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8.
February
2018.
Senior hire as Prest Financial Planning builds on £350m funds under management

Senior appointment for Prest as Mike Walker joins financial planning team

  • Mike Walker joins Chartered Hazel Grove firm from national wealth manager
  • Prest targets record growth as it builds on £350m funds under management

08 February 2018: Prest Financial Planning has positioned itself for record growth in 2018 with the appointment of a new financial planner. Mike Walker joins an existing team of seven client-facing independent financial advisers at the Hazel Grove, Stockport-based firm of Chartered Financial Planners.

Previously a wealth manager with national firms Tilney and Close Brothers, Mike joins Prest during a period of rapid expansion for the family-owned company, with new business up by almost 20 per cent in 2017 alone. Prest, which currently manages funds of £350 million on behalf of its clients, is targeting even more ambitious growth in 2018 and beyond.

Mike, whose own specialist areas include estate planning and Inheritance Tax, joins with a brief both to build his own client portfolio and to coordinate Prest's wider marketing activities. He said, "Prest Financial Planning has a great reputation locally as a trusted provider of first-class advice and I am really excited to have joined such an experienced and highly regarded team at a time of rapid expansion.

"Prest has a strong family ethos that permeates the entire firm and the way it treats its staff and clients. This is the first time I have worked outside a corporate environment and when I first spoke to Graham Prest, the Chief Executive, it was really refreshing to hear him talking about the client journey and the way the firm puts true financial planning, and its clients' best interests, firmly at the heart of its proposition."

A proportion of Prest Financial Planning's recent growth has come from an increase in enquiries around Defined Benefit pension transfers. This is a sensitive area, and one which the company approaches with the utmost diligence - first applying a rigorous "triage" process to each new enquiry to assess whether it is likely to be in the client's interests to incur the associated costs that would result from the formal advice process.

Graham Prest said, "We have been successful in growing the business over the last few years but we have even more ambitious plans for the future. Mike's experience and expertise will stand us, and our clients, in good stead as we deliver on our business plan for further growth.

"Just as importantly, Mike really fits in with our culture and values. We treat all our staff and clients as members of the wider Prest family, and we are all really pleased to welcome Mike to the team."

Prest Financial Planning has been providing expert financial advice to a loyal client base in and around South Manchester and Cheshire since 1961. In 2012 it was granted corporate Chartered status, a title conferred on elite financial planning firms by the Privy Council via the Chartered Insurance Institute.

 - Ends -

 Notes to editors

About Prest Financial Planning

Prest Financial Planning is a firm of Chartered Financial Planners. It implements comprehensive financial plans and investment strategies that enable clients and their families to meet their lifetime goals and objectives. It has been based in Hazel Grove, near Stockport in Greater Manchester, for more than half a century and serves a loyal client base of business owners, professionals and retired high net worth individuals based mainly in South Manchester and Cheshire.

The firm has particular expertise in transfers from Defined Benefit (final salary) pension schemes, with highly qualified specialists who provide independent, authoritative advice on the suitability of exchanging a guaranteed lifetime income for a lump sum that could benefit from the recently introduced "pension freedoms" legislation. In cases where transfers are found to be suitable, Prest implements lifelong investment strategies and provides generational wealth planning advice to ensure transferring remains the appropriate choice.

Another specialist area is socially responsible investment. The firm has a long track record of advising clients on green and ethical options that can generate the investment performance they desire without compromising their socially responsible values.

Prest also provides expert, highly qualified advice on the funding of long-term care.

Prest Financial Planning was established in 1961 by James Prest, the father of its current Chief Executive Graham Prest. After more than five decades Prest retains a strong family ethos that defines all of its relationships with staff, clients and business partners.

For further information please contact:

Mike Walker
Financial Planner
0161 456 7890
mike.walker@prestfinancial.co.uk

Stuart Anderson
Alpha Public Relations
0161 791 0811
sanderson@alphapr.co.uk

www.prestfinancial.co.uk