“Finance is not about making money per se…it exists to support other goals—those of society.”
— Robert Shiller, Nobel Laureate
For decades, we’ve accepted a version of finance that has become bloated, opaque, and detached from its true purpose. A recent paper, Does Finance Fulfil Purpose? by David Pitt-Watson and Dr Hari Mann, does something rare: it asks whether the finance industry actually serves the people it was meant to.
And the answer? Not really.
🔍 A Welcome Awakening—But Still Half-Asleep
The paper rightly calls out the industry’s failure to improve productivity over 130 years. It highlights the manipulation of information, the extraction of value from ordinary savers, and a regulatory system playing whack-a-mole with crisis after crisis.
The authors propose a return to purposeful finance—defined by four core functions:
- Safekeeping of assets
- Providing effective payment systems
- Risk pooling
- Intermediation between borrowers and lenders
All good things. All vital.
But here’s the rub…
⚖️ Purpose Defined by Institutions—or Reclaimed by People?
While the authors argue for better regulation and institutional culture, they still place the solution in the hands of the same entities that allowed this drift to happen: regulators, banks, pension firms.
This is where the Aquarian age parts ways with the Piscean past.
We don’t need better gatekeepers.
We need fewer gates.
🌊 The Aquarian Shift: From Top-Down Control to Bottom-Up Empowerment
In the Aquarian perspective, purpose isn’t a compliance box for financial firms to tick. It’s a living force that belongs to each of us.
We believe finance should:
- Be transparent and decentralised
- Prioritise life before money
- Empower individuals with tools, education, and self-agency
- Flow in harmony with social, emotional, spiritual, and ecological well-being
The GAME Plan—our cyclical model for planning rooted in ancient wisdom—places your life, not your liabilities, at the centre of the financial universe.
🚪 The Door Is Open—Walk Through It
Pitt-Watson and Mann have written a thoughtful paper. But the future doesn’t lie in measuring purpose. It lies in living it.
We must move from regulation to regeneration.
From institutional fix to human awakening.
From money as master, to money as means.
At the Academy of Life Planning, we offer just that:
Tools. Training. Community. Confidence.
A path to reclaim autonomy in the very system that tried to take it from you.
Ready to align your money with your mission?
đź”— Explore the GAME Plan today
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Finance must evolve. Not just reform. The Age of Aquarius demands it.
Let’s build the world we were promised. One plan, one purpose, one empowered life at a time.
🔨 Whack-a-Mole: A Symptom of a System Built on Sand
The authors of Does Finance Fulfil Purpose? rightly highlight that the regulator—while well-intentioned—has been trapped in a cycle of chronic firefighting, playing what they call “regulatory whack-a-mole.”
And the evidence is clear.
In 2024 alone, the Financial Conduct Authority shut down over 1,600 scam websites, removed 50+ fraudulent apps from major stores, and cancelled permissions for more than 1,500 firms. It flagged nearly 20,000 misleading financial promotions—a staggering jump from under 600 in 2021. This isn’t lazy regulation. It’s reactive regulation.
đź”— Scam sites.
📱 Rogue apps.
đź“Ł Dodgy influencers.
⚖️ Repeat fines.
Each mole that pops up is swiftly hammered down—yet more emerge. Because the system itself keeps feeding them.
While the FCA increasingly uses data and technology to protect consumers—and should be applauded for that—the fact remains: scams are thriving in the vacuum of purpose. Without a finance industry grounded in transparency, service, and social value, enforcement will always be one step behind the next innovation in deception.
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