Phil Cardwell

My name is Phil Cardwell. I’ve been a client of Blackstone for more than 30 years, and the financial adviser who’s given us great advice all the way through is Chris Brennan.

Years and years ago, Chris used to give financial advice to my father. Sadly, my father passed away, so Chris came and sorted all of my father’s affairs out with my mum. He sorted her pension and set up a trust for mum, me, and my siblings. As a natural course progresses, as soon as I reached the ripe old age of 50, certain things change in your lifestyle and your thought processes. So, I reached out to Chris regarding my own financial advice as well. That included life insurance and also pensions.

What I found with Chris when he was advising Mum was that he was very thorough and also very amenable to where we met, making sure that it was somewhere where mum could meet and myself and my siblings could meet up as well. It wasn’t a strict “we have to go into the office” or anything like that. Chris was really flexible with us. That amount of flexibility, as well as the very good advice that he gave my mum, was the reason why I decided to go with Chris for my financial advice as well.

I had a major operation a couple of years ago, and it was quite serious. I was wondering whether or not I would make it through. It triggered a lot of worry, and so we discussed what would happen to my pension if I passed away. That was quite a serious side of things, but then obviously, thankfully, I came through okay on the other side. Then it was a case of receiving pension advice on amalgamating all the pensions that I’ve had over the 30-odd years of working for various companies, putting them all together, and being able to manage the whole process.

If anything did happen to me, I now know that I’ve got policies in place that would help not just my partner but all of my children as well. I’ve got three boys, and my partner’s got two girls, so I know that they’ll be looked after from speaking to Chris and setting up a variety of policies. I am also confident that when I do retire, everything is in place for a retirement income.

I feel that my financial future is a lot more secure after working with Chris. If it weren’t for Chris and Blackstone, it would be quite a muddy future from what I can imagine, because if I hadn’t put these plans in place, then I would have probably been working into my 70s.

The three words I would use to describe Chris would be professional, amenable, and knowledgeable.

I think the best thing about working with Chris and the team at Blackstone is how responsive they are. If I have any questions, I’ll drop them a message, and within a matter of minutes, I usually get a reply back. That’s one of the great things about working with Blackstone, and it gives us that confidence.

I would definitely recommend Blackstone and certainly Chris Brennan, mainly because Chris has looked after not just me but my family for more than 30 years, and the advice has been impeccable.