Nicola Floyd has spent more than 20 years in finance, from investment banking to impact investing. Along the way, she changed her mind about how the industry serves its clients. Nicola explains why she joined rockwealth to offer a different kind of financial planning.
Most people who leave investment banking leave finance altogether. They retrain as teachers, open restaurants, or write novels. Nicola Floyd did something rarer. She stayed in finance but changed her mind about how it should work.
That journey, from the trading floors of Hong Kong and New York to a financial planning practice in Cirencester, tells you more about her approach to your money than any list of qualifications ever could.
A career built across continents and sectors
Nicola's CV reads like three separate careers stitched into one. She started in investment banking, working in Hong Kong, Bangkok, and New York. From there she moved into private client fund management in London, then corporate governance and philanthropy. She ran a small water charity. Most recently, she worked in impact investing.
Each role gave her a different vantage point on how money works, who benefits from financial decisions, and where the industry consistently lets people down.
"I have worked in various roles in finance for over 20 years now," she says. Matter-of-fact, not boastful. But the implication is clear: she's seen this industry from almost every angle.
When her children reached an age where full-time work made sense again, Nicola didn't rush into the first opportunity. She did what any rigorous analyst would do. She researched extensively.
"I basically rang up everybody I knew in the wider area," she explains. "Picked their brains, had coffee with them, asked them for advice." She met with dozens of firms, testing their claims against her own experience and values.
She found rockwealth online. And what she read stopped her scrolling. The evidence-based investment philosophy, the fixed fees, the transparency. It matched conclusions she'd already reached through two decades of professional experience.
Why she changed her mind about active fund management
Nicola didn't come to evidence-based investing from a textbook. She came to it from the inside, having worked in active fund management, the very industry that charges premium fees for the promise of beating the market.
And she concluded it doesn't deliver.
"I have worked in active fund management and I strongly believe that index strategies deliver better long-term results for clients," she says. "The low-cost, diversified approach is much more beneficial for clients over the longer term."
That conviction carries weight because it wasn't formed in a vacuum. The academic evidence is overwhelming: the vast majority of actively managed funds fail to beat their benchmark index over any meaningful period. But Nicola doesn't need to rely on research papers alone. She watched the machinery up close.
Reading about active management's shortcomings is one thing. Seeing them from the fund manager's chair is another. Nicola has done both. When she tells clients that a low-cost, globally diversified portfolio will likely serve them better than paying high fees for stock-picking, it's not ideology. It's hard-won professional judgement.
What working with Nicola looks like
Not what most people expect from a financial adviser. There's no sales pitch, no product catalogue, no pressure to sign anything. Instead, there are questions: about your life, your plans, your worries, the things you'd do if money weren't a constraint.
Nicola draws a sharp distinction between financial planning and financial advice. "The words can be used quite interchangeably," she says, "but I think rockwealth really does believe in holistic financial planning, where we look at the client's overall financial picture."
In practice, that means helping clients figure out what they want. Not what product to buy. What life to build.
"We spend a lot of time working with the client to help them figure out what they want and make better, more informed decisions, and then using that financial plan to help them to lead the life that they want," she explains.
That might involve pensions, trust planning, or life insurance. But it doesn't have to. Every client is different, and the plan reflects the person, not the products.
"We are very much about that long-term focus on the client," she says, "rather than a short-term approach of trying to sell specific products."
Why rockwealth, why the Cotswolds
When Nicola found rockwealth during her research, one thing stood out above everything else: shared values.
"The company's values very strongly align with my own professional values," she says. "I think that is quite rare."
And those values aren't abstract. rockwealth charges fixed fees, quoted in pounds, not percentages. As your investments grow, you don't pay more. No hidden incentives. No confusing fee structures.
"Being very clear and upfront about fees is a very important part of building trust," Nicola says.
Before launching her Cotswolds practice, Nicola spent three months at rockwealth's Cheltenham office with Tim Horrocks and the team. She attended the company's annual conference in Harrogate, meeting planners from across the network.
"I've been hugely impressed with their professionalism, their dedication, their knowledge, and also their warmth," she says. "The combination of the autonomy you get from running your own business within the rockwealth network is a very attractive proposition."
She runs her own practice, but she isn't on her own. Behind her sits a network of experienced planners, strong compliance and technology support, and a firm whose interests are aligned with its clients'.
Nicola has lived in the Cotswolds for seven years. She knows the area, the community, the kinds of financial challenges local families face. She's building her practice here because she wants to serve the people she lives alongside.
"I'm very excited to be opening an office in Cirencester," she says. "The Cotswolds is a wonderful place."
She'll be working alongside Andy Collett, who brings his own deep experience to the partnership. Together, they're building rockwealth Cotswolds for local investors who deserve better than the industry has typically offered.
The best way to find out whether Nicola is the right fit is to have a conversation. No obligation, no pressure. An honest discussion about where you are, where you want to be, and how to bridge the gap.
