Robert Fairbairn, Independent Financial Adviser

An introduction to Robert Fairbairn

Your career to date?
Growing up in a forces family I spent most of my time travelling the world to places like Germany and Singapore. We settled in Darlington and when I finished education I joined the Teachers Pension Department for two years before leaving to work for Prudential.

I was with Prudential for twenty-six years until we were all made redundant in 2001 which is when I became an IFA. I did various grades within the Prudential but I always preferred pensions and investments.

What do you specialise in?
Pensions: new pensions, review and consolidation of existing plans, drawing pensions and pensions on divorce.

What is your strongest childhood memory?
Nearly drowning at age three after jumping up and down to break the ice on a water storage tank.

You have one flight, where would you go and why?
Singapore. I used to live there in my early teens and would love to revisit to rekindle memories.

Who would be your three guests at a dream dinner party?
Lynn my partner, Angelina Jolie and Steven Spielberg.

Global warming, fact or fantasy?
On the balance of probabilities it’s a fact.

BA or easyJet?
BA out of the two, but Emirates wins every time.

If money was no object what would you buy tomorrow?
A country house with a large lake.

What did you want to do when you left school?
I wanted to become a solicitor, but I became a civil servant instead in the Teachers Pension Department.

A winter break, sun or snow?
Sun all the way, preferably New Zealand.

If you had the gift, what one thing would you change in the world?
I would have a world without conflict.

Your epitaph would be?
Who wants to live forever?