Video transcript

Hi, I’m Ruth Yaar. I’ve been with Ovation for about 10 years and have been working alongside Tom Morris. 

My husband and I decided in our mid-50s that we needed to start planning for our retirement. We’d also inherited a little bit of money and wanted to optimise what we did with it. We felt that we could combine that with sorting out our pension status. 

He took us through where our finances were, and thankfully, we were in a reasonably healthy state, but he also chatted to us about what we wanted to do with the money that we’ve got, and what our aspirations were for the future, whether we wanted to travel more or move house to get a general feel for what we wanted to do going into retirement.

When we decided that we needed to look at our retirement, we thought about which of our friends might have used services and asked them. One particular friend stood out, and she recommended Ovation. 

We chose Tom because we felt that he understood our circumstances. We felt an immediate rapport with him, which made us feel very comfortable with using his services. 

Over the years, Tom has helped us plan for our retirement, and then, unfortunately, my husband became very ill, and sadly, he was with us only for about four months. In that time, Tom was able to ensure that everything was in place and give my husband peace of mind that everything would be sorted once he left us. 

For me, the benefits of working with Tom and Ovation are that they are very supportive, accessible, and efficient in their responses, so I always feel very well cared for. 

Since I’ve been with Ovation, I’ve felt much more comfortable about my finances. We never realised what position we were in, but now everything is sorted, and it’s on up the platform; we have access to it, we can look at it and feel much more confident that everything’s in place and that I’m not suddenly going to lose money. If I need it, there are ways of accessing it as well. So, overall, just a complete package that supports everything that I need to do. 

The benefits of an employee-owned business are that they’re all invested in the company, and it’s in their own interest to do well and to support the rest of their team. So that helps me to feel much more confident in their abilities, because they’re not working for themselves. 

I think one of the best bits of advice that Tom gave us was to enjoy our money, because we’ve always saved hard for our retirement, and so he said, “This is the time to enjoy it. Particularly when you’re early in your retirement, because that’s the time when you’re fit and healthy enough to do it. So, if you want to do something, go and do it.” 

I definitely recommend Ovation to other people. I find Tom very approachable, and all the team exceptionally helpful; they gave me confidence for my future.