Reviews

“A year ago when I separated from my husband of 22 years I went to see Alan for advice.

At the time, little did I know that was the best thing I was doing for myself!

Alan offered me valuable advice on insurance. He noticed that the life and critical illness insurance provided by my bank wasn’t robust enough and so advised me that I was better off with another insurer with better products.

One year later I was diagnosed with melanoma. An email to Alan was all that took for him to confirm that I had a good chance of getting at least a partial pay out (unlike my previous insurance which would not have paid).

The process was swift with him providing me with forms and guidance on what I needed.

Two weeks later I received a call from Alan informing me that I was due to receive a full pay out!!!

After the initial excitement Alan booked another appointment with me to provide me with advice on how to best invest that money shall I need it one day for health purposes.

I feel privileged to have had such great service from DUX Financial. Their advice made an incredibly positive impact in my life.

I would highly recommend DUX Financial for their great service and expertise!
”

“Alan and the team at Dux were great to work with. They were prompt in their correspondence and Alan took the time to come visit us at our home for meetings, something that was extremely helpful for us. We trust our insurance needs are in good hands.”

“I am very happy to write this testimonial for Alan.

I met with Alan despite my misgivings about whether I would gain anything from it. I am so glad I agreed to meet this man!

He is both personable and professional, down-to-earth and honest. He looked at my current financial situation, advised me on the best steps to take moving forward and helped me see a future for myself and my son.

I left the meeting feeling better than I have in years and with hope and excitement in my heart.

I truly feel that Alan believes in what he does and that he does it to help others achieve their dreams. I was delighted and amazed that, after an hours session, with his experience and knowledge being used for my benefit, Alan didn’t charge me a thing! I would’ve happily paid for his help. His advice is spot on, unbiased and thoughtfully given. I cannot recommend him highly enough.”

“Alan was recommended to me by a friend who I later discovered had only parted with $1.20 to buy their house. I had been rejected by two banks, although both agreed that my financial situation was acceptable. The first bank objected to my lack of job security. The second bank said that the cost of the property I wanted to purchase was too low. Alan found me a mortgage that was not only approved but costs me less than rent.”

“
Working with Alan Borthwick has been fantastic! He has given us great advice with managing our budget so we can reach our goals.
Alan got us to think about the things that are really important to us and set up a plan to manage our finances and insurances so we can have peace of mind.
He did the research and came back to us with a detailed report so we could make decisions while feeling fully informed.
I would have no hesitation in recommending him to my friends and whanau, in fact I already have!”

“I would highly recommend Alan Borthwick of Dux financial for Mortgage, insurance and Kiwisaver services.

When I first met Alan I was recently separated with my finances in tatters, I needed a house for myself and my children and being alone I now had to review all of my financial assets and strategies so as provide for my children both now and in the event something should happen to me. And all when I was not in the best of head spaces to want to be thinking about insurances, mortgages, retirement saving etc.

Alan has a very calm and reassuring competent air about him but most importantly he listens, he is very thorough in finding out what it is that is important to you (and what is not) then tailoring a financial strategy that achieves your goals and most importantly is financially attainable. Alan organized a mortgage for me with very tight time frames when my prearranged mortgage fell through at the last moment and he kept me informed throughout the process which is very appreciated at such a stressful time.
And then when I was ready Alan helped me devise a superannuation strategy to fit in with my budget and the need to address my depleted retirement savings.

I find Alan very personable as well as professional giving the confidence you need when entrusting someone to advise you on your finances.”

“I’ve always wanted to own a house of my own, but never really thought about the logistics. I did some perfunctory research into my financial situation (not so good).

So, I called Alan, who I’ve known for years as I didn’t actually know anyone else who did the financial/mortgage thing. Alan was totally up-front about his obligations as a financial advisor, and gave me all that information to take home with me. We sat down the next day with a coffee, and when I’d finished, I’d come to the depressing conclusion that buying a house was completely mental at this time.

Alan, changed my focus from where I am right to where I can be in a year’s time, with a surprisingly small amount of fuss and sacrifice. Plus, he was super positive, which was what I needed. Instead of walking away miserable that the house of my dreams was not to be, I’ve gotten really excited about house-hunting in a year or two.

