💻 The Death of Intermediation Software Apps in the Age of Empowerment

By Steve Conley, Academy of Life Planning

There’s a quiet revolution underway in financial planning—and some legacy tech players are pretending it isn’t happening.

As the Age of Aquarius rises, empowerment replaces extraction. People are waking up. And the old guard—the intermediation platforms built for sales agents masquerading as planners—are fading into obsolescence.

🚧 “You’re Not an Intermediary” – The Gatekeeping Begins

Let me share two examples that crystalise the problem.

On 23 July 2025, one of our Academy members reached out to TFP Calculators. They were told, quite plainly:

“You are not an IFA (registered with the FCA), so you will not be able to sign up to the website.”

Why?

“We were asked to show that the website is specifically aimed to assist IFAs registered with the FCA…”

In other words, not whether the planner is competent, ethical, or experienced. Not whether they follow a client-centric, fiduciary approach. But whether they’re authorised to sell financial products.

Then on 28 July, Dynamic Planner echoed the same message. When asked if their tools could be used by property tax professionals or independent planners, the response was:

“A landlord wouldn’t use Dynamic Planner; their Financial Adviser would.”

The logic? The only person who should engage with future modelling tools is someone selling pensions or investments.

That’s not just short-sighted—it’s terminally out of touch.

🦕 Piscean Tools in an Aquarian World

We call these the Piscean apps—software designed for the old paradigm of financial services: gather assets, sell products, protect recurring revenue streams.

Piscean apps include:

Dynamic Planner
TFP Calculators

These are red ocean tools for a red ocean market. They exist to serve consolidators and distribution arms—firms that want scalable, compliant sales solutions, not real planning tools for real people.

And ironically, the very people they exclude are the ones doing the most human-centred work: holistic financial planners operating outside the regulatory perimeter. Many are Chartered or Certified professionals who’ve retired from intermediation to spend their encore careers helping others thrive—ethically, transparently, and independently.

🌊 Enter the Blue Ocean: Tools for Empowerment

In contrast, a wave of Aquarian-era apps has emerged—tools built for the empowered consumer, the educator, the planner-as-coach.

Aquarian tools include:

✅ HapNav (designed for non-intermediated advice)
✅ FinCalc
✅ CashCalc
✅ Voyant
✅ Timeline
✅ My Finance Future
✅ Planner Pal
✅ Today & Tomorrow

These tools aren’t interested in protecting distributor networks. They’re interested in helping people model their lives, understand their options, and build futures based on values, not just assets.

They recognise that 92% of UK households don’t pay for financial advice—and never will under the current model. So, they serve the rising class of financial educators, coaches, and life planners offering done-by-you, done-with-you, and done-for-you models.

🧠 The Plot Twist: The Real Planners Are Just Getting Started

Here’s what the legacy platforms don’t seem to understand.

Many of the UK’s most experienced, visionary financial planners have retired from regulated advice not to stop—but to start again. They’re moving beyond the sales-permissioned world of FCA-authorised advice. Beyond the product trap. Beyond the limitations of suitability letters and compliance departments.

They’ve swapped the clipboard for the compass. And they’re using tools designed for empowerment, not extraction.

In this new landscape:

You don’t need £250,000 in investable assets to get a plan.
You don’t need a product to be sold something valuable.
You don’t need an IFA badge to deliver life-changing value.

You just need purpose, process, and the right tools.

🔮 When Cash Flow Modellers Can’t Model Their Own Futures…

It’s a delicious irony.

The very platforms that position themselves as foresight tools—future-casting calculators and retirement modellers—can’t see their own futures.

They’re designing for a shrinking pool of intermediaries. As consolidators focus on preserving AUM, and compliance costs rise, true financial planning is moving out of the City and into the community.

If you’re a planner who was rejected by TFP or Dynamic Planner, take it as a blessing.

You’re not meant to play small in someone else’s red ocean.
You’re meant to surf your own blue wave.

💥 What This Means for Fintech

To fintech consultants still building tools for intermediaries only—wake up. You are building a bridge to nowhere.

The empowered generation is not waiting around to be sold to. They are:

Seeking answers
Craving understanding
Demanding autonomy

And they’re being supported by a new breed of planner—unregulated not because they’re unqualified, but because they no longer wish to sell. They wish to serve.

You want to build the future? Build for planners who empower, not just advisers who transact.

🛑 The Era of Intermediation Apps Is Over

Financial intermediation apps, built to serve agents, are dinosaurs. And in the Age of Empowerment, the asteroid has already hit.

The future is decentralised. It’s peer-led. It’s human-first. It’s transparent, ethical, and Aquarian in every way.

Let the intermediaries have their calculators.
We’ll take the compass. And the map. And the movement.

Join us. The real planning revolution is just beginning.

Join the M-POWER Movement: From Financial Extraction to Personal Liberation

Your Call to the World

We are building a movement of conscious wealth creators, sovereign citizens, and ethical planners who will transform the world from the inside out.

This is your invitation. Join the Sovereignty Revolution.
From survivor to thriver. From planner to liberator. From seeker to leader.

We’re not here to sell you products. We’re here to help you reclaim your power.

The old financial system thrived on confusion, dependency, and hidden fees.
The new era is about clarity, confidence, and conscious choice.

What You’ll Gain

Empowered Planning
Learn how to manage your money without salespeople or smoke and mirrors.
Flat fees. No jargon. Total control.

Purposeful Enterprise
Turn your experience into a mission-led practice.
Whether you guide others or just guide yourself — we’ll show you how.

Conscious Evolution
Grow beyond old paradigms. Step into Aquarian leadership, where financial planning meets soul purpose.

How to Begin

Join the M-POWER Community
→ Free access to resources, events, and peers redefining the future of planning.
→ Community Link

Book a Discovery Call
→ Personal guidance to align your money with meaning — no sales, just insight
→ Booking Page

Be the Ripple

→ Share this post or invite others to the movement.
→ Join Planning My Life Facebook Group

The future isn’t built on percentage fees.
It’s built on purpose, participation, and personal agency.

Let’s shift the system — one planner at a time.

#MPOWER #FinancialFreedom #AquarianPlanning #SelfAgency #FlatFees #DimensionalLeadership #GAMEPlan #FinancialTransparency