Prestwood was founded by Paul Etheridge in 1975. The company focused on offering a small number of high quality clients a comprehensive financial planning service that was entirely fee based. This was a totally revolutionary concept and Paul Etheridge is now widely regarded as the inventor of what has become known as “lifestyle financial planning”.

Paul’s approach, right from the start, was meticulously thorough. He soon became frustrated, however, by the lack of effective tools – trying to prepare financial plans on a word processor with spreadsheets proved extremely laborious and unsatisfactory.

This gave him the impetus, in 1984, to start Financial Planning Software Ltd (now Prestwood Software Ltd). The “Prestwood System”, as it came to be known, was developed to create a precise tool to serve the needs of one demanding individual. The intention was never to create a product that could be widely marketed. Despite this, others have successfully adopted the system and the software is now regarded by many of the UK’s leading planners as the finest tool available.

In 1986 Paul Etheridge also founded the Institute of Financial Planning, serving as President for over 10 years. He served on the PIA Rules Committee and for six years was a member of the FSA's Smaller Business Practitioners' Panel. He was also an External Examiner for the financial services degree at the University of the West of England.