Christine

My name is Christine Collier. I’ve been with Blueberry Financial since 2008, and Madeleine is my adviser. 

It was actually my other half, Stuart Chester, who first introduced me to Madeleine. He had a lot of shares and things that he wanted a financial adviser to look at, and that’s how I first met Madeleine. 

Stuart had another financial adviser who I’m pretty sure was going to retire, and he suggested that we meet with Madeleine. She came over to the house with him, and that’s how we first met her. 

She was so friendly, and she spoke sense, rather than trying to push you into doing something. She listened to what you said and then came back with some ideas, rather than somebody who was trying to push you into something that perhaps you felt you didn’t want to do.

Before Stuart passed away, I had come to the meetings with him and obviously had met Madeleine. To be perfectly honest, if it hadn’t been for Madeleine, because he passed away very suddenly, I don’t know where I would have been. Madeleine was an absolute saviour because I could just speak to her. She spoke in normal English, not in a financial way that I couldn’t understand. And as you can imagine, when you’ve just lost somebody, the last thing you need is more stress, and Madeleine took all that away and sorted out the changing over of all the documentation and the shares to me, so to be honest, I don’t know what I would have done without her.

Stuart had four grandchildren, and after he passed away, I wanted to make some provisions for them from the money that had come to me. So, Madeleine helped me set up a trust fund for each of the grandchildren to make sure they’ve got some money for the future, and that was very important to me. 

I think with Madeleine, it’s almost like a calming influence because I’m not somebody who knows much about finances. I could do the normal day-to-day stuff, but because Stuart had so many different things, it makes it so much easier having somebody that I can relate to and say, “Look, this is what I would like to do. How do we go about doing it?”. 

The three words I would use to describe Madeleine are normal, fun, and expert. 

The best thing about working with Madeleine is the blueberry muffins and the cups of tea. 

Yes, I would certainly recommend Madeleine and Blueberry if you’re looking for somebody who is going to look after your financial affairs, is easy to talk to, and describes things in words of one syllable without making it difficult to understand. She is not at all worried if you ask what you think is maybe a dumb question; she’s more than happy to answer it. You can contact her at any time if you’ve got any queries; she’s very quick at coming back. It’s just a case of telling her what you want, and then she comes back with the best options. So I’d highly recommend her.