“Where they’re understood”: Georgia Platt on branding personal financial planning

In her own words: Georgia Platt of Henwood Court on branding personal financial planning and how our collaboration built a website their clients feel understood by.

Henwood Court is a financial planning business with a focus on building relationships with the aim of finding ways to change their clients’ lives for the better.

Georgia Platt led the Henwood Court brand and website project from the first conversation to launch. She leads marketing at the firm and is also the daughter of its founder, Nick Platt, which meant that everything we did had a family business ethos baked in from day one. Working alongside her, our design work kept returning to one central question: how would this actually feel for the people using it? Every message, every trim and finish of every interaction, was built to answer that. The result is a highly distinctive brand and website for Henwood Court, one that guides visitors through the site while giving them a genuine sense of delight along the way.

Earlier in the summer, I wrote about the project in a separate piece as it launched. Just afterwards, I sat down with Georgia to talk through how it actually felt, now the site is live. Here, in her own words, is the fuller story of what running a personal financial planning branding project meant in practice.

When Henwood Court’s clients visit the website, they’re making decisions about their retirement, their family, their future. As you were briefing us on the rebrand and new site, how did that inform what you needed the site to actually do?

When clients visit the Henwood Court website, they’re making important decisions about their retirement, their family and their future. Because of that, we wanted our new website to do much more than simply showcase our services. It needed to genuinely reflect who we are as a business.

Henwood Court is built on deeply personal relationships. We take the time to truly understand our clients, their goals, what financial freedom means to them and the future they want to create. We wanted the website to capture that level of care and show that we’re a business that goes above and beyond for every client.

It was also important that the site reflected the incredible community we’ve built, not just with our clients, but with our team and the wider community we support.

We wanted prospective clients to visit the website and immediately feel that this is a place where they belong, where they’re understood and where they can see themselves.

From a design perspective, we wanted the website to feel modern while staying true to our traditional roots. Henwood Court is a dynamic, forward-thinking business, but our values remain timeless. The site needed to balance both of those qualities, with a clear, intuitive flow and a place for everything, and ultimately feel unmistakably like Henwood Court.

Being both a Chartered financial planner and a warm, human brand doesn’t always sit easily together, but this was central to your brief. What was the hardest part of getting that balance right and where do you think the new site nails it?

The hardest part was striking the right balance between professionalism and personality. As a Chartered financial planning firm, it’s important that we demonstrate expertise and credibility, but we never wanted the website to feel cold, corporate or full of industry jargon.

Getting the tone right across the copy, choosing imagery that felt authentic and making sure every message reflected who we are took a lot of thought. Every client is different, with their own goals and definition of success, so finding the common thread wasn’t easy.

I think the new website really achieves that balance. It feels approachable without losing its professionalism, and it gives people a genuine sense of who we are before they’ve even picked up the phone. Hopefully, visitors come away feeling understood, confident in our expertise and reassured that they’re in the right place.

If another firm like yours was weighing up whether to invest in a project like this, what would you tell them?

I’d say go for it, but be prepared for a real journey of discovery. Richard and his team took the time to understand every part of our business, asking the right questions and exploring ideas we’d never considered to ensure the website genuinely reflected who we are.

I felt involved throughout the process, but I also had complete confidence that they understood our vision and where we wanted to take the brand. My advice would be to invest the time, trust the process and let the journey unfold. The end result is absolutely worth it.

Talk me through what it was actually like working with us on the project, from the first conversations through to where we are now. What surprised you about the process?

Working with Richard and the team has been fun, energetic and collaborative from day one. This was my first website development project, so I didn’t really know what to expect, but Richard guided me through every stage and made the whole process feel straightforward.

After our discovery sessions, I felt confident that he wasn’t just building us a website. He genuinely wanted to understand our business, our brand and what we wanted people to experience when they visited the site. That level of care carried through the entire project.

Communication was one of the biggest surprises. We’d speak multiple times a week, and whenever I had a question or concern, Richard or the team would respond incredibly quickly. If something needed talking through, he’d simply pick up the phone and we’d get it sorted. On a project like this, that level of communication makes all the difference.

Even now, during the handover stage, Richard has been incredibly patient and accommodating, especially as we’ve worked through compliance changes. It’s felt like a real partnership from start to finish.

My take on branding personal financial planning

It’s so revealing to talk to our clients after we finish a project. I can’t help feeling that it’s rare to get an answer like that last one, so unprompted and specific about the aspects of our collaboration that elevated a website brief into a moment of business change for Henwood Court. If you’re a firm considering a personal financial planning branding project, that’s about as honest a read as you’ll get.

This conversation reminds me of the value of listening to our clients and amid those conversations how a piece of custom design can help to elevate their brand and set the stage for the next era of their business success.

Are you looking for help with branding personal financial planning?

If it’s the right time for your firm to consider a brand refresh and new website, we’d welcome a discussion of how to think anew about your business from a visual perspective to ensure the growth you’re advising your clients on can be part of your story too.

Give us a call on +44 20 7351 4083 or email us direct.

Find out more

The story of the Henwood Court website project

Our portfolio about Henwood Court

Visit our new Henwood Court website design

Discover more of our work in financial services branding and website design