Why more advisers are stepping beyond retail investment planning
Something quiet but profound is happening in the traditional IFA market.
It isn’t being driven by regulation alone.
It isn’t just about consolidation, succession, or margin pressure.
It’s about fit.
More and more experienced advisers are sensing that the work they trained for — judgement, stewardship, human insight — is being crowded out by forces they didn’t sign up for.
Before you decide your next charter as an adviser, it’s worth stepping back and asking a more fundamental question:
What kind of planner does the world now need — and where do I actually fit?
Four structural pressures reshaping the traditional IFA model
These aren’t opinions. They’re market drivers already in motion.
1. AI is eating the middle of the value chain
AI isn’t coming — it’s already here.
- Around 50% of Americans now use AI tools for some form of financial planning
- Among high-net-worth households, usage is closer to 80%
AI now handles:
- Portfolio construction
- Cashflow modelling
- Scenario analysis
- Tax logic
- Rebalancing logic
What’s left for the human adviser increasingly sits outside pure investment optimisation — yet most IFA business models are still anchored inside it.
2. Compliance is crowding out judgement
For many advisers, the daily work no longer feels like planning.
Simple actions — even a portfolio switch — can require:
- Extensive documentation
- Defensive justification
- Retrospective narrative building
Add to that:
- CPD and SPS maintenance
- PI insurance
- FCA and FSCS levies
- Ever-expanding procedural oversight
A fair question arises:
Is this still interesting work — and is it proportionate to the value created?
3. Thresholds are rising — and the perimeter is shrinking
Two lines are moving in opposite directions:
- Minimum client thresholds for regulated advice keep rising
- The regulatory perimeter is gradually lowering
At some point, those lines cross.
When that happens:
- Your ideal client may no longer be retail
- Your work may increasingly sit with sophisticated or self-directed clients
- Much of the most valuable planning work may fall outside regulated activity altogether
That doesn’t make the work less important — just differently framed.
4. Targeted support is absorbing your client base
Consumers are being nudged away from full advice toward:
- Targeted support
- Guided journeys
- Tools, prompts, and partial decision support
Not because it’s better — but because it’s cheaper, scalable, and regulator-friendly.
The result?
Advisers are left holding the most complex emotional and transitional cases — often without a model that truly supports that role.
Where Total Wealth Planning fits — and where it doesn’t
This is the point where many advisers quietly think:
“This isn’t my mandate — but I don’t want to leave them stuck.”
That’s the space Total Wealth Planning was designed for.
Where I fit
Most of the work I do doesn’t begin with a client seeking advice.
It begins at moments of transition:
- When regulation crowds out judgement
- When someone exits a firm but not their vocation
- When experience no longer fits the box it’s sitting in
This is planning between mandates — human-led, goal-first, structurally clear.
Where I don’t fit
Just as important:
- I don’t replace advisers
- I don’t sell products
- I don’t blur regulated and non-regulated work
- I don’t step into relationships that aren’t mine to hold
The role is narrow and deliberate:
To stabilise the human and planning side of change that sits between mandates.
If you ever need a safe place to park a transition — without losing the client, the relationship, or your reputation — that’s usually when Total Wealth Planning is useful.
Before you choose your next charter — experience the difference
A Total Wealth Planner doesn’t start with products or portfolios.
They start with:
- Goals before money
- Human capital alongside financial capital
- Structure before execution
- Agency before optimisation
The best way to understand that difference isn’t to read about it.
It’s to experience it.
Try the Total Wealth Plan — free
Before you consider:
- Moving firms
- Leaving regulation
- Repositioning your practice
- Or redefining your professional identity
👉 Experience the Total Wealth Plan for yourself.
It’s free.
It’s AI-powered.
And it shows — end-to-end — how Total Wealth Planning differs fundamentally from retail investment planning.
Try it first.
Then decide who you want to be next.
Instructions:
It takes a minute to set up.
Please open a free www.claude.ai account. Go to projects.
Then create a new Project:
1. Name your project (copy and paste):
GAME Plan AI Generator — Multi-Language
2. Describe your project (copy and paste)
Welcome to the AI GAME Plan Generator — your personal guide to creating a comprehensive life and financial roadmap. Through an interactive conversation conducted entirely in your native language, this AI will help you: (1) Clarify your core values and life purpose, (2) Identify the obstacles blocking your path and create specific actions to overcome them, (3) Build detailed financial forecasts showing your Base Case vs. Favourite Future over 30-50 years, and (4) Design an executable 90-day plan with daily habits and accountability systems. Built by Steve Conley of the Academy of Life Planning, this methodology has helped hundreds of people transition from financial survival to empowerment and freedom.
3. Instruct your project (copy and paste):
You are the AI GAME Plan Generator. Follow all instructions in the uploaded GAME-Plan-Prompt-v3.6-20260120.txt file. Begin by asking the user what language they want to use.
4. Upload the TXT file attached (upload GAME-Plan-Prompt-v3.6-20260120.txt)
Then type “start”
See video: https://vimeo.com/1159749638?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci
Let me know how you get on.
Academy of Life Planning 