Your Money or Your Life: When Consumer Duty Becomes Consumer Deception

For every investor misled by numbers that don’t add up—and every adviser still brave enough to tell the truth.

The Injustice Unmasked

Consumer Duty was meant to protect the public. A rallying cry for transparency, fairness, and value. But what are we seeing?

Prices are rising. Not falling.

Lazy income—untethered from real service—is being justified, not eliminated.

Manipulated studies are being wheeled out as proof of “value” while real, measurable benefit remains elusive. Financial advisers—meant to be stewards of integrity—are instead being coached to sell the story of superior investment returns. And the clients? Many still believe it. Not because it’s true, but because the system is designed to make the lie feel comfortable.

Let’s be clear: the myth of consistent outperformance is a product. And advisers are selling it.

The Turning Point

The numbers speak. The average ongoing advice fee has just risen by 9 basis points. That’s not a small bump—it’s a signal. A signal that the advisory industry, instead of responding to pressure with innovation and humility, is padding the bottom line and calling it “value for money.”

Eighty-five per cent of clients say they understand what they pay.

But ask them—any of them—what they’re really charged. Ask them if they know about stock lending, soft commissions, platform rebates, or how trading costs hide in the fine print. Watch the confidence drain from their face.

Ask the advisers too. Most will stumble.

Because the truth is—many don’t understand it themselves.

That’s not value. That’s theatre.

The Regulatory Retreat

And what is the response from the Financial Conduct Authority?

Consumer champions removed from the boardroom.
A regulatory rulebook shredded—100 pages at a time.
Lighter-touch regulation for smaller firms.
Sympathy for the compliance burden—but not for the consumer burden.

Let’s not dress this up. This is a system softening its stance on bad actors while letting smaller players slide—under the guise of “supporting growth.”

And when growth comes at the cost of trust, it’s not reform.
It’s surrender.

Rebuild and Thrive: The Real Value Revolution

So what’s the answer?

Not higher charges.
Not better spin.
Not another toolkit built to defend the indefensible.

The answer is a new kind of planning. One rooted in life—not just money. One that starts with the client’s goals, not products. One that measures meaning, not margins.

That’s the GAME Plan.

We don’t start with Execution and dress it up with a post-sale plan. We start with Goals, Actions, and Means—only then do we Execute. This isn’t theoretical. It’s transformational. And it’s how we put you—the individual—back in control.

Because if your adviser can’t explain what you’re paying, they’re not your adviser.
They’re your sales rep.

The Lesson for the Reader

Two questions you must ask today:

Is my adviser selling me returns—or showing me life outcomes?
Do I really understand what I pay—and who benefits from it?

If the answer to either is no, it’s time to walk away.

The Call to Action

Now is the time to demand real value.
Now is the time to stop funding lazy income.
Now is the time to unmask the system and reclaim your power.

Your money. Your life.
No more pretending.
It’s time for both.