Managing your money can feel like a constant weight - confusion, guilt, and the nagging sense you should be doing something differently, but aren't sure what. You might have a pension you don't understand, savings in the wrong place, or an unease that if something went wrong tomorrow, you wouldn't be as protected as you think. You're not alone, and it doesn't have to stay complicated.
I'm Alan Thomlinson, a Financial Planning Consultant with Quilter, based in Woking, Surrey. I work with people who want a straightforward plan for their money - not a stack of products they don't understand, but a clear picture of where they stand and what to do next. I help with pension planning, protection, short and long-term savings, investment planning, and inheritance tax planning - all built around what you're actually trying to achieve, not just products for their own sake.
Before advising, I spent 19 years across the civil service and the aid sector, where money was a constant challenge - stretched budgets, competing priorities, and the need to make every pound count. Watching my parents manage our family's money -saving carefully, investing where they could, living frugally when they had to - taught me early that good money management isn't about how much you have, it's the decisions you make with it.
Planning can iron out most financial challenges before they become real problems. Many people are over-insured against things that barely matter, and under-insured against the things that do. Even more fundamentally, most people don't have a clear plan at all - so they don't know what they're really trying to achieve, or whether they're on track to get there.
Simplicity is at the heart of good financial planning. If you can't explain your own plan - or what's in your portfolio - to a partner or friend in five minutes, it's probably too complicated to be useful.
I hold the CII Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning, backed by 19 years managing large-scale, complex projects and emergency response work around the world.
Away from work, I'm a dad to two young children and a grassroots football coach of four years - win, lose, or draw. Whenever we can, I take the kids up to the Lake District, a place that shaped a lot of my own childhood.
If any of this resonates, I'd love to talk - whether you're ready to start planning properly or just want to know more about how I work.