💼 The City Has Grown, But Its Soul Has Shrunk
What London’s job boom tells us about the future of financial planning
“London financial services jobs have risen 30% since 2019.”
At first glance, that sounds like a renaissance story — a post-Brexit, post-pandemic comeback for the Square Mile. But look closer, and a different picture emerges.
According to the latest ONS data, almost half of that growth has been in computer programming and technology roles, not in banking or financial advice. In fact, monetary intermediation — the traditional heart of the City — has barely budged. Only a thousand new jobs in five years.
Technology is booming. Finance, at least in its human form, is flatlining.
And yet, paradoxically, it feels worse than ever.
⚙️ The City’s Silent Transformation
The data hides a deeper story: London isn’t the global capital of finance anymore. It’s becoming the global capital of financial technology.
Between 2015 and 2023:
- “Monetary intermediation” rose by just 5,000 jobs — up 8%.
- Accounting added 4,000 (+25%).
- Management consulting grew by 11,000 (+39%).
- But technology? It exploded by 51,000 new roles, a 255% surge.
The City is no longer dominated by advisers, brokers, or bankers. It’s dominated by coders, analysts, and data engineers. The human adviser is being replaced by the algorithmic one.
But numbers don’t tell the whole story. Because for many, it feels like decline. Not because there are fewer opportunities — but because there’s less meaning.
🧠 When Automation Replaces Aspiration
Let’s be honest: The culture of finance has lost its centre.
It used to be about stewardship — managing capital for real people, real businesses, and real futures. Today, it’s about throughput: data, compliance, efficiency. People are no longer clients; they’re users. Advisers are no longer trusted confidants; they’re distribution channels.
The soul of finance — human connection, moral responsibility, wisdom — has been stripped out in the name of digital efficiency.
And so, while the City grows richer in code, it grows poorer in conscience.
🧩 The Human Gap
The irony is striking. As automation replaces human roles, human need is rising — for guidance, purpose, and ethical direction.
People don’t just want financial advice anymore.
They want life planning.
They want help integrating work, wealth, and wellbeing.
They want to make sense of their money, not just make more of it.
This is where the Holistic Wealth Planner steps in.
A Holistic Wealth Planner isn’t a salesperson or a product intermediary.
They’re an interpreter — between numbers and meaning, between tech and trust.
They understand that real wealth begins with who you are, not what you own.
At the Academy of Life Planning, we train these modern professionals to bridge that divide — to use data intelligently, but serve humanity first.
🌍 Re-skilling the City: From Finance to Freedom
Tens of thousands of capable professionals in London are now facing a quiet identity crisis. You’ve built careers in finance, yet feel increasingly alienated from its purpose. You see automation rising, ethics fading, and human connection dissolving into dashboards.
The question is: what next?
If your instinct says, “There has to be a better way,” — you’re right.
That’s where we come in.
The Academy of Life Planning exists to retrain, repurpose, and re-humanise the financial profession. We help you transition from financial intermediation to human empowerment — from managing money to guiding lives.
Through our GAME Plan™ framework — Goals, Actions, Means, Execution — we equip professionals to:
- Coach clients through life transitions.
- Integrate human and financial capital.
- Operate ethically outside the sales-driven regulatory perimeter.
- Use AI tools responsibly to scale impact and autonomy.
- Build a sustainable practice grounded in transparency, trust, and purpose.
This isn’t about leaving finance.
It’s about restoring its humanity.
🌱 It’s Not Just Financial Advisers Making the Shift
The movement isn’t limited to advisers.
We’re seeing accountants, actuaries, fund managers, business development managers, and traders retraining as Holistic Wealth Planners — professionals who want to do more than optimise returns. They want to optimise lives.
Because you don’t need a background in sales to succeed in this profession.
You need curiosity, integrity, and a genuine desire to help people make sense of their wealth — financial, emotional, and spiritual.
Many of our most successful Holistic Wealth Planners come from analytical or operational roles, not client-facing ones. They’ve discovered that the skills they already have — reasoning, structure, problem-solving, empathy — are exactly what’s needed in a world craving authenticity and meaning.
In the age of automation, human insight is the new edge.
Holistic Wealth Planning is where analytical minds and compassionate hearts meet — turning career experience into life-changing impact.
🔮 A Profession for the Next Generation
In an age when algorithms manage portfolios and robo-advisers write plans, the greatest skill left is the ability to understand people.
Holistic Wealth Planning is not a retreat from progress — it’s a re-alignment with it. It blends the best of technology with the best of human wisdom. It turns financial planning from a transactional industry into a transformational one.
It’s where the future of the City lies — not in intermediation, but interpretation. Not in compliance, but conscience. Not in products, but purpose.
✨ A Call to the City
If you’ve ever felt that your role in finance no longer reflects your values — that you’re tired of chasing metrics that mean nothing — you’re not alone. The system is changing. The opportunity is now.
Join the movement that’s re-skilling the City — and rediscover your purpose as a Holistic Wealth Planner.
Together, we can build a profession worthy of the people it serves.
👉 Ready to make the shift?
Retrain as a Holistic Wealth Planner with the Academy of Life Planning.
Learn to use The GAME Plan™ to empower lives, not just portfolios.
🌐 Visit academyoflifeplanning.com to start your journey.
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