The Bridge Is Real: What the New AR Regime Signals for Financial Planners Considering Their Next Chapter

The regulatory landscape has shifted again — and this time, it’s structural. The recent announcement from HM Treasury confirming consultation on a tougher regime for 34,000 appointed representatives is not just another compliance update. It is a directional signal about where the profession is heading and what kind of planner will thrive in the next … Continue reading The Bridge Is Real: What the New AR Regime Signals for Financial Planners Considering Their Next Chapter →

Financial Education Must Start With Human Capital — Or It’s Incomplete

Only 1 in 10 adults in the UK are financially secure. We can debate the statistics.We cannot debate the direction of travel. For decades, financial education has focused on managing money. But money is not the starting point. People are. The Missing Asset in Financial Education Most financial education programmes teach: Budgeting Saving Investing Pensions … Continue reading Financial Education Must Start With Human Capital — Or It’s Incomplete →

Is the Fall in Wealth Manager Shares Just the Start of the Evolution?

UK