Dear Alan

Star's Pension Scheme

I had the opportunity to sit for half an hour with Colin yesterday just to reflect on the events of the last year or so in relation to our Pension Scheme.

I have been acutely aware that there were strong feelings held by two other trustees concerning events surrounding the eventual transfer from Equitable Life and the ASAM charges proposed for ongoing support of the transferred Scheme. Whilst I did not share their misgivings, I was unable to convince them that their concerns were unfounded. What was clear was that nobody was entirely sure what the real situation was; we were all muddled by the percentages and how they were applied etc etc. I am extremely grateful that Colin dropped everything at short notice to come over here yesterday. As soon as the misunderstandings were eliminated, it became clear that Alan Steel Asset Management has done an exemplary job for us. On behalf of the company and the Scheme trustees, I would like to express our thanks to ASAM and Colin, in particular.

Thank goodness the trauma is now behind us. We all look forward to building a stronger situation for the future with the benefit of sound, informed advice.

Dear Steve and Carol

Stephanie and I would like to thank you and 'ASAM' for your Christmas card. It was a very kind thought and we are most appreciative.

May I also take the opportunity to thank you both, most sincerely, for your help and guidance, and expert advice over the past year leading up to my retirement in October. I am sure that you helped me steer a safe course through the rocky channel of Equitable Life! We both look forward to seeing you some time later this month and have every confidence in the advice you will give for finalising my pension investment.

I am pleased to say that I am enjoying retirement.

With all the very best wishes to you both, and to your firm, for a happy and successful New Year.

From Jeff Prestridge's 'Complete Personal Finance Guide'
published 2001. Financial Mail on Sunday

'Independent Financial Advisers are much criticised but a good adviser is worth his or her weight in gold. Over the past 14 years, I have had personal dealings with hundreds of advisers. These are the crème de le crème.'

Alan Steel Asset Management is one of only 14 IFAs mentioned.

Dear Alan

A short note to say how much Thea and I have enjoyed our relationship with your company and Steven Forbes has been a great help in sorting out our problems and heading us in the right direction.

We thank you again and wish you every success in the coming years.

Dear Alan

I know exactly how you feel regarding the passage of time, but it is nice to look back and reflect on the difficulties associated with setting up and becoming established, and the resulting progress that has been made.

Whilst our association with you has only been for four years, we have benefited greatly from the sound advice given to us by you and Frances in the first instance, and the continued consideration provided by Graeme who has been superbly supported by Irene and various other members of your staff.

At all times, we have found Graeme to be totally professional and we look forward to continued association with him.

Jean and I wish you and all at ASAM our best wishes for the future.

Dear Alan

Just a note to thank you and to add our congratulations to the many you will have received. You must be very proud of the reputation you have built up over the years and from a client`s point of view, it is so refreshing to deal with an organisation in the financial sector where you do not feel, at any time, that you are being "ripped off" and that all the advice offered is in your best interests.

Our experiences with Alan Steel comes up many times when discussing financial planning with friends. Two are now your clients and I know are, likewise, delighted and have thanked us many times for pointing them in your direction. In spite of the funny state of the market, here's hoping you continue to look after us (and of course your other clients) as effectively as during the past 25 years.

Our very best wishes.

Dear Alan

Soon after we first met about 1975/6 Margaret and I decided to entrust to you our long term financial future investments including arranging our personal and company pensions. Thanks to your expertise and guidance we are now reaping the benefits of our decision and at a stage where we could have been vulnerable to inflation etc.; we are in the happy position of being able to enjoy an extremely comfortable standard of living.

Over the years I have, when ever the opportunity presented itself, recommended you to various friends and acquaintances and will continue to do so sure in the knowledge that their requirements will be equally well serviced.
When people let you down we tend to be quick to react and complain but when the opposite is the case we may not always be so responsive or appreciative so, on behalf of Margaret and myself I wish to express our sincere thanks for a job well done and to wish you continued success.

I was up in Linlithgow, Scotland, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Alan Steel Asset Management, a firm of independent financial advisers.

ASAM is led by the formidable Alan Steel and he is one of the few advisors I have ever met who bats for the consumer 24 hours a day. Unlike commission-hungry advisers, Alan refuses to sell with profits investment bonds by the basketload even when the commission on offer is a tempting 7 per cent. He is also a despiser of endowments. Plain and simple, it is the long-term interests of his clients that matter to him, a comment that sadly cannot be used to describe the business objectives of all advisers.

At the celebration dinner held at the splendid Champany Inn just outside Linlithgow, I was yet again humbled. This time, it was by an elderly woman called Nan who I had the privilege of sitting next to at dinner. I say elderly because I did not have the balls to ask her exact age in case she turned round and belted me with her meaty handbag. And I can assure you, Nan would not have batted an eyelid if she had to resort to a bit of the handbagging treatment.

Nan, a widow, is obviously not short of a bob or two and is as strong-minded an individual as I have met in many a month. She told me that she had been a client of Alan Steel Asset Management for a long time. The only condition throughout her relationship with ASAM had been that she would only deal with Alan Steel in person.

Yes, she admitted, she’s had the occasional exchange of angry words with Alan Steel but she wouldn’t swap him as a financial adviser in a month of Sundays. Why? Because Alan, she said, has always had her financial interests at heart. He’s never tried to hard sell to her or frighten her into making unnecessary financial decisions. He makes her feel comfortable about her money.

Looking around the dining room that night and seeing many smiling Nan ‘copycats’, it struck home to me why ASAM is a booming IFA firm. ASAM thrives because it cares passionately about building long-term relationships. Every client is treated as a person, one of the family. It is a business ethic which seems sadly to be on the wane, superseded by the dot.com, telephone call centre mentality.

Diana Griffiths was sceptical. A financial adviser said she should insure against long-term illness. But 10 years ago, at the age of 33 she was in the prime of life and was sure she would never need to claim.

Now, mother-of-three Diana gives thanks that she was finally persuaded to sign up with Permanent Insurance.

For the past six years the policy she thought unnecessary has been a financial lifeline for her and husband Howard, a self-employed construction consultant.

In 1992 Diana was found to have multiple sclerosis. She uses a wheelchair and can no longer work.

But thanks to her health cover, she receives a monthly tax-free income equivalent to three times what she would have received in state benefit.

Alan Steel says: 'I've been an independent financial adviser for 26 years, and when I speak to clients about health cover most think its too dear for something that is not guaranteed to give them a return.

But Steel insists that premiums are worth paying for peace of mind.

'People used to say that you can either live too long or die too soon,' he says. 'On this basis, people should invest for the long term and at the same time buy life insurance to provide for their families should they die early.'

According to Steel, health cover, especially income replacement insurance, can provide a financial lifeline for those who, like Diana Griffiths, are sudden stricken with serious illness.

'Had she not taken out income replacement insurance, her family would have struggled financially,' he says.

And Diana sums up: 'Income replacement insurance is still being widely ignored by the public because it's not sexy.

'But I count my blessings that I took out a policy in 1989. If only one person is persuaded by what happened to me to consider the benefits of taking out protection, it would make me happy.'

Dear Irene and Stan

I should like you to know just how much I appreciate the very great help provided by you over the past few years and the tireless efforts you have made on my behalf, culminating in Friday's successful payout by Standard Life.

In particular, I have marvelled at the patience and friendliness always shown by you both, making it a great pleasure to do business with Alan Steel Asset Management.

The professional skills of Alan & Frances Steel have achieved substantial savings in my Capital Gains Tax and Inheritance Tax reductions. I have no hesitation and indeed have great pleasure in recommending the Alan Steel Asset Management Financial Health Check.

I am delighted to recommend without reservation the financial planning skills of Alan Steel and his team, particularly with reference to estate planning and protection. They act for me and my partners, and we recommend them happily to our clients.

The complexity of current UK taxation, coupled with the increasing investment product choice open to the consumer underlines the value of specialist independent advice. Alan and the team at Alan Steel Asset Management, together with the collective financial planning expertise available at the company lead me to conclude that they are one of only a few firms that I would be happy to recommend to my readers.

Since 1975, Alan Steel Asset Management has built an enviable reputation as an innovative pension expert, particularly as pension legislation has increased the importance of individual policies and emphasised the value of the proactive tax planning approach.