Month: March 2026

The Asset Most Financial Planners Still Ignore: Human Capital

For decades, financial planning has been dominated by a simple idea: Build financial capital so you can eventually stop working. Portfolios.Pensions.Assets under management. But something profound is changing. In the age of artificial intelligence, automation, and longer working lives, the real driver of prosperity is no longer financial capital alone. It is human capital. And … Continue reading The Asset Most Financial Planners Still Ignore: Human Capital →

When Clients Become Capable: What the Latest SJP Results Reveal About the Future of Advice

For years, the advice industry believed its greatest risk was regulation. Then came fee transparency. Now a deeper shift is underway. Clients are becoming capable. Artificial intelligence is quietly redistributing power in financial decision-making. Clients can now analyse portfolios, run retirement scenarios, compare products, and test planning assumptions in minutes. This does not eliminate advisers. … Continue reading When Clients Become Capable: What the Latest SJP Results Reveal About the Future of Advice →

Clients Are Already Using AI. Many Advisers Haven’t Noticed Yet.

The Perception Gap in Financial Planning Two pieces of evidence landed this week. Individually they are interesting. Together they reveal something much bigger. 1️⃣ What investors are saying A new industry study reported in Financial Planning Today (12 March 2026) found growing openness to AI tools among investors. The numbers are striking: 63% of investors … Continue reading Clients Are Already Using AI. Many Advisers Haven’t Noticed Yet. →

The Pension Gap Panic: Why Gen X Is Being Scared About Retirement — and Why the Story Is Incomplete

Half of Gen X savers now say they fear running out of money in retirement. That statistic has been widely reported across financial media. But something important is missing from the conversation. The narrative assumes that retirement security depends almost entirely on financial capital — the size of your pension pot. For millions of people … Continue reading The Pension Gap Panic: Why Gen X Is Being Scared About Retirement — and Why the Story Is Incomplete →

Why “Agency” Is Becoming One of the Most Important Ideas in Economics, Psychology, and Governance

For more than a decade, the Academy of Life Planning has focused on a simple but powerful principle: Human agency. The ability of individuals to consciously design their lives, make meaningful choices, and shape their own futures. At first glance, this might appear to be a philosophical idea. But over the past twenty to thirty … Continue reading Why “Agency” Is Becoming One of the Most Important Ideas in Economics, Psychology, and Governance →

The GAME Plan Manifesto

A System for Human Agency Every human being is born with the capacity to shape their own life. Yet many of the systems that surround us—economic, institutional, and cultural—quietly encourage the opposite. They train people to follow predefined paths, to defer decisions to experts, and to postpone their own aspirations until some distant future. Over … Continue reading The GAME Plan Manifesto →

The Friday Planner Forum Returns

A safe runway for advisers to land, think, and meet fellow practitioners Something interesting has been happening in conversations with financial planners over the past year. Not loudly.Not dramatically. But quietly, almost in the background. More advisers are beginning to ask the same question: Where is our profession heading next? For the last two decades, … Continue reading The Friday Planner Forum Returns →

Five Sentences Advisers Say Before Leaving the Traditional Advice Model

Every profession evolves. Financial advice is no exception. For decades, the industry has been structured around a simple model: gather assets, construct portfolios, and charge a percentage of assets under management. But something is changing. Artificial intelligence is automating technical tasks. Clients are arriving more informed. And advisers themselves are beginning to question whether the … Continue reading Five Sentences Advisers Say Before Leaving the Traditional Advice Model →

The Planner’s New Role in the Age of AI

Why Financial Advisers Must Become Guides, Interpreters, and Trusted Thinking Partners A simple poll can sometimes reveal more about the future of an industry than a thousand white papers. Earlier this week I asked a straightforward question to advisers on LinkedIn: “What percentage of clients already use AI tools for financial planning or financial questions?” … Continue reading The Planner’s New Role in the Age of AI →