In addition, Angela’s insurance requirements are more complex than usual. Her home is near the sea, was built in the 1700s, and has had a number of structural changes over the years. These qualities make the property unique and desirable, but also makes most insurers slightly nervous. It also makes the job of finding insurance a headache most people could live without.

When Angela decided to invest in a second home in Scotland with similar characteristics, finding the time to arrange suitable insurance became nigh-on impossible.

Angela’s priority was to find the right level of cover to provide peace of mind that if anything did go wrong with either property, she’d be adequately covered to put things right. Almost as important was the support to manage the process from start to finish, without having to spend hours filling out forms and wrestling with online comparison sites.

A recommendation from her financial adviser led Angela to get in touch with Michael Gregson, who leads Blackford’s experienced private client team. Angela’s schedule meant initial communication was conducted over email at times which suited her.

Michael was able to gather the information needed to recommend insurers which would cover both properties, allowing Angela to cancel her existing policy on her first home. He was also able to talk through policy conditions placed by the insurer, based on the unique characteristics of each property.

Unfortunately, the plans for a second home fell through when the seller suddenly passed away a week before the expected completion. This led to various legal complications which had to be worked through to allow the sale to continue at a later date.

Michael was able to co-ordinate the different policies with the chosen insurer without affecting cover for Angela’s first home. The second policy would be activated once a new date of entry was confirmed.

“I’d never used a broker before but I’ve never been completely satisfied with how I’ve been able to arrange insurance myself. Online aggregators don’t really make it easier when you’re dealing with old properties where insurers tend to have a lot of additional questions – the whole thing is really stressful every year.

“I like people who can explain things in simple terms and give you straightforward recommendations. Michael made the whole thing really clear and immediately understood what I was looking for, which I really value.

“When the house sale fell through Michael was brilliant, he took away the stress of a very difficult situation. I think without him it would have been extremely hard to deal with, but it was sorted with one phone call. I now have complete peace of mind that my own home is properly insured, and once we finalise the purchase of the new property, we’ll be very confident we have the right cover in place if anything does go wrong.”