And when I do decide to take the plunge, I’ll call Alan to help me because he’s good at what he does, and I absolutely trust his advice.”

“We first started talking to Alan about a year ago and we are so glad that we did! At that time we knew we wanted to buy a house but we had no idea how, we also had never really talked about our long term financial goals as a couple or as a family.

Alan helped us with all of this. Each meeting covered new areas and we were able to learn more about mortgages, insurances and planning for the future.

Alan made everything easy to understand and helped us to realise exactly what we were getting in to. We now have a house and a mortgage with repayments that we understand with insurances to look after us and protect our home.

We now have an on-going relationship with Alan who is now assisting us with retirement, KiwiSaver and further investments. We really appreciate how easy it is to get hold of Alan and how happy he is to help with any questions or queries we might have no matter what they maybe”

“I would just like to pass on my appreciation for the recent request for mortgage finance. I certainly felt at all times that you were treating me as your only customer. I also work in customer service, and it is certainly a pleasure to come across another company with the same focus/values as we have to our customers, making the customer feeling comfortable when dealing with business requests. Actually I couldn’t believe how effortless my request for finance was. I will be passing your name on to those who are looking to re-financing. Thanks once again.”

“The advice and assistance from Alan helped smooth the purchasing process of our first home. Having the financial foundations in place before purchase has given us the security that is important to us, and the knowledge that this big financial outlay has been done the right way.”

“Alan has been great, always patient with me and able to offer really helpful advice around my finances and insurance, not just try to push products on me. His knowledge of how investment works and strategies on financial planning are easy to follow and leave me wondering why other advisors can’t be so clear.”

“Alan did a great job helping us with our first house build. We naturally had lots of questions and Alan always took time to explain things to us in a way that made sense. The process of making progress payment can be stressful for some, but Alan’s experience with these kinds of mortgages meant that we were confident it would all work out ok. We are now living in our new home, and would happily go through the process again!”

“My name is Nicholas Rawcliffe and my partner is Gemma Marshall. We are a young Wellington couple, currently living and working in the Outback Australia.

With Thivakar’s help, we have just purchased our first home and income property. We owe our successful house purchase to Thivakar, not only did he make the whole process easy, he overcame many stipulations other home loan providers could not. Thivakar was also successful in obtaining finance with less than 20% deposit.

As previously mentioned, we are currently living overseas. We arranged all our meetings over skype, Thivakar even organized meetings for 10pm NZ time depending on our shifts! This flexibility was greatly appreciated!

He was very polite, provided us with many options and there was never any pressure to make any sudden decisions. Gemma and I really appreciated his time, knowledge and understanding of our situation. It would be fair to say that being first time homebuyers is an incredibly scary process, yet we felt comfortable and safe with Thivakar looking after our best interests. Thank you so much Thivakar!”

“Nick and I are both professionals in Wellington. We have two 3-year-old children, Singhoi and Yinhoi. We are delighted to have him as our Financial Adviser since we purchased our first home a year ago.

We always know Thivakar for his integrity and trustworthiness. It was when he guided us through the process of purchasing our first home that we found him very professional as a Financial Adviser. He is knowledgeable in his field and is able to explain the details in a simple and friendly way. Not to mention that Thivakar is very reliable and prompt to respond when we need his advice. He just made the whole process of home-purchasing pleasant and easy for us. Thivakar also introduced to us ways to secure our financial ability in long term after we engaged in a mortgage with greater responsibility.

With Thivakar’s principled character and his professionalism, we felt secure and safe both in the process of purchasing our first home and currently with our mortgage being managed by him. We know that we are in good hands. Thivakar has met and surpassed our expectations of working with financial advisors. Without reservation, we totally recommend Thivakar to anyone who needs financial advice.”

“My name is Luke Douglas and I live in Upper Hutt, with my partner Linley and our young son Lincoln. We had originally been introduced to Dean Blair through a colleague; Dean has since become our financial adviser and does an outstanding job. As a part of the package that Dean had worked on for us he recommended we speak with Thivakar to look over our current home loan structure. We were in the same boat as most with a mortgage that was slowly plodding along, with us attacking some of the capital but mostly getting hit with a lot of interest.

Thivakar worked tirelessly to identify potential options which would help us reduce our mortgage in a much shorter timeframe whilst taking into consideration the changes in our financial position with the upcoming arrival of our son. We worked with Thivakar to take the best bits out of the options and tailored our home loan structure for the years ahead.

Thivakar made the entire process simple and easy and even when we had a few issues with the lender he was there to straighten everything out. Throughout everything Thivakar has remained professional and impartial (there was never any hard sell on a particular provider or product) and an absolute pleasure to work with.

I have no problem recommending Thivakar to anyone I know and my family and I will continue to work with him for many years to come. Thanks to the whole team! ”

“My name is Aaron Burke; I am a Wellington based residential real estate licensee who has been working for Leaders Real Estate since 2006. I met Thivakar at a Business Networking International (BNI) meeting in 2008; a professional networking organisation (of which we are still both members) where typically small to medium businesses meet weekly and seek to refer opportunities to each other. He has helped me with insurance, lending advice, mortgage applications and Kiwi Saver set-up.

One of the challenges I had in mind was that I did not want to end up simply being sold a product and/or not being provided with independent, prudent advice and service to secure competitive rates and best mitigate risk of rising interest rates.

However, Thivakar has always provided sound advice for both myself and my clients and though I worked for BNZ for 12 years, I firmly believe thanks to Thivakar’s service that brokers are much better to deal with than lenders direct. Naturally Thivakar’s experience and qualifications play a strong part in this affirmation.
It’s important to me that all decisions are well thought out having engaged the right people like Thivakar first, so the best interests of my family are looked after. Thivakar is a very trustworthy fellow and committed professiona”

“I’m John Seamer and I reside in Miramar, and I’m a working as a Project Manager working for Tower. I’ve been working with Thivakar since early this year.

I met my solicitor who put me onto Thivakar to help me with my mortgage, which I was concerned about because of my age and my health, if I stopped working I would have had difficulty paying the mortgage with just a pension.

I lost my wife 2 years ago, when we had two incomes coming into the house, the mortgage was covered successfully – however, this was not the case anymore and so I met with Thivakar for a period of about 4 weeks where we had meetings about my situation and finally came up with a solution that I could trust. The issue was that I also had some health problems which meant I may not be able to work much longer. The mortgage repayments was costing me over $700 a month which I couldn’t handle if I only had a pension as an income and I have no savings at that point. Thivakar looked at various options and came up with a reversal mortgage with a financial institution – that immediately took the pressure and costs right of me.

I was dealing with my solicitor as well and every time I would meet with him that cost me. When I would enter into discussions with Thivakar, that didn’t cost anything to have his assistance with arranging the reversal mortgage.

I definitely recommend him to anyone and all my friends and acquaintances. If they have financial issues or were looking for financial help, contact Thivakar - I found him very efficient and the girls in the office were very helpful in taking a lot of stress off me at the time.”

“Thivakar has been our financial adviser for 3 years now. We would thoroughly recommend him to anyone seeking any sort of financial advice. He has taken the stress out of all our financial planning including our mortgage and insurances.

He is very professional and explains everything in a clear and concise way. He always makes sure he takes as much time as needed to explain and answer all our queries. I have no hesitation in recommending Thivakar. He has exceeded our expectations in his proactive nature and his ability to deliver sound, trustworthy advice that fits to our individual needs.”

“I was first lucky enough to be referred to Thivakar 4 years ago when he arranged a mortgage for me. My case was not straight forward as I was working freelance and had an old credit issue that needed to be worked around. 2 years later I moved to Auckland and continued to work with Thivakar on 2 further mortgages.

I totally trust Thivakar to look after my best interest. He always has great advice, is easy to talk to and never drops the ball as well as being just a genuinely nice guy. When I moved to Auckland there was never any doubt I my mind that I would continue to work with Thivakar despite the physical distance.

I have referred a number of friends and colleagues his way and always enjoy hearing back from them about how thrilled they were with both him and his results. I would never hesitate to refer Thivakar to anyone and look forward to working with him again in the future.”

“I am writing to express my gratitude and appreciation to Alan for the help and understanding he generously extended to me as part of financial advice he was providing for me.

I first met Alan when seeking help for my out- of- control finances through an EAP Service.
At the time I was swimming in the sea of debts and unable to manage despite earning above average income.

From our very first meeting Alan’s approach was professional, knowledgeable, yet friendly and compassionate.

Above all, Alan not only showed me how to take control of my finances but empowered me to believe that I can do it and do it well.

Several months later this proved to be right.
Not only my finances are in better shape than they have been in years, but I have gained an understanding of financial matters that provided me with confidence I never had before.

In all that Alan has been instrumental and I cannot recommend his services enough.”

“Alan was recommended through family members who had used him to help structure their mortgages and finances. As complete novices to property ownership, Alan was great at negotiating great rates for us and providing guidance on what we needed in our stage of life and understanding our priorities.

We’ve found his advice invaluable. His help with organising and managing our relationship with the bank has allowed us to make our first property purchase as painless as possible. We have no hesitation in recommending him to our friends and family.”

“I cannot thank Alan Borthwick enough for the budgeting advice he gave me in his capacity as Financial Advisor for EAP. This was a stressful time for me and Alan was both non-judgemental and approachable. His support and advice have been valuable to be, both in helping the Board make their decision, and in encouraging me to make financial changes in my life which, amongst other things, have included a Ceremony to celebrate the cutting up of my Credit Cards!”

“Alan is an excellent financial advisor who always clearly explains your financial situation and how you should manage your financial matters. He is an honest and conscientious person who you can totally trust.

Alan Borthwick has provided me with financial advice since February 2006 when I decided to buy a house in Upper Hutt.

The first advice Alan gave me was which bank I should choose for my mortgage. He researched several banks for me and recommended the one he felt would be best in my situation. I really believe it was the best choice and made a huge difference to my mortgage repayment plan. His advice helped make my mortgage repayment journey much shorter.

Alan suggested that I should pay down my mortgage if I had some extra savings. He acted and negotiated with the bank very quickly and arranged all necessary details on my behalf.
Alan has also given me advice about KiwiSaver Plans. He arranged everything for me and I am very pleased that I started KiwiSaver with the company he recommended at that time.
Alan is always helpful and supportive and provides me with suitable advice on financial matters when needed.

In 2015, 1 week shy of the 9 year anniversary of her mortgage starting, Chitose discharged her mortgage, having paid it off fully. No family money or winnings were used, just the DUX Financial Services strategy. I estimate Chitose saved at least $232,000 in interest she would have paid the bank otherwise.”

““We were given Alan’s phone number from an old friend when we mentioned that we were looking at buying a house within the next 12 months with a recommendation that he was what we were looking for. After meeting him for the first time and him presenting a basic plan of attack after ascertaining what stage we were at with our process we came away with the feeling that we were in good hands. This feeling has not left us over the 6 months it took to find the house and the period after the move.

Alan is organised, approachable and good humoured. He gave us options and investigated things that we queried – such as utilising the KiwiSaver scheme. He also kept us up-to-date with what we needed to do next as well as recommending other services we should utilise that had not yet occurred to us to look for. It was such an easy process after hearing some horror stories and a lot of that would be because of our dealings with Alan.

We would not hesitate recommend him to anybody who was looking at going through this process who needed someone that they could actually relate to who wasn’t trying to push the big ‘sell’ and actually gave you a realistic view of where you were and what you needed to do.”

“The world changed for us when we became proud parents. We began to think about the future and how we could protect our family.

Alan from DUX Financial came to our house to talk about insurance products at a time that fit with our family schedule. This was very important to us, as it meant that we were relaxed and we could multitask to keep the household running smoothly.

Alan was clear what he could and couldn’t do for us. We appreciated Alan’s plain speaking and honesty when he explained what the paperwork was and what each product offered. We felt very well informed throughout the process. Thanks to Alan, we have proper insurance for the first time.

Our next big step is planning for a house, and we are very glad that Alan is working with us on our deposit and mortgage options. Thanks Alan!”

“I strongly recommend the service that Alan Borthwick provides. Alan not only worked with me to arrange a home loan that best suited my needs, he also put me in contact with a property management company and accountant who are now providing 95% of the administration of my investment property. This leaves me to focus on other areas of life! Thanks Alan!”

““Mortgage brokers just clip the ticket right? That certainly was my impression. But upon dealing direct with banks and having a poor experience, I found the service offered by Alan to be of far higher calibre than I expected. We were building a house, and really needed a partner to guide us through the financial aspect of this process. Not only did Alan manage to get a mortgage sorted at a good rate far quicker than the banks were, but he was able to structure the mortgage and our bank accounts to what we required, as well as help manage the progress payments between builder, valuer and lender.

I’m generally hard on professional service providers, expecting a lot of them. But Alan has been one of those who quickly builds respect through his financial acumen and proactive approach.””

“Late Dec we were informed that our rented accommodation was being sold and we had to move out which greatly accelerated our plans for owning our house from sometime in the future to now. We put in a rushed offer on a great house we fell in love with but didn’t have any finance organised or even know what to do next with regards to the process of purchasing a house under mortgage.

I was referred to Alan by a colleague at work, I contacted him and explained the situation and the rush around needing finance approval before Christmas close-down. Alan was extremely helpful in stepping me through the process, organising lawyers, building inspectors, valuations all at extremely short notice and never sounded as stressed out on the phone as I was.

After the finance and sale was approved he then sat down with us and retrospectively worked out a financial plan to protect us and our new investment. He explained everything in simple terms so that both me and my partner understood what options there were and what he recommended in this new life stage we were embarking on. We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Alan to anyone and I’m glad to him on our side for future financial planning.”

“My name is Ropeti Taito, my parents moved from Samoa to NZ in the late 1960’s. I was born in Auckland, however I have lived in Wellington most of my life. I am married to Keiti with one child, and another due in the next few weeks.

We were referred through to Thivakar by a family friend. We first worked with Thivakar back in 2011 and he has been our family adviser ever since.

When we first met Thivakar when we were at the stage in our life where we wanted to get married, start a family and buy a house however we were a bit clueless on how to even get started.

Thivakar helped us build a plan to clear our debt and then put in place some good practices to achieve our goals.

We have since achieved all our immediate goals; we have started a family, got married & paid for our wedding in cash! Purchased two houses, built a good savings plan and now we are working towards our bigger goal of starting our own business.

One of the initial challenges was that I was a bit apprehensive about having someone go through all our records and financial statements and having them tell me what I am doing wrong or what I can do better. There is a huge amount of trust required and you can at times feel vulnerable.

Thivakar made everything so easy, his professionalism and ability to explain the ‘jargon’ in an easy to understand way has helped me tremendously.

His approachable nature and honesty is the reason why we keep going back to him for all our financial matters.
I trust him and have referred all my family and loved ones to him as I know they will be in good hands.

Our family is the most cherished gift in our lives, knowing that we have an adviser that we trust and has our families best interest at the forefront is an absolute blessing.

Thivakar has set the bar very high for all others - I think the above covers it all, it’s been a pleasure!”

“My name is Rowel Botuyan and my wife is Carmen Botuyan. We’ve decided to migrate in New Zealand after living in Singapore for more than 14 years. I came to New Zealand in March 2014, while my wife and our 2 kids followed in December 2014. Within a few months of staying in Wellington, we have decided that this is the place to find our own property to settle in, which we will call home.

I met Clarice Parinas, a financial adviser, through our Filipino friends in Karori. After securing insurance plans from Clarice, Carmen and I had discussed our intention of buying our first house here in Wellington. So she has referred us to Thivakar Pushparaj, who she thought should be able to assist us with our goal.

Indeed, Thivakar provided us with sound advice and helped us in every step of the way in owning our dream home in a short period of time. He regularly provided updates and always ensured that he gets back to our inquiries (with recommendations) within the day no matter how busy his schedules are. He is professionally knowledgeable, ethical, honest and approachable person.

We have no hesitation in recommending his services with complete trust to our friends and family whenever possible.”

“Hi, I am Kenny and this is my wife Melanie. We are both working professionals, born and raised in Malaysia and have lived in New Zealand for a while now. I moved to New Zealand about ten years ago while Melanie moved from Australia three years ago.

I was first introduced to Thivakar while selling my property back in 2009 (I think). Coming straight out of University, I had been working for about 4 years and at that stage of my life, I had absolutely no idea what good financial planning was. Thanks to Thivakar, he carefully explained to me the basic intricacies of good financial and helped me set up various insurances to secure and protect my life and assets.

Recently, Thivakar acted as a mortgage broker for Melanie and myself to secure the advances necessary to build our first home. As usual, Thivakar’s work was thorough and he brokered us the best deal for our situation.

Applying for loans can be a daunting and stressful experience and being busy professionals, the last thing we wanted to do was to go from one financial institution to another trying to find the best deal. Engaging with Thivakar took that stress away and in turn allowed us to concentrate more important things like looking for the ‘right’ property.

Thivakar is not only very professional in what he does but is also very genuine. He can relate to our situation and does not come off like a pushy salesperson trying to sell us the next big thing. He takes his time to assess our lives, needs and budget to obtain the best possible solution for us.

I am sure we will face more challenging situations as our lives go on and having Thivakar there to advise us financially along the way is definitely worth its weight in gold!”

“I met Thivakar through a Real Estate agent who recommended him, I’ve been working with Thivakar’s office since February of this year.

The services I required was mortgage brokering for my son and his partner who wanted to buy their first home. Thivakar was able to assist them with that and also get their insurances sorted because it was part of the mortgage requirements.

My biggest fear was asking for a loan and the whole application process - I hate it because it means being under the microscope and it is such a complicating process. We did it 20 years ago with our family home without a mortgage broker and it was very labour intensive process of me going back and forth.

This time, Thivakar made it so easy, he did all the hard work, asked questions and got all the information he needed from us. Providing the figures and information to Thivakar didn’t feel like being the microscope – he took the stress out of the whole process, we told him what we needed and he came back and said here it is.

This was an important part of the service because I don’t buy a house every week of the year, it is a foreign process for me but Thivakar has all the expertise and knowledge; he knows how it works and is very efficient. I trust that he has our best interests at heart while he is doing all of this.”

“I was first lucky enough to be referred to Thivakar 4 years ago when he arranged a mortgage for me. My case was not straight forward as I was working freelance and had an old credit issue that needed to be worked around. 2 years later I moved to Auckland and continued to work with Thivakar on 2 further mortgages.

I totally trust Thivakar to look after my best interest. He always has great advice, is easy to talk to and never drops the ball as well as being just a genuinely nice guy. When I moved to Auckland there was never any doubt I my mind that I would continue to work with Thivakar despite the physical distance.

I have referred a number of friends and colleagues his way and always enjoy hearing back from them about how thrilled they were with both him and his results. I would never hesitate to refer Thivakar to anyone and look forward to working with him again in the future. ”

“Thivakar has been our financial adviser for 3 years now. We would thoroughly recommend him to anyone seeking any sort of financial advice. He has taken the stress out of all our financial planning including our mortgage and insurances.

I came up to Wellington from the South Island about 40 years ago and have had a variety of jobs in the public and private sector. Thivakar was recommended to me by my solicitor (Michael Chung Law), and I have been working with Thivakar for just over 12 months.

Principally, he helped successfully secure finance to purchase a commercial property in Christchurch. I was concerned with not being able to get the mortgage finance approved, due to the fact that I was working only part time while I completing a post grad course at University.

However, with Thivakar’s expertise in mortgage finance I was able to obtain the right finance option for me. Thivakar has been helpful all the way along the process, not just in terms of finding mortgage finance, but also in terms of wider financial advice. On one occasion I asked him for further advice that he didn’t feel was directly in his field of expertise, and so he referred me to other specialists on other matters such as commercial insurance, which I found to be extremely helpful.

The property purchase was very important to me, not only from a commercial perspective, of course. But also because it had a certain degree of sentimental value, from the point of view of the family legacy. For this reason I am grateful for the expert help Thivakar provided me.”