Anonymous

Anonymous

A valued Collins Financial Group client sat down with us to discuss their experience.

To start, we asked them about their background and the early days with Collins Financial Group.

“We started with Troy in the 2000’s I think. We were introduced to him by a friend of ours who was working with Troy on her future planning. We’ve stuck with him ever since, followed his advice, and are both retired now and continuing on with him.”

“With Collins Financial Group we’ve been able to plan our retirement, I retired 5 years ago (which was a couple of years early) and Phil retired last year.”

What made you choose to work with Collins Financial Group?

“We had an exploratory meeting first and we were very impressed with his presentation. He gave us multiple options from the start and the initial impressions were just so favourable.”

“You definitely get the sense that he knows what he’s talking about and I think that’s fairly common with Troy, right from the start he just instills confidence.”

What has it been like working with the team at Collins Financial Group?

“The team has changed over the time that we’ve worked with them. But while people have come and gone, we’ve managed to strike a fairly personal relationship with all the team that we’ve dealt with and we always have the ongoing presence of Troy.”

“Troy has consistently picked good staff, he seems to have an eye for good people. It could also be the training that he provides but we always feel confident that if we ring up with a question, there will be someone there who can answer.”

“We actually have a good time when we go in and have a meeting with them, it’s an enjoyable experience. They are very professional and are able to show us how things are going. They’re great with technology and tools and are able to show us how we’re doing.”

What results have you seen from working with Collins Financial Group?

“We were able to plan our retirement and actually retired a few years early.”

“We have a fairly simple lifestyle but we wanted to travel and were able to do that constantly. We have travelled to Japan twice a year for 10+ years. What we’ve been able to do is use our finances to do the things we want.”

“What Collins Financial Group has done is allow us to do what we wanted to do with our money as well as build our long term future at the same time.”

“It’s never been a problem if we decide we want to retire early, go purchase something or go on a holiday. They don’t panic, they just help make it happen.”

“The great thing is you feel as though you’re still in control of your finances, but there are things in the background moving on towards the ultimate goal.”

Retirement

“We knew that we wanted to retire as early as possible so we could enjoy it while we’re healthy. We also wanted to live a lifestyle in retirement that was comparable to our life when we were working, which we were pretty much able to do.”

“With Collins Financial Group you get the best of both worlds. You get someone who is looking after your long-term benefits, but also encouraging you to enjoy your life and do the things you want to do.

“It has also meant we were able to lend our family some money to help with their home.”

Reassurance

“I can’t tell you how reassuring it is to have people looking after your finances who are knowledgeable and calm about things.”

Would you recommend Collins Financial Group to others?

“I have recommended Troy to a former colleague of mine who was in a dire situation. While it was a very different situation to ours, she’s also had some really good outcomes and is quite pleased with Troy. So it doesn’t have to be the same situation as ours, Troy can help with all different people and situations.”

“I don’t think we would have been able to do what we’ve done over the years without having Troy’s input. We’re fairly modest but still, there’s a certain amount of savvy and knowledge that the average person just doesn’t have, like taking out a loan to invest. We might not have done that without his guidance.”

“When working with Collins Financial Group you need to accept a certain amount of discipline with your finances, but they weren’t onerous for us, we could cope with whatever we recommended. I also know Troy adjusts his recommendations to suit your reality and always presents us with options. They map out scenarios so you can see what will get you where, and when. Troy’s very open to people’s reality.”

Proactive advice

“We don’t feel like we’re just paying our fees and they just sit there. Quite often we’ll get something out of the blue from Troy because he was thinking of us and had an idea. They’re constantly reviewing our situation and there is always a tweak here and an idea there and there so you know you’re in safe hands.”

“Over the years we’ve developed a personal relationship with them and we know each other quite well. To put it simply, there’s a lot of laughing going on at our meetings!”

Closing comments

“We’re really pleased that we’re in the position we are in.”

“I was teaching for 25 years and got tired of it. When I first suggested that I would be ready to retire, they responded with “OK, how soon would you like to do it, let’s make it work.”

“We’ve been happy with what they’ve done for us and are happy to recommend them.”