If personal finance and pensions appear just too daunting, come and have a chat with me, PensionMan. I will strip out the jargon and explain how everything fits together: from your pension to tax-efficient investing and inheritance planning.
It’s all so much easier to understand if you’re not being bamboozled with acronyms or feeling bounced into buying financial products with little indication how much you’ll actually be paying for them.
Because I am an educator, not a fee-driven adviser, I will show you how things work so you can do as much as possible for yourself. It’s all out there, people just need a friend to show them around.
Pensions by Candlelight is a unique concept in personal financial education. Join a small, friendly and relaxed dinner party to talk personal finance. Of course the dinners are informative with an experienced professional investor answering all your questions, but they are also fun. That’s not something you can usually say about someone who’s passionate about pensions!
We run dinners for all abilities from complete novices to experienced investors:
Examples include
Basic retirement planning
Tax efficient investing
Leaving something to the (grand)children
Is Buy to Let for you?
If the session you require is not listed, contact us as we are usually planning multiple events at any given time.
New dates coming soon.
With auto enrolment now a reality, as a business owner you will want your staff to be aware of the contributions you are making on their behalf. In turn they'll be keen to learn how to make the most of what you are offering.
Equally you may run a group or society where people would like to take control of their finances. We can ensure they learn in a relaxed and engaging manner.
Speak to us about the packages we can offer.
Personal finance doesn’t have to be intimidating or confusing. Imagine enjoying a relaxed dinner with friends who can explain how it all works and answer your questions. Pensions by Candlelight is finance without the jargon and there’s no such thing as a stupid question. It’s good, friendly company over dinner washed down with a nice glass of red (or white) to smooth things along.
Also because this is financial education, there’s no hard sell from an adviser and it won’t cost you £££ thousands in fees.
Every session is different depending on people’s interests and concerns, but we always cover what you can do to improve your state, company and private pensions. We talk about saving and investing and how to draw an income from your retirement savings tax efficiently.
We also discuss the importance of having a will and the best ways of leaving money to your loved ones. Most important of all we take the mystery out of finance.
No I am a financial educator with three decades of experience in pensions and investment and a passion for helping people understand personal finance. Weird I know, but true.
Because I am not a financial adviser I can’t provide specific investment advice and I certainly won’t be selling you any financial products.
PensionMan is all about giving people the opportunity to learn how to do things for themselves. What we usually find is that once you understand how these things work (and it’s not difficult I can assure you) what you need to do actually becomes obvious very quickly without the need for specific financial advice.
Of course certain legal and financial matters do require specialist advice. In such circumstances we don’t hesitate to encourage you to seek further, more detailed assistance.
As a fund management professional I have been the strategist for an €8 billion credit portfolio for over 13 years. I’ve also served on numerous corporate pensions and retirement investment committees.
My first job after graduating from the London School of Economics well over 30 years ago was in pensions administration with Sun Life and I have worked in finance and investment ever since.
Take a look at my website and judge for yourself the value of what I have to say.
Our Pensions By Candlelight dinners cost a fraction of the thousands of pounds people are charged for the most routine consultations with a financial adviser. The scandal of the Tata Steel workers in Port Talbot saw advisers charge up to £18,000 to arrange a pension transfer. Previous guests have paid £2,000 simply for advice on making a top up to their ISA savings.
With your 33% new customer discount, the three course dinner, wine, your pensions workbook and some free goodies from us, the cost is just £95 a head. If you choose to bring a partner or friend you’ll each pay just £70.
If you can give us 48 hours notice we can probably invite someone else and give you a full refund. With less notice we can either transfer your booking to a future event or reserve the right to deduct the cost of the meal to refund you.
We will refund the cost of the event (less the meal), but you can keep the materials and gifts. This has never happened before, but if you really feel that the dinner hasn’t worked for you we will, of course, refund your money.
Should that be the case we would obviously be very keen to know why, but you don’t have to provide us with an explanation if you don’t feel comfortable doing so.
“Great! Felt like a dinner party with friends”
“Great format - personable, relaxed and enjoyable evening of learning”
“I think it is a great initiative. The challenge with financial advisors is that I am not sure how competent they are and it is tricky to find someone one trusts. Therefore I think it is very helpful to be able to speak openly to someone who has really their interest at heart (versus their firm’s or personal interest).”
“Fantastic – thank you very much!”
“Very informative, lots of info to take in. Very friendly approach and knowledgeable.”
“Very informative and an eye opener”
“felt relaxed in asking questions no matter how stupid I thought they were”
“Excellent, detailed, informative and actually easy to understand”
“relaxed, extremely informative``
“I am the sole breadwinner for my family and very budget conscious/miserly, so I usually just read up as much as I can and muddle through on my own. This was a treat for me``
“Stuart's style is open and sharing which means no question is too stupid! You don't feel intimidated``