Client Stories
- Access to competitive rates and some you can't get direct through being part of Quilter Financial Planning
- Specialist Mortgage Advisers
- We work with a wide range of lenders
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Brenda and Paul
“We feel positive about our future and feel our finances are in safe hands”
Brenda
Hello, my name is Brenda, this is my husband, Paul. We have been clients of Verve financial for between two and a half to three years, and our financial adviser is Michelle Boakes.
Paul
When we moved to Hampshire, we came into an inheritance, and we decided that we needed better financial advice than what we are able to find for ourselves.
Brenda
What we needed help with was how to invest our money wisely, and be able to get the best return for that, and by just visiting banks or building societies, or even looking up online ourselves, we didn’t feel that we were getting the best advice, and therefore, that’s why we needed that extra help.
Paul
We heard about Verve financial when we had to get a smaller mortgage for a shorter period of time when we moved house, and it was the mortgage adviser that put us on to Verve.
Brenda
I did have a little look around at other areas but when I spoke to Michelle from Verve, I just got a really friendly vibe. She knew what she was talking about, there was no hard sell. It was just yes, I can give you advice, I can come and see you and everything was very positive.
Paul
Working with Verve has made me feel comfortable and happy that our money is in a safe place and it will meet our forecasts of what we’re trying to end up with.
Brenda
I feel very positive about our financial future. I feel that it’s been looked after well, that we’ve been kept abreast of everything that we can dip in and out and have a look ourselves. And as we’ve gone along our journey, we’ve become much more positive and calmer about how things are going.
Paul
The three words I would use for Verve are very knowledgeable, comfortable with lots of choices and looking to the future.
Brenda
The best thing about working with Verve is actually we’ve become friends, and I mean that in a working relationship. I trust Michelle, I trust the advice she gives, she understands our situation and therefore gives me advice according to that. She always explains things fully so that we feel that at the end of a meeting, we know exactly what we are dealing with and what we’ve agreed.
Since working with Verve, I think the best advice they’ve given us is to trust them in what they are advising, that they are the knowledgeable ones. They are the ones that know how things work and they, at the beginning, wanted to know what our risk evaluation was like and by trusting them, we are getting what we want.
Paul
I’d recommend Verve because they talk to you and understand your risk or advise you of the risks of what you want to do and how far you’re prepared to go. They make it so that it’s easier for you to understand where you’re going to be at a certain time.
Juliette
“I really love working with Michelle, she went above and beyond to help me get my ideal mortgage”
My name is Juliette. I’ve been a client of Verve for the past four years, and my adviser is Michelle Boakes.
I got in touch with Verve because I was looking for a mortgage following a relationship breakdown.
My earning capacity was significantly less because I had given up work to care for my children. I did have other sources of income, and it was trying to find a mortgage provider who would accept those and look at those in addition to my earning capacity, so that was why I approached Michelle.
I knew about Verve from a previous financial adviser that I had used for other financial issues in the past. So, I didn’t know about Michelle, and that’s how I met up with her initially.
She was really open, very friendly, very understanding and very non-judgemental of my situation, she’d had a lot of previous experience with clients who had gone through similar and knew how to help them with the financial challenges. When you’re in that situation, it’s difficult to get a high street bank to actually listen to where you are, and I’d had the door closed on me a few times. When I approached Michelle, I felt very confident that she would be able to help me.
I really love working with Michelle, she is very relatable. She secured me a mortgage when nobody else would, she worked so hard, and for several weeks, to contact various providers on my behalf and eventually she did get me the ideal mortgage. So, I’m very happy in my home now with my kids in the space that we need. Currently, she is also arranging my pension update.
Three words I would use to describe Michelle would be hard-working, kind and empathetic.
I do feel very secure. I can contact her at any time and we also have an annual meeting to go over my pension and the future. When I get to the end of my fixed rates, we might look at another mortgage to see if I can get a better deal on that as well. So, those options are always open to me.
If it wasn’t for Michelle, it would have impacted all aspects of my life and my kids’ lives. So, I feel very confident and very assured that Michelle has helped me hugely and will do so in the future.
The best piece of advice they’ve been able to give me, I mean, hands down, would be the mortgage. I know that Michelle spent several weeks looking for that mortgage for me, she went the extra mile, and she went above and beyond for me.
I would highly recommend Michelle and Verve; they have helped me so much. They see the bigger picture. They are able to approach financial institutions on my behalf in a way that I couldn’t, to enable me to secure the mortgage that I needed and to give me the quality of life that I do have now and that I’ve been able to provide for my kids. So yes, absolutely, I would highly recommend them and have already done so to friends.
Louise
” Verve is genuinely passionate about your financial future, whether you’re 19 or 90. “
Hi, my name is Louise, and I’ve been a client of Verve, and Michelle and Gary in particular, since 2015.
Initially, it was about having mortgage advice and getting a mortgage advisor to buy a house with my then fiancé. But since then, it’s been a lot more about investments, and then what to do with a pension payout, as in a lump sum, and get the most for our money, that was really important.
Sometimes, when you change addresses, you know, a couple of times in five years, it can affect how you apply for a mortgage. But Michelle and Gary were great, and they kept pushing and made sure that I was given all the available products that would have accepted us for a mortgage, and that was really important. So yes, that was probably the main challenge, and the rest of it, Gary and Michelle made really easy.
They came up in our local financial planning service search and word of mouth as well, because in the estate that we eventually bought, they’d done a lot of people’s mortgage advice, and they’ve been really, really successful.
They are so approachable. They know what they’re talking about, both from a family point of view and from an expert point of view, rather than just somebody you don’t really know, somebody you don’t really link with but might be an expert. They all come together, and it’s a package.
What’s really impressive about Verve is they are genuinely passionate about setting out your financial future, whether you’re 19 or 90, especially if you haven’t got a clue what you want your money to do, or what you want your money to go towards. They’ll help you set out a plan and put it into action, not just plan it and do nothing but put it into action to get that first car if you’re 19. Or to sort out your inheritance if you’re 90.
The best thing about working with Verve is that we’ve actually become friends with them, and you know, our friends are our financial advisers, and our financial advisers are our friends.
I actually feel safer working with Verve than trying to go it alone, especially with the way things are in the UK at the minute with, you know, interest rates and the potential recession, they are looking after our money for us and that’s really important.
What they can show you is how your money is going to grow over time, and that was brilliant seeing that actually, I am going to end up with a bit of money if I keep saving, I am going to end up with a bit of money if I keep investing, and they showed me how and got it sorted.
They genuinely want the best for the individual first, then the individual’s money, and then the future of that individual. So, they genuinely want the best, not just as a strapline or anything like that. It’s a genuine need to see people financially secure and confident, and emotionally confident as well. And that really came across when you first get an appointment.
The best bit of advice that Verve gave us was, “sit tight.” So, when you first go into a mortgage, or you first go into an investment, it can be quite scary, and you might want to change or bring your money back out or do something different but the best bit of advice they gave me, and my husband was, “sit tight, it will start to grow.”
I would recommend getting no-obligation advice from Verve just to see what is out there because before we worked with Verve as a couple, we didn’t know what was out there to invest our money in or how to do a mortgage cleverly in the environment at the time. So, without any obligation, go and get the advice. I recommend that to anyone for mortgages, pensions, investments and anything you’re not fully financially confident about. They will reassure you and hold your hand through any of it.