Meet Maggie
For someone who has a very high net worth, Maggie is as down to earth and refreshingly direct as you can get. Neither she nor her late husband came from money, instead they worked their way up, started a family and were living life to the full, when life changed dramatically overnight.
“I was widowed very suddenly 15 years ago,” Maggie explains. “My son was at university, and my daughter had recently graduated. My late husband worked for Merrill Lynch, and then Lehman Brothers, and he handled all the family finances. He’d involve me but, to be frank, I never listened. When he made his first million, we were shocked. We didn’t know what to do!”
Maggie’s husband died as a result of a tragic accident, on Maggie’s 50th birthday, and to this day, the family only celebrates her birthday later in the year. “Overnight, I had to take over the family finances, and our assets were quite substantial. In the millions. “
The first year passed in a blur. But the distressing manner in which the family finances were handled by their bank only added to the traumatic aftermath. “In my view, they really mucked things up,” Maggie says, succinctly.
Lee, now Maggie’s SJP Partner, was one of the few people at the bank who not only understood her situation but genuinely had her best interests at heart. “All of us were in denial. We used to have a monthly allowance, and suddenly there was all this money and multiple properties we were responsible for,” Maggie says. “Lee was down to earth, and he comes from a similar background to us. I felt comfortable that he understood our situation and cared about our family. That gave me confidence. When he left the bank to become an SJP Partner, I asked him to take over as our financial adviser. “
