🔁 From Value for Money to Money for the Machine

By Steve Conley | Academy of Life Planning

The language of pensions is changing—but we must ask: value for whom?

In Rachel Reeves’ Mansion House speech, we saw the familiar Piscean playbook repackaged in Aquarian wrapping. Beneath the rhetoric of “long-term value,” what’s really happening is a redefinition of value for money—from protecting the consumer to serving the system.

We’re now being told that default workplace pensions should mobilise trillions into “productive finance”: infrastructure, climate transition, UK growth. All noble goals—but let’s be clear. This isn’t about individual empowerment. It’s about creating a Treasury-controlled megafund machine, with little say from the members whose money is being pooled and redirected.

“Human beings interpret change in different ways—some through logic and evidence, others through intuition, cycles, and symbols. What follows may not resonate with everyone, but for many, the transition from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius offers a compelling lens to understand what’s unfolding in finance, politics, and society. Whether literal or metaphorical, it helps explain why the systems that once felt solid are now crumbling—and why new paradigms, grounded in transparency, empowerment, and collaboration, are taking shape.”

🎯 The Shift in VFM

Since 2013, the value-for-money regime focused on reducing costs, improving governance, and aligning outcomes with member needs. Now, that framework is being dismantled—replaced by one that favours long-term growth at the expense of member consent, liquidity, and flexibility.

We’re seeing:

Performance fees exempted from caps
More illiquid assets in default funds
Less regard for member age, risk, or income needs
Governance bodies asked to approve decisions that may increase systemic risk

This isn’t reform—it’s redirection. And default members, many unadvised, are being asked to carry the burden.

📉 What ‘Long-Term Value’ Really Means

To the Treasury, long-term means decades of locked-up capital.
To a young saver, it’s compounding growth.
To a retiree, it’s drawing sustainable income without being exposed to market shocks.

But what happens when everyone’s money is herded into a few megafunds chasing the same infrastructure projects? You reduce volatility on paper—yes—but you increase exposure to systemic illiquidity, sequencing risk, and ultimately loss of autonomy.

We’ve seen this play out before. Life-styling, once seen as a risk management tool, now derisks too early for some and too late for others. Glide paths vary wildly between providers. And yet we’re told consolidation will bring “value”.

⚠️ A Word of Caution

There are good intentions here—but implementation without personalisation will lead to unintended consequences. Especially when:

Members don’t consent to fund mergers
Advisers are left in the dark
Regulators blur the lines between consumer protection and economic strategy

Make no mistake: this is a political decision. DC pots are now being eyed not just as pensions, but as a lever of fiscal policy.

🧭 The Aquarian Alternative

In the Aquarian Age, value isn’t defined by the growth of GDP or size of infrastructure projects. It’s defined by individual empowerment, informed choice, and a plan that fits the person—not the fund manager.

Instead of defaulting people into megafunds, we should be:

Supporting self-directed life planning
Bridging the advice gap with generic, not product-bound, guidance
Investing in human capital as much as financial capital
Reimagining ‘value’ as the ability to thrive, not just survive

📝 Final Thought

If Reeves’ plan goes ahead, we could see the largest churn of workplace pensions since the 1990s. That’s a massive opportunity—for industry growth or for consumer harm.

Now more than ever, we need governance that sees through the headlines. Planners who serve people, not products. And a value-for-money framework that begins with values—not valuation.

Let’s not mistake money in motion for money with meaning.

Join the M-POWER Movement: From Piscean Planning to Aquarian Prosperity

We’re not just planning for retirement. We’re designing reality.
The old world extracted your time, energy, and wealth.
The new world empowers your purpose, vision, and impact.

What’s in it for you?

Empowerment: Learn to align your money with your mission — no products, no pressure.
Entrepreneurship: Build a purpose-driven business that transforms lives — starting with yours.
Elevation: Shift your mindset, your model, and your movement into higher dimensional leadership.

How to Begin

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Final Word

This isn’t financial planning.
This is dimensional alignment.

It’s time to stop surviving and start creating —
for yourself, your family, and your future humanity.

Are you ready to step through the veil?

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