Claire Harrington
Principal adviser · pensions & retirement
Claire leads Retirement Income Map engagements and has spent two decades helping UK clients untangle multi-scheme pots before drawdown begins.
About
A Northern Ireland practice with a UK brief
Meridian Trust Financial Counsel was founded to give households and owner-managers a place to think carefully about money decisions without rushing into product conversations.
Origin
The practice began after years of watching clients leave bank meetings with new products but no clearer picture of how those products fitted their State Pension age, mortgage free date, or children’s university years. We built Meridian Trust around appointment-led counsel: gather the papers, sit with the numbers, write down the plan.
Our office at 4824 The Drive, North Terry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom remains the centre of that work, with video appointments for clients elsewhere in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Working approach
We prefer fixed-scope consultations over vague monthly retainers. You know what the fee covers before we begin. Where a solicitor, accountant, or mortgage broker is needed, we say so plainly and stay in our lane.
Values that show up in every engagement: paperwork before opinions, written handovers, and enough time to ask uncomfortable questions about spending and longevity.
People
Who you meet
Advice is delivered by named practitioners—not a rotating call centre queue.
Marcus Reid
Counsel · owner-managers & protection
Marcus works with limited company directors on drawings discipline and runs Protection Gap Reviews for households remortgaging or expanding their families.
Aoife Byrne
Facilitator · inheritance conversations
Aoife prepares families for solicitor drafting by keeping Inheritance Conversations focused on nominations, gifts, and care preferences rather than fund chatter.
Community & credentials in context
We participate in local professional circles in Northern Ireland and maintain the study habits expected of UK financial advice practitioners. Credentials are discussed in individual engagements where they matter to the work—not listed as marketing ornaments.