Andy Collett has spent two decades in financial planning, working for firms large and small. He explains what that experience has taught him and why he's chosen to build his own practice within the rockwealth network.
Andy Collett didn't start his career sitting across a table from clients. He started on the phone.
In 2005, as a newly qualified trainee adviser in Bristol, his job was telephone-based guidance on single financial questions. A client needed to invest a lump sum. Another wanted a pension review. Each call addressed one issue in isolation. "It was very much a simplified advice process where we'd be focusing on one particular aspect," he recalls.
Even then, something nagged at him. Answering one question at a time wasn't the same as understanding someone's whole financial picture. A pension review without considering tax, savings, protection, and long-term goals? That's not planning. It's triage.
So Andy kept learning. He moved into face-to-face advice, working with clients whose situations demanded more than a phone call could offer. "My role evolved over time," he says. "I became a face-to-face financial adviser dealing with clients with perhaps slightly more complicated scenarios, working with them to understand where they were, where they wanted to get to, and then helping them put a coherent financial plan in place."
Over the next two decades he worked for a larger national firm in Bristol and then spent four years with a practice in the Cotswolds. Both stints taught him something. He saw good work, skilled advisers, and genuine client outcomes. He also spotted gaps and missed opportunities that kept recurring regardless of the firm's size or reputation.
"The experience over the last 20 years has given me a really complete picture of financial planning," Andy says. "And the really positive ways that it can be delivered."
20 years is long enough to see patterns that shorter careers miss. Andy's conclusion is clear: he knows what a modern financial planning practice should look like. Now he's building one.
The consolidation problem
The UK financial advice industry is shrinking. Not in demand, but in the number of independent firms. Larger companies are buying smaller ones at pace, creating sprawling networks where advisers who once ran their own client relationships now answer to corporate targets and centralised investment committees.
Andy has seen this from both sides. He's worked in a large national firm and in a smaller local practice. The comparison left him with a firm view.
"There's a large amount of consolidation in the industry at the moment," he says. "And the danger with some of those larger organisations is that they struggle to remain focused on the client."
When a firm's priorities shift from client outcomes to acquisition targets and shareholder returns, the adviser-client relationship starts competing with other demands. Reporting requirements multiply. Investment decisions get made at a distance. The person sitting across the table loses influence over the advice they give.
Andy's response? Go the other direction.
"I'm at a stage in my career where I have 20 years' experience and that's given me a really clear idea of what a financial planning practice should look like in the modern age," he says. "Working in my own business provides me with a greater degree of control over how advice is delivered to clients and the service proposition."
The clients he's built to help
After 20 years, Andy has noticed a recurring pattern. Certain people keep showing up with the same unresolved problem. Not a lack of resources. A lack of clarity.
The first group is business owners. People running successful companies, working punishing hours, generating real wealth, but with no plan for what comes next. "Typical clients might be business owners who are perhaps working very, very hard within their business," Andy explains, "but are struggling for clarity over what the future looks like, perhaps in terms of the exit of their business or succession planning."
Then there are families approaching retirement. They've spent decades accumulating pensions, savings, and property. Now they face decisions that feel enormous and irreversible. When should they stop working? How should they draw their income? Will their money last?
What connects both groups is something Andy puts better than most: "Clients who really are keen to live a fulfilling life, but perhaps lack the time and the confidence to move forward with their plans."
Time and confidence. That's it. Busy, capable people who haven't had someone sit with them and bring order to the complexity. Andy's job, as he sees it, is to provide exactly that: "real clarity about where they are, where they're looking to get to, and a coherent plan to meet those goals."
Why rockwealth
So why not set up alone? Andy could have launched an entirely independent firm. Instead, he chose to build his Cotswolds practice within the rockwealth network, alongside fellow adviser Nicola Floyd, operating from their Cirencester office.
The client focus came first. "They have a real unwavering focus on delivering the best outcomes for clients," Andy says.
Then the pricing. rockwealth charges fixed fees rather than percentage-based charges that grow as your portfolio grows. "A very clear and transparent fee structure," as Andy puts it. "Fair and equitable."
The investment philosophy sealed it. rockwealth's approach isn't built on stock picks, market timing, or star fund managers. It's grounded in academic research showing that low-cost, globally diversified portfolios consistently outperform the alternatives. "A very clear investment proposition that's based on evidence," Andy says.
But what separates rockwealth from pure independence is the network. Andy runs his own practice with full control over client relationships and service delivery. He isn't isolated, though. "We have a number of different financial advisers working at different firms, and that allows for collaboration, sharing of best ideas and best practice," he explains.
When asked what success looks like in three to five years, Andy doesn't mention revenue or assets under management. His answer is more telling. "Success would be very much that we have a collection of clients who are really happy with the work we're providing to them. And that we've helped them achieve their goals, ambitions, and aspirations."
Andy Collett is based at rockwealth's Cirencester office, serving clients across the Cotswolds and beyond. If you'd like to find out whether rockwealth's approach to financial planning could work for you, get in touch for an initial conversation. There's no obligation, no jargon, and no pressure.
