Marianne

Marianne needs only look at friends to realise how lucky she was in choosing her financial adviser.

When the Octogenarian's former family adviser retired, the business was sold to Vestar, which subsequently failed. Had she gone with the flow and signed up to Vestar's services, a good chunk of her nest egg would have been lost.

The Vestar representative charmed Mavis. Fortunately she always gets second opinions from her trustees and/or accountant before making decisions. "I don't do anything (financial) on my own" she says. "I always have a trustee there."

Mavis took her trustee and a financial adviser from his firm to a meeting to check out the presentations and they recommended against using Vestar for investments.

She then considered choosing another local financial advice firm, but in the end felt comfortable going with the adviser her trustee had introduced her to. She liked him as a person, trusted him, and could keep all her financial matters under one roof.

After doing a risk profile the financial adviser recommended she invest in a Grosvenor Financial Services Group researched diversified portfolio, designed to meet her level of risk tolerance and investment objectives.

"I have never had any regrets about going with (my adviser) and Grosvenor," says Mavis. "I don't know what I might have lost with Vestar, but I hate to think. Let's face it, there were a lot of the finance companies that went broke. They were falling over in all directions."

What makes the relationship with her adviser special, says Mavis, is that he goes the extra mile for her and feels like he's a member of the family. "I lost my husband 10 years ago and he dealt with the financial part," she says. "I am not up with the markets and (my adviser) goes through the basics with me."

The trust she has in her adviser is really important to Mavis. "It means I can sleep at night." She is also confident with the investment advice she receives. "They have the knowledge," she says. What's more her adviser comes to her house for meetings and says that she can call him any time.

Mavis is content with the outcome of her investments, which is what matters, she says. Even in tough economic times the overall portfolio has gone up in value despite a six month blip at the height of the credit crunch. "I have done very well and can say I have gained rather than lost, which is something in this age."

Not only that, the wrap portfolio has reduced her administrative burden significantly, making life much easier for Mavis. In the past she would have needed to get signatures from a trustee every time she wanted to change her investments or even take up offers. That was expensive and time consuming.

Instead her portfolio is automatically rebalanced when required without the need for Mavis to sign any paperwork. "It's really simple now." Tax time is seamless as well. Every April the necessary financial information for her tax return is automatically transferred to the in-house accounting staff.