Oakley Independent Limited

I first met Paul when he worked for an insurance company many years ago. When I heard he had gone independent, I transferred my business to him. My husband took ill in November 2011. Paul suggested that he apply for his pension on the grounds of ill health. At first we did not do this because he was going through, what was intended to be, curative treatment. Unfortunately this did not work and when we found out that there was no more that the doctors could do, I rang Paul and he took over. We signed a letter authorising Paul to deal with all financial matters on our behalf. He dealt with the bank, the doctors, the pensions, the life insurance and the land registry on our behalf. He came out to the house for my husband to sign a will that he drew up. At the age of 50, with no children, we had not seen the need to have a will and it was not nice having to deal with things like that at such a difficult time but Paul made sure that it went through as smoothly as possible. He even came with me to the bank to pay off the mortgage. This gave comfort to my husband in his last few weeks as losing the house had been a concern to him at times because the market that he had worked in had little job stability. Sadly, my husband passed away in April 2012. This coincided with me taking voluntary redundancy from my job as a secondary school teacher. Paul sorted out all the finances, leaving me with enough to live off for the time being and investing the rest wisely. I am told that it is doing very well but I leave all the technical jargon to him and just nod in all the right places. He knows what he is doing and I trust him to look after my money. It’s that simple. Due to the fact that I know that my money is looked after, I was able to set up my own business as a private language tutor. I teach 3 languages, French, Spanish and Italian. I teach all ages from pre-school to retirement. It has enabled me to have a new start and a new focus and the fact that I have financial stability meant that I could work as and when I wanted and take on as much or as little as I wanted. I now have my own website <url hidden> about 20 clients on my books, one of which is a corporate client, and a nice mix of ages and languages. I know that my husband would be happy to know that the money was invested wisely and that I am doing well, largely down to Paul.

"Just recently we found ourselves needing financial advice quickly. Oakley’s team came to the rescue with sound recommendations and immeasurable knowledge of Investment, Pension and Banking world and what it had to offer us. Oakley’s friendly staff where always willing to listen to the biggest or smallest concerns that we might have had. We would recommend Oakley Independent to our friends and family. In truth we did just that; with our son" — Mrs CC Halewood Village

By a chance conversation with a neighbour about writing a Last Will and Testament one day she said she know someone from her local church who had written theirs and felt comfortable and safe in their dealings with this company. A recommendation is a good starting point so we ask for the company’s phone number. This was our first dealing over 14 years ago with Oakley Independent and Paul Hudson. Inviting someone in your home and feeling comfortable with them within 5 minutes is a skill that Paul has. Sadly although we have dealt with the loss of both parents ourselves deciding and penning your last wishes is really hard. Paul was caring and patient and final with his guidance we feel that we have left our children with a lighter task after we have gone. A few months later we decided to contact Paul again to see if he could help us with another matter. My husband move company’s a lot in his working life and had many frozen pensions earning zero bonuses. We wonder if there was any way of making this work in our favour. Paul smiled and said “I’m sure I can do something better for you’ and he did. We handed as much paperwork as we had and Paul went off to hunt them all down. No easy task as some firms had since folded but the pension schemes were underwritten by other companies. We have no knowledge of how all this works but felt confident and assured that Paul was working hard for us. His vast knowledge of the financial systems enabled him to bring all these pensions together. For us it was like planting a tiny acorn not realizing over the years we would watched it flourish into a mature Oak Tree. If you have a grown family you will know how difficult it is for your children to get on the housing ladder and that many parents now have to help them. So we turned to someone who know our family and more importantly trusted; so no hesitation once again we call in Oakley’s Director and his team to find the best way around this problem. Well once you call Paul it’s no-longer a problem. Trusting our children’s future changed our relationship with Paul. He became a family friend as he is a family man himself. Oakley Independent found our children the right mortgages and legal representation. The team at Oakley helped us find a way to help our children financially too. Paul’s advice is very down to earth he talks in layman’s terms so you are not lost with legal language and finance jargon. Paul’s daughter Hannah joined the team as a junior but is now a Director of the company. Hannah has gained many qualifications over the years and we have used her expert knowledge in finalise matters. We all want to make our financial futures work for us. Like our Oak Tree, life has taken us down many branches. It has been made stronger and easier for us because of Paul and his team at Oakley Independent at its roots. Family from Halewood Village