By Steve Conley, Founder, Academy of Life Planning
October 2025 – 5 min read
When financial “compliance” is used well, it protects clients.
When it’s misused, it protects power.
That was the lesson behind our recent case study, “When Compliance Goes Wrong — How the Academy of Life Planning Stepped In to Restore Fairness and Professional Standards.”
Since publishing that story, I’ve received many messages from planners who resonated with its message — none more powerfully than this one from Geoff Dyckes, a long-standing Academy member and life-centred financial planner.
Geoff’s Reflection: A Planner’s Perspective
“In financial services, ‘compliance’ is supposed to protect clients.
But I’ve seen too many cases where it’s used as a weapon to limit independence, silence different voices, and keep people tied to traditional, product-driven advice models.Recently, within the Academy of Life Planning, we discussed a situation where an independent planner was unfairly criticised for operating ‘outside regulation’ simply because they’d stopped selling financial products.
The irony? They weren’t breaking any laws. They were focusing on what matters most — helping people plan their lives, not their investments.”
Geoff’s words capture the heart of this debate. “Compliance” has too often been conflated with “control.”
In an industry structured around intermediation, product-distribution regulation has become the gatekeeper — not of ethics, but of revenue.
What Geoff’s Story Proves
Geoff now runs an independent, product-free practice — Geoff Dyckes Financial Consultancy — committed to life-centred planning, mentorship, and conduct supervision under the AoLP Conduct Supervision Framework.
He describes it this way:
“It means when you work with me, you’re not buying a product.
You’re partnering with someone who helps you focus on what you can control, make confident financial and life decisions, and build a plan that supports the life you actually want to live.
No sales. No commissions. No hidden agendas.
Just clarity, perspective, and accountability — all underpinned by ethical oversight through AoLP.”
This is exactly why we created the Framework:
to ensure freedom never comes at the cost of integrity, and independence never drifts into isolation.
From Regulation to Reflection: The AoLP Difference
Regulation enforces behaviour through fear of sanction.
The AoLP Conduct Supervision Framework nurtures behaviour through fellowship, reflection, and accountability.
It gives planners a structure to stay ethical, competent, and client-centred — without being coerced by commercial compliance to regulations meant for product distributers.
Through monthly mentorship, annual conduct declarations, and peer supervision, every AoLP member operates within a transparent ecosystem of professional trust — one that’s as robust as FCA oversight, but free from its conflicts of interest.
Why It Matters
The system we inherited rewarded transactions.
The system we’re building rewards transformation.
Traditional “compliance” protects institutions from liability.
Ethical oversight protects people from harm.
In Geoff’s story, and in countless others across the Academy, we see a new paradigm emerging — one where independent planners can stand tall, serve with conscience, and still operate under credible professional governance.
This is the future of financial planning:
Empowerment with accountability.
Independence with integrity.
Freedom with fellowship.
A Call to Planners Everywhere
If you’ve ever been told you’re “outside regulation” simply because you chose to stop selling products, you’re not alone — and you’re not unprotected.
The Academy of Life Planning stands with you.
We believe in conduct supervision that protects people, not profits.
In professional communities that uplift, not undercut.
And in a world where planning is no longer about compliance — but about conscience.
📣 Join the Movement
If Geoff’s words resonate with you, you can learn more about the AoLP Conduct Supervision Framework — or become part of our community of holistic wealth planners.
“We don’t regulate through fear — we uphold integrity through fellowship.”
— Academy of Life Planning
If you’ve worked with me or the Academy, your voice matters. Please share your experience — your story inspires others to find theirs.
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Contact: steve.conley@aolp.co.uk
Website: www.aolp.info
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