I decided to take advice from HBS Financial Planning in 1999 after a meeting with Roger at which he explained his concerns that my current pension funds would suffer once the stock market decline, he was expecting, got underway. I had several pension funds with leading Insurance Companies, most of which were in With Profit funds. Had I decided to keep these I would have seen a significant reduction in the value of my funds, which even today, 6 years on, would have been less than they were then.

Instead, I accepted the advice, switched my pension funds to a self invested personal pension and allowed HBS to recommend a completely different range of investments. So the result has been that instead of suffering losses my fund has increased in value by around 70%.

In my experience there are very few really professional and knowledgeable investment advisors around. HBS is one of these and I cannot praise them enough for the investments they have recommended for me over the last 6 years.

Mr H Sumner, Thornton

Being dissatisfied with my old IFA I was seeking advice where I could still be involved in managing my investments. Having discussed my problem with friends they recommended I contact HBS Financial Planning, who had been their adviser for several years.

I have now been a client for 12 months and feel comfortable with the ongoing information about my existing investments. The new opportunities that HBS Financial Planning provide, together with the knowledge that I can contact them to discuss my investments or make changes to my portfolio whenever I feel it necessary, has proved rewarding.

My portfolio has increased by almost 20% and the resources sector has increased by nearly 40%. Highlights include Virginia Gold up 270%, Gammon Lake up 156%, Suncor Energy up 116% and Cameco up 112%.

The news letters are highly informative and the advisers very professional and clear in their explanations. I would be very happy to recommend HBS to any one seeking investment advice.

Mrs P J Jones, St Annes

I was introduced to HBS Financial Planning Ltd two years ago. I received a postal invite to a meeting in Lancaster and decided to go along. I thought they had done a lot of research and felt more comfortable than I did talking to other financial advisers. We decided to invest with them but about six months later things weren’t looking too good and we were very tempted to withdraw our investment.

I rang my adviser Susan and she was confident that it is normal for these kinds of investments to fluctuate. After careful consideration we decided to leave it a bit longer and I am glad we did. The regular review has been helpful and encouraging as our investment is now 40% greater than invested.

We have always received prompt attention to our enquiries and feel at ease to ring up about anything, however small.

Mr A Wightman, Carnforth

When we returned to the UK in 2000 I changed IFA’s to a Nationally known firm based in Leeds who misled me badly. Worst of all was the feeling that no-one cared, so when I discovered HBS in 2004 I was looking for a firm who would respect me as an individual and not just a sales opportunity. To date I have not regretted the move at all.

I have taken the full Investment Management Service since it is no more costly than the average OEIC and find a lot of interest in the individual companies that HBS have researched. The most impressive thing about HBS though is the level of regular communication and valuation and the way I can call at any time and speak to someone who understands my investments.

HBS are not alone in forecasting strong markets for the areas they recommend and you don’t have to be a genius to understand why, so I am happy to following their advice which has, so far, proved quite fruitful.

Mr B Tillotson, Clitheroe

Over the years I have used a number of financial advisers and to be honest I have been pretty disappointed with the advice and service I have received. Even in the good years I made only average or mediocre gains on my investments and when the economic climate changed for the worse, my investments steadily declined in value and the only advice I seemed to get was to hold on until things got better.

In 1999, after a recommendation from a friend, I paid a visit to HBS. I have to say I was surprised by their advice. I was told that in their opinion the global stock market bull run was coming to an end and that I should sell most or all of my equity investments while the going was good. I was also advised to cash in all my With Profit Bonds, as they were highly unlikely to live up to their reputation as a safe investment.

At the time this seemed highly controversial as stock markets had been rising for the best part of two decades and the majority of the financial industry was adamant that due to the way the modern global economy worked the good times would go on more or less indefinitely. However, I decided to take their advice and because of this I managed to avoid the huge losses most other people suffered because of this global stock market collapse.

The difference between HBS and the other financial advisers I have used is their tendency not to follow the majority of the financial industry, who I have found from experience have the uncanny knack of getting things wrong.

Since 1999 I have made many investments such as gold, silver and uranium that have performed extremely well, but which most of the popular financial press have missed. So by not following the crowd I have managed to substantially grow my investments in spite of the difficult economic climate of recent years.

Mr R H Brooks, Poulton le Fylde

In 1993 my wife and myself attended a seminar hosted by Roger Hardaker. As a result we subsequently purchased a second hand endowment policy that had some 6 years to run. At maturity our original investment had more than doubled which we considered to be very satisfactory.

When the FTSE Index reached the high ‘5000’ he expressed the view that this level was unsustainable and that a fall was inevitable, although the FTSE did reach approximately 6600 Mr Hardaker’s prediction came true and many of our investments suffered a severe loss when the FTSE fell to about 3300. I hasten to add that the investments were not made through HBS.

My wife and myself had substantial amounts of money invested in various bonds issued by Insurance Companies. Mr Hardaker strongly advised that we should sell these as he was of the opinion that the future annual bonuses would fall and again he was correct. In 2003 we took his advice and sold our Insurance Bonds and other equities recommended by one of the high street banks.

Sadly in November 2003 my wife died and with the assistance of HBS I set up a Discretionary Trust Fund from my wife’s estate. This came into operation in approximately March 2004 and since that date the fund has increased by some 30%. The fund was set up for the benefit of my two children to avoid double inheritance tax in the future and again I found the advice to be very satisfactory.

My own money has been invested by HBS into a variety of funds including commercial property, precious metals, oil and defence funds all of which have achieved substantial gains over my original investment.

I am happy to confirm that over the years the financial advice received from HBS has been very sound and the received has been more than satisfactory.

D L Hyde