151 reviews | 3 verified advisers
Review for Toby Band
How has Toby helped you since your last review?
He provides a highly tailored, pro-active and professional service working hard to make sure my investments work for me.
Review for Toby Band
How has Toby helped you since your last review?
We have had our six monthly review and have schedule another in October
Review for Ben Barratt
What could they have done better?
Nothing I can think of to date, early days but a 10/10 experience so far
What were the circumstances that caused you to initially look for a financial adviser?
After receiving proceeds from a company sale I wanted to understand how best to invest my capital and get a picture of what it might be able to do for me in the longer term
How has Ben helped you?
Ben was very thorough in getting an understanding not just of my financial situation but of me as an individual and what I want to achieve. He has a genuine desire to help and provide a top quality service, connecting with me by breaking things down into smaller parts and ensuring we’ve had key focus areas and outcome led plans. Although this is my first experience with this type of service, I really believe that Ben has given a more personable and customer centric approach than I would’ve received elsewhere.
Have you seen the outcome you were hoping for?
Absolutely. Ben has helped ensure we are speaking the same language by providing clear explanations, projections and illustrations which have helped me understand my current and potential future situation, while emphasising that this can be flexible and change as needed if and when my requirements change.
Review for Toby Band
What could they have done better?
My only minor issue is a rarely seen disconnect between FSW and their partners who manage the IRA (in London) on their behalf. (And this partner uses a 3rd party vendor to actually manage my IRA in the US so it's a bit complicated.) I've asked a few questions to Toby and sometimes he had to go to the fund manager to inquire. This is fine of course, however on one occasion the reply from the partner (after a couple of back and forth emails) was still not answered satisfactorily (in my opinion) so then had to ask this query to my own accountant as it concerned dual taxation. I do feel that for the fees involved some types of general questions should already be known and, ideally, if there is a way to mitigate the issue. There are many US/UK dual nationals (or US citizens living in the UK) and as FSW and their fund manager partner work with them would like to see a FAQ, for example, for clients in a similar situation. (To be fair, the idea for a FAQ just came to me as I was writing this review.)
What were the circumstances that caused you to initially look for a financial adviser?
I was planning to retire in the next year, and although had pension funds in the UK and US, realised it could become rather complicated as am a dual citizen so need to be mindful of both countries regulations. I therefore decided to look for an adviser that specialised in this and spoke to 4 different firms. Toby was a cut above all the other firms as he listened to my presentation and asked good questions and offered some advice there and then. He explained, in the right level of detail, the different types of advice First Sentinel Wealth (FSW) offers and what would be most appropriate for my particular circumstances. Many of the others just seemed to be following a script and not really all that interested.
How has Toby helped you?
Frankly, in innumerable ways. A key attribute, although not financial, is his approachability and willingness to listen and then offer advice. These are 'volatile' times and as I'm now at the beginning of my early retirement want to ensure I'm doing the right thing with my private pension/IRAs so it lasts for many more years before I can collect my state pensions in both countries. I've therefore questioned a few things in my IRA portfolio with him and he explained why certain decisions were taken by the fund manager with FSWs partner. At the beginning when he ran various financial models using my income, outgoings and pension/IRA streams, he took great care in explaining all the various scenarios and then we chose the best path forward based on these models. Financially, he has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the market and, so far, have managed to weather the storm fairly well. I am sure that if I was still just managing everything myself I would not be in the same financial situation.
Have you seen the outcome you were hoping for?
Definitely very happy so far and have been working with Toby since last September. Considering the global situation, my IRAs have, for the most part, done reasonably well and I attribute this both to Toby and their fund manager partner. Hopefully I'll be able to carry on working with Toby for the long term too!
Review for Toby Band
How has Toby helped you since your last review?
He helped me with my investment
