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About Paddy

Professionally

In his 20 years in financial services in Ireland, Paddy has gained insights on the good (and the less-good) aspects of financial advice in Ireland. Paddy initially trained as an advisor, and then spent several years as a trainer of other financial advisors. He saw the lack of truly independent advice available to people, and so designed and established Informed Decisions in 2017 as a unique independent offering to valued clients. His focus is on providing a financial planning experience that concentrates on the individual, their results, and the ambitions they have. He now spends most of his time working directly with clients to implement their plans & help them to achieve what’s most important.

Personally

Paddy (born 1980) is married to Fiona (age not disclosed!), and they have 3 young children. They live on the 'Meath Gold Coast' as he calls it! When the weather allows, they love to spend time at the beautiful local beach with the family Irish Terrier, 'Bran'! He has a new-found passion for cross-fit, though admits to being one of the oldest and most injury-prone members! He also manages to get into the outdoors through occassional cycles and weekly social tennis in his local club, Laytown & Bettystown Lawn Tennis Club. He coaches his kids' Gaelic Football team, though he compares that to herding cats presently!

Spotlight Questions

Favourite Holiday Memory:

Going on our first family holiday as a family of 5. The airports were manic, but when we got to our destination in Mogan in Gran Canaria, the sun, the pool, the kids, and the ice-cream were totally worth it!

On An Ideal Weekend you can find me:

Enjoying a mix of gardening, out on the bikes with the kids, coaching their GAA teams, playing tennis and cooking and enjoying some nice healthy and tasty grub, perhaps washed-down with a nice white!

The best gift I ever received is:

A beautiful 'Cross' pen from my grandfather when I graduated college over 20 years ago. He was a farmer, who left school at 12, yet a great letter-writter. The pen sits proudly on my desk to this day.

When the dessert menu appears, I'm looking for:

If there is some home-made chocolate ice-cream I'll partake!

The 3 qualities that I admire most in others:

Honesty, energy and humility

My pet peeve is:

When you hold the door for someone and they don't acknowledge it!

The 3 small things that make my day better are:

A walk on the beach, a nice coffee, 10 minutes of calm

My proudest moment as a Financial Planner was:

A senior exec approached me in despair in their job, under huge pressure and really needed to exit their role. They had zero confidence that they could financially do so. I worked to build a prudent and efficient strategy, and grew their confidence in their plan. I then helped them transition successfully into retirement over the coming 12 months. They are now 'living the dream' and say it was the best thing they ever did. They are on track to live a comfortable and active retirement for the next 2 decades (or more hopefully), doing the things we spoke about on day 1. That type of relationship and outcome makes me tick.