Ark Financial Group is a Christchurch financial advisory firm with more than fifteen years in the financial advisory and insurance industry. Based at Parkside Plaza on Harewood Road in Bishopdale, the team of three advisers — Luke McIntyre, Nandy McIntyre and Stephen Wescombe — supported by three admin staff, provides personal risk insurance, retirement planning and investment portfolio services.
The advice is genuinely personal. Whether you're single, married with children, enjoying grandchildren, or without children at all; a business owner, farmer or an employee, your personal adviser is there to help you get things sorted, with plans tailored to your needs and budget. Ark advisers undertake regular, ongoing education and development programmes, so they can offer quality, specialised advice across life, trauma/disability, mortgage/income protection and health insurance, as well as business cover including group schemes and key person protection.
Beyond insurance, Ark helps clients plan their financial future through the Optimiser financial coaching programme, retirement planning, investment portfolio advice and knowledgeable KiwiSaver guidance. Clients consistently praise the team's listening skills, product knowledge and support through claims — from trauma cover paid after a cancer diagnosis to a key person benefit that kept a family in their home.
For more than fifteen years, Ark Financial Group has been helping Christchurch families, farmers, employees and business owners get their financial lives sorted. From its office at Parkside Plaza on Harewood Road in Bishopdale, the firm offers personal risk insurance, retirement planning and investment portfolio services — all delivered by advisers who make a point of knowing you by name.
Ark is deliberately a personal practice. The team is three advisers — Luke McIntyre, Nandy McIntyre and Stephen Wescombe — supported by three admin staff. When you become a client, you work with your own adviser rather than a rotating cast of voices. All Ark advisers undertake regular, ongoing education and development programmes, so the advice you receive is current, specialised and matched to both your needs and your budget.
The heart of Ark's work is personal risk insurance, built around a simple idea: protecting what is important — your family, your finances and your lifestyle — so you're covered if the unexpected happens.
Life insurance pays a one-off lump sum if you die or become terminally ill. That money can clear debts and mortgages, cover funeral expenses and make sure the people left behind aren't facing undue financial stress on top of their loss. Trauma and disability insurance pays a lump sum on major trauma such as cancer, strokes or heart attacks, helping with medical expenses, home help, or income while you focus on recovery. Mortgage and income protection insurance steps in if sickness or injury stops you working, keeping the mortgage and bills paid so your standard of living isn't seriously compromised. Health insurance opens the door to private hospital treatment — no waiting lists — with a base plan covering surgical treatment and a specialist option covering consultations and diagnostic visits.
Ark's advice extends well beyond the family. For businesses, the team arranges group insurance schemes — essentially health and medical cover for all the employees of an organisation — and key person protection. Key person cover is an agreed value benefit paid to the business as a monthly amount if a key person or owner becomes disabled through sickness or accident and can't work. It can keep the bills paid, fund someone to cover the key person's role, or simply pay a wage while things are sorted out.
One client's words underline why this matters: "Without the key person benefit insurance policy we are quite sure we would have lost our home as we would not have been able to live and pay the mortgage."
Insurance protects today; Ark also helps clients build tomorrow. The Optimiser Programme is a financial coaching programme that educates clients on their financial goals and provides expert advice to optimise their financial outcomes. Retirement planning helps you work out what you'll need and how to get there, so the savings are in place when you stop work. On the investment side, the qualified team has access to a wide range of investment options and will recommend a strategy based on your goals, risk tolerance and financial objectives, with product disclosure statements available to review. If it's KiwiSaver you're puzzling over, the experienced team provides knowledgeable advice on which fund is best for you.
Clients consistently describe the same things: advisers who take the time to listen, deep product knowledge, and genuine support when it matters most. One client, diagnosed with cancer, wrote that Ark went "above and beyond" to make the claim process as easy as possible during an already stressful time. Another recommends Stephen Wescombe for professional expert advice based on excellent product knowledge, while a third praises well-balanced protection without paying too much for cover you don't need.
If you want advice that's specific and personal — whether you're single, married with children, a grandparent, a business owner, a farmer or an employee — the team at Ark Financial Group is at Unit 5, Level 1, Parkside Plaza, 333 Harewood Road, Bishopdale. Call 03 360 2001 or email [email protected] to start the conversation.