Nick is a self-made entrepreneur who, over more than 20 years, has built Henwood Court into one of the Midlands’ leading boutique financial planning firms. He now leads a team of talented financial experts serving a select group of business owners, senior executives, and retirees with wealth typically between £2m and £20m.

His message is simple and a bit uncomfortable for most financial advice: money isn’t the goal, it’s the tool. Too many successful people keep working long after they’ve made enough, because nobody ever showed them how to convert wealth into a life. Nick calls it financial freedom, the point where you can afford the life you want without needing to work for it, and the firm’s job is getting clients there faster, and making sure they actually live it once they arrive. That’s why coaching sits alongside the technical planning at Henwood Court, helping clients get clear on what they actually want from their wealth, so the financial plan is built around a life worth having, not the other way round.

For business owners, that often means confronting an uncomfortable truth: they’ve built something great but haven’t worked out their exit. Get the exit and the life plan sorted at the same time, Nick argues, or you risk ending up with one but not the other, a big payday with no idea what to do next, or a comfortable retirement that never arrives because the business still owns you. It’s a subject close to home: as a business owner himself, Nick is now applying the same thinking to his own succession plan at Henwood Court.

For retirees, and the soon to retire, the challenge is different but related. Most people spend thirty or forty years in accumulation mode, and then retire with no idea how to switch into spending mode. They’ve got the money but not the permission to use it. The firm’s work here is as much psychological as financial: helping people work out what they actually want their remaining years to look like, then building a plan that pays for it, while also making sure their family is protected and their estate doesn’t hand an unnecessary chunk to the taxman. Gifting, inheritance tax planning, and passing wealth on to the next generation while everyone’s still around to enjoy it, all of this sits inside what Henwood Court calls multigenerational financial freedom.

Henwood Court has been called the Midlands’ best kept secret, a “small giant” that has grown almost entirely on referral. The firm is selective by design, working only with clients where it can add significant value, which is why so many come through personal recommendation rather than marketing. In its most recent client survey, 95% of clients said working with Henwood Court had helped them achieve their financial goals.

Nick is married to Victoria and they have two grown-up daughters. After family time, Nick enjoys his love of cycling, testing his patience with golf and travelling (ideally with his bike and Vicki, of course). He’s an avid reader of both fiction and non-fiction but avoids DIY at all costs.

Nick is learning Spanish again and hopes to combine his skills with a cycling trip around Spain.