to make money” from me. The opposite, – he was looking at the long-term picture for me.

‘He recommended I spread my investments to spread the risk. There’s been some growth and of course some losses in 2008/9, but Stephen reassured me. He told me to sit tight and wait for the recovery, and sure enough, it all came back up.

‘Stephen is highly professional and very well informed. He’s not at all patronising and is always interested in how I see my future – he’s never made any attempt to push his own agenda. Today he delivers everything I ask for. He’s approachable, easy to get hold of and, above all, not pushy!’