We’ve Invested in Professionals. Now Let’s Invest in People.
The Personal Finance Society has announced that it will continue investing its reserves to attract new entrants into the financial planning profession. It is a significant commitment, building on a £1 million programme to remove barriers, fund qualifications and promote financial planning as a career.
That is understandable.
Every profession needs a pipeline of talented people. Financial planning is no exception.
But reading the announcement left me wondering whether we are asking the bigger question.
Who is investing in creating more capable citizens?
For decades, the financial services industry has largely measured success by the number of professionals it can train, recruit and develop. More advisers. More planners. More experts.
That made sense when specialist knowledge was scarce.
Today, AI is changing that assumption.
Knowledge, explanation, comparison and scenario testing are becoming available to everyone. Citizens increasingly have access to sophisticated reasoning tools that were once available only through professional expertise.
This does not make professionals obsolete.
It changes what society needs them to do.
From Supply Side to Demand Side
Much of the investment across financial services remains focused on the supply side of the market.
Recruit more advisers.
Train more planners.
Develop more professionals.
These are worthwhile objectives.
But they are only half of the equation.
The other half is the demand side.
How do we help millions of citizens become more informed, more confident and more capable of making decisions about their own lives?
How do we restore decision authority to individuals while ensuring they have trustworthy support when complexity exceeds their capability?
These questions matter because most people will never have an ongoing relationship with a financial planner.
If our ambition is genuinely to improve financial wellbeing across society, we cannot rely solely on increasing the supply of professionals.
We also need to increase the capability of the public.
A Quiet but Important Shift
This is why one recommendation in the recent FCA AI Review deserves far more attention than it has received.
The review recommended exploring a trusted public-interest AI-enabled financial capability service for citizens.
That is more than another technology initiative.
It represents a subtle but important shift in thinking.
When a regulator begins talking about AI-enabled financial capability for citizens, it signals investment in the demand side of the market, not just the supply side.
That matters.
It recognises that AI should not simply make financial firms more capable.
It should also make citizens more capable.
Restoring Human Agency
For the Academy of Life Planning, this is the defining challenge of the AI age.
The question is no longer simply how we create better professionals.
It is how we create more capable citizens.
How we help people think more clearly.
How we help them understand complexity.
How we enable them to make informed decisions with confidence.
How we ensure that professional expertise is available when it adds value, without becoming the default destination for every decision.
This is not an argument against financial planners.
Quite the opposite.
As citizens become more capable, the planner’s role becomes more valuable where it matters most: complexity, uncertainty, life transitions and judgement.
The future is not professionals versus AI.
Nor is it citizens versus professionals.
It is capable citizens, supported by trustworthy professionals and increasingly powerful AI, each contributing where they add the greatest value.
A New Measure of Success
Investing in the next generation of financial planners is a good thing.
But perhaps we should begin asking an equally important question.
How many more capable citizens are we creating?
Because in the age of AI, that may become the measure that matters most.
Call to Action
If you believe the future of financial planning is about restoring human agency rather than increasing dependency, explore the Academy of Life Planning.
We are building practical tools, ideas and a community dedicated to helping citizens become more capable, more confident and more in control of their financial lives—not by replacing professionals, but by restoring the individual’s role at the centre of every important decision.
Academy of Life Planning 