Mark and Blanche Sainsbury live on the Gower Peninsula in Wales. Expert financial advice has allowed them to reap the rewards of the huge effort they put in during their working lives.

Blanche

Meet the Sainsburys

Until they sought financial advice, Mark and Blanche had thought they may have to sell their beloved home on the Gower Peninsula in Wales and downsize to fund themselves in later life. 

In fact, despite them both having high-level jobs and paying into pensions, neither was sure what their retirement might look like.

When they met their financial adviser in 2018, the couple’s lives were very hectic. They both held senior positions in the media industry, having started at the very bottom and worked their way up to board level. 

Their roles were well paid, but the responsibility meant a lot of pressure. “We had to entertain clients in an industry with long hours, and as the media landscape changed from print to digital, it was stressful at times. And the more stressful it got, the unhealthier we became,” says Blanche. 

They often spent most of the week apart – Blanche was in central London on weekdays and joined Mark and their two sons in Wales at weekends. While at home, she spent a lot of her time batch-cooking meals for the week ahead. “We were just on that hamster wheel constantly,” she says. 

Their sleep suffered and they were exhausted. “I remember saying to Mark, ‘If we could pay £3,000 a month to sleep better and £2,000 to someone to prepare these meals for us, would we do that?’ And we absolutely would have done,” says Blanche. 

“By the time we had calculated the money we would be prepared to pay to someone to help us cope with our workload, we found ourselves wondering: why are we working?”

“I was paying into a pension scheme that I didn’t really understand”

Blanche Sainsbury,
Client
sainsburys

But retirement initially felt like a pipe dream. Both Mark and Blanche had been contributing to their workplace pension scheme – alongside contributions from their employers – but neither fully understood how much their pension was worth.

“I didn’t know what the benefits of my contributions were, because nobody ever really explained it to me. It was just money that came out of my wages each month,” explains Blanche. Looking back now, she says: “For more than 30 years, I paid into a pension scheme that I didn’t really understand.”

“We wanted someone to take the stress away from us,” says Mark. “There are so many stories of scammers. You don’t want to put your money in a pension scheme that all of a sudden disappears.” 

Mark and Blanche also thought that they’d have to sell their home to retire. “All my life, I’d assumed our house would be our pension and we would downsize when we got older, to have enough money to live on,” says Blanche. “In fact, when we did understand what our pensions would provide, we realised we could build another house next door.” 

They first crossed paths with Danni, a St. James’s Place Partner, at local charity and community events in Swansea. “I didn’t know exactly what Danni did, just that she was in finance. But I liked her, and I could see that other people liked her too,” says Blanche. “The conversation started because Mark suggested I speak to her about my pension, and it went from there.”

“All my life, I’d assumed our house would be our pension and we’d downsize, [but] we never wanted to sell it”

Blanche Sainsbury,
Client

A holistic plan

What impressed Blanche from the start was Danni’s holistic approach. “She asked us: ‘What do you want your life to look like when you’re in your 60s?’ We had never had a pension adviser ask us that before – it was always: ‘How much do you want to put in your pension?’” 

They realised their priorities were to travel, to leave a legacy to their adult children and to remain in their family home. “The house is one of our greatest loves; we designed it and built it. It overlooks the Gower and it’s beautiful. We would never have wanted to sell it.”


Danni calculated how much Mark and Blanche would need to fund the lifestyle they wanted without having to downsize. Then she worked out a tax-efficient plan that allowed them both to semi-retire in 2019, when Blanche was 57 and Mark was 53.

An initial step was understanding how much their pensions were worth and tracking the various pots they’d each paid into over the years. “I had five different pension schemes, including one worth £45,000 that I didn’t realise I had. Danni found it for me, just by asking me a few questions,” says Mark.

Similarly, Danni discovered that Blanche had £60,000 in a pension that she wasn’t aware of. “If it wasn’t for Danni, we would have carried on in life without knowing that this money existed,” says Blanche.

In total, their pensions turned out to be worth a healthy amount. In addition, the couple own shares in a business, which provides a dividend income, and own a two-bedroom holiday-rental property, having converted their garage.

“Because it faces the beach, it grows in value every year. It cost us £250,000 and it’s worth three times that now,” says Blanche.

Danni advised Blanche to take a lump sum from her pension of around 19% – within the 25% portion that can be drawn free of tax – and use it to pay off what remained on the mortgage for their home. This significantly reduced their outgoings, meaning that the annual growth of Blanche’s pension, combined with the proceeds of their other investments, provided them with enough income.

“We’ve worked very, very hard to save all this money for our future, and now that money is working very, very hard to give us the life we imagined,” says Blanche. “And it’s wonderful.”

The couple felt sure they could trust Danni and SJP. “It’s one of the biggest financial advisers, and that, for me, was a big benefit,” says Mark. “We have the security of knowing we are dealing with a trustworthy company.”

Having a trusted expert on hand to provide reassurance about their investments has proved well worth it. “Investing is complicated – you can make a bad decision very quickly,” says Mark. “I’m always looking at the app and I read Danni’s fund-performance reports, but I’d rather leave any decisions to the experts. We know that whenever we need advice, all we have to do is pick up the phone and call her.”
 

 

Blanche also sought Danni’s advice about whether to help their eldest son buy his first home. “Danni said, ‘Your kids are going to be in a very fortunate position when they inherit your assets – only, by then, they’re going to be maybe in their 60s. And it’s right now that they probably most need your help, and you can easily afford it.’”

This eased Blanche’s worries. “We wanted to help him, and hearing Danni say that, it made sense,” she says.

Both sons have recently started saving for their own retirement. “That’s the result of the conversations we’ve had with them about pensions,” says Blanche. “They’ve seen our lifestyle, and they want what we’ve got in the future.”

“Life doesn’t end when you retire; it begins”

Mark Sainsbury,
Client

Making up for lost time

One of the most important pieces of advice that Danni gave the couple was to focus on their health and not just their finances. “She told us that she could help us to plan financially for our future. But we have to plan our health, so we can live a long life and enjoy that future,” says Blanche.

In semi-retirement, they both now spend a significant amount of their time exercising – boxing and personal-training sessions for Blanche, lifting weights and golf for Mark.

“I never went walking before. I worked behind a desk for pretty much my entire career,” says Mark. He now walks their two cockapoos for seven miles along the coast each day. “I love being out in the fresh air and I’m a stone and a half lighter, which has made such a difference to my life.”

 

 

They also combine their love of fitness and travel, with bootcamps in Crete and a wellness holiday in St. Lucia each year. And sleep trouble is a thing of the past. “We feel physically tired now when we go to bed, not mentally tired, which is so much better,” says Mark.

There’s been lots of time for family, too. They visit their sons regularly, and Mark now sees much more of his elderly mother. “He wasn’t able to do that before, and he lost his dad while he was working. That impacted him quite severely – and me too,” says Blanche.

Semi-retirement has brought the opportunity to give something back, too. Mark and Blanche set up the Child of Britain Awards and the Child of Wales Awards, to recognise children achieving remarkable things in the face of adversity. The events have raised more than £250,000 for children’s charities in the past two years.

 

 

“We don’t take a salary because that work, for us, is so rewarding,” says Blanche. “It’s amazing to be able to do it. And we wouldn’t be able to if we didn’t have the financial stability we have got through our pensions.”

This is just one story and each client’s situation is unique. The advice provided to Mark and Blanche was given after a full evaluation of their specific needs, circumstances and requirements. The solutions provided would not be suitable for all investors and the information provided does not constitute advice.

The value of an investment with St. James’s Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds you select and the value can therefore go down as well as up. You may get back less than you invested.

The levels and bases of taxation, and reliefs from taxation, can change at any time. The value of any tax relief depends on individual circumstances.
 

“We worked hard to pay into our pension. Now, that pension is working hard to give us the life we imagined“

Blanche Sainsbury,
Client

The SJP view: understand your options

Whether you hope to retire imminently or decades from now, it’s important to have an understanding about what options are available to you in retirement.

Understanding how you want to spend your time after you stop working, how much that would cost, and the state of your savings or investments (including your pension) will start to give you an idea of what your future could look like.

This is where a financial adviser can really help. An adviser can give you an idea of what retirement income you could afford based on how much you’re saving, or how much more you might need to save in order to realise a specific retirement goal.

And when the time comes to step back, they can help you plan how best to draw an income from those savings that you worked hard for over your working life.

The value of an investment with St. James’s Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds you select and the value can therefore go down as well as up. You may get back less than you invested.

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SJP Approved 16/04/2025