My name is Brenda Barrett. I’ve been with Solus for more than 15 years now, and my adviser is Gavin Johnson.

I initially needed advice from Solus regarding pre-planning retirement and the financial situation for myself and my husband, as we were coming up to our 60s and were looking ahead to the future.

We didn’t really know how to plan our future. We had several pensions that we thought could be consolidated, but we didn’t know how to go about doing that, and Solus was going to provide that solution for us.

I initially met Gavin through our local Chamber of Commerce. He was about to do a presentation on the new pension schemes. I went to have a chat with him, and the conversation lasted about three hours over a coffee. I realised he was the person who probably could provide the advice that we were looking for.

We had initially had problems in the endowment scandal many years before. So, we were nervous about financial advisers, and my husband was quite anti. So, it was important that the person that we spoke to was somebody we could trust. Having spoken to Gavin at length, we considered him to be somebody who could provide what we were looking for.

Gavin and the team have helped me with some significant decisions for my future. In 2016, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had my own business at the time, and I decided that I would like to retire and focus on my health and my family and enjoy my retirement. Gavin was one of the first people that we called; we had a conversation with him, and he was able to advise me, pull together my pensions, work out with us how I could retire and have an income at that particular time, and just focus on my health rather than focusing on the financial side of things. He helped give me advice on winding up my company and explained how I could put more money into my pension from that company. It gave me a significant amount of comfort for the future.

The best thing about working with Gavin and the team at Solus is I feel they have my future covered. They look after my finances and contact me regularly to keep me updated about changes in my financial situation. I feel confident about the future.

I would describe Gavin as friendly, an expert, and knowledgeable.

The best piece of advice that Gavin and the team have given us is not to panic when the market goes down but to sit tight, ride the storm, and your money will be better at the end of it, and that’s definitely what the outcome has been for us.

I would recommend Gavin and Solus to any of my friends or people I meet seeking retirement advice, as Gavin looks holistically at your whole financial situation. He works very closely with you to understand your goals for the future and your retirement, and he comes up with the solutions that you need.