Gary Waylen

"They’ve guided me from when I had a young family to early retirement, always with a clear plan and steady advice."

I’m Gary Waylen. I’ve been a client with Butler Toll for more than 30 years. Andy was my adviser for most of that 30 years, but recently Alex has sort of taken up the reins and is taking care of my daily needs.

I was a finance director for a small company, and we had a pension scheme that we needed to make a change to. Butler Toll conveniently moved into the building next to us, but I also knew Andy from a previous relationship as well. So, the two things came together just perfectly.

When I first met Andy the things we talked about were twofold: firstly, the pension scheme for the company that I worked for and, secondly, for myself on a personal basis. I was fairly young then with a young family and I needed some advice about how I could progress my pension to be able to retire comfortably in the future.

Over my 30 year relationship with Butler Toll my personal situation has changed. For example, I’ve changed jobs, had a change in pension schemes and had to navigate different tax regimes as well. Butler Toll has always been there to answer my questions about what the best thing for me to do is, when is the right time to invest, and when is the most tax-efficient time to invest as well. So, they’ve done an excellent job in that regard.

I’ve been very comfortable with my financial future with Butler Toll. I’ve had regular meetings with them; they’re always monitoring how my pension has been performing and mention when I have the ability to make extra investments when the timing is right. I think that that whole journey did enable me to retire early, and I’m now enjoying the fruits of that endeavour.

One of the best things about working with the team at Butler Toll is the fact that I’m always informed about what my financial situation is, and the options that I have. They’re always at the end of the phone to be able to answer any questions or visit me personally if I need to make any changes to my pension or draw from my pension as well.

The three words I would use to describe Butler Toll are professional, informative, and friendly.

I think the best bit of advice I’ve received from Butler Toll is that building up a pension is a long-term project. You’re going to have times in your life when you can afford to put money into a pension and, obviously, times when it’s much more difficult. They’ve helped me smooth that out and basically keep me relaxed about the whole process. Ultimately, it resulted in an excellent outcome for me.

I would have no qualms about recommending Butler Toll. My personal experience has been very good with them, as I’ve spoken about. They were also very good in advising on the company pension that we took over. I would also say in terms of the relationship with the advisers that I’ve been working with, essentially, they become friends. We end up talking not only about the pensions, but we have personal conversations too; I feel like I know their families and they know my family as well. It’s been a pleasurable journey.