Maria Morgan

We have been working with Platinum for 20 years in October 2024. For our members, Platinum provide independent financial services through one-to-one consultations, pre-retirement and mid-career seminars for NIPSA, Platinum are our pension scheme advisers.

It is important for NIPSA to offer first-class service to our members, and we partnered with Platinum as they have the same ethos as we do. Their experience in dealing with public sector pension schemes is excellent.

Many of our members have worked tirelessly for the public services throughout their careers and are experts in their public service jobs, however, they have limited knowledge when it comes to pension income. So, for our members to be able to attend information sessions on their pensions, and to attend one-to-one consultations with Platinum is invaluable for them.

Working alongside Platinum helps us to deliver an important service to members to enable and empower them to make decisions regarding their finances and their financial future.

It is very important that our financial advisers have specialist knowledge so that we can be sure that we are giving our members a valuable service, and that the information that they’re receiving is up-to-date and accurate.

Members who attend the pre-retirement seminars benefit from the independent pension advice and information on their state and occupational pensions. Many of those members are not aware of their pension income and the information they receive at the seminars help them to make informed decisions about their futures. Members attending the mid-career seminars benefit from being able to plan their financial future in an informed way.

The one-to-one consultation offered by Platinum to members is invaluable, as it allows members to explore their own financial issues by going through their policies and pension statements, so they can have a comprehensive breakdown of their incomings, outgoings, and a realistic view of their financial stability.

As NIPSA is a public service-wide trade union and has members with various pension schemes, the knowledge of the advisers on the pension schemes at NIPSA members is comprehensive. The staff are always accommodating and easy to deal with and they’re always happy to go the extra mile to help NIPSA and its members.

The feedback from our members who deal with Platinum is always very good. They comment on the professionalism, the assistance, and the ease of dealing with the advisers. Overall, it’s excellent. One of our members who had health issues, but was not able to avail of medical retirement, was very concerned about having to work for a further four years because they had very serious health issues. They wanted to retire early, however, they couldn’t afford to do so. The stress of having to work for an additional four years was having a very detrimental impact on their lives. They attended a pre-retirement seminar and attended a one-to-one with Platinum, and at that consultation and after going through all of the policies and paperwork, were able to see and were told by Platinum, that they were actually able to retire early. This particular feedback was very important to us because the member’s life was able to be impacted very positively by the information that they received due to their attendance at the seminar and their consultation with Platinum.

I would recommend Platinum due to their knowledge, experience, their relationships with their clients and their professionalism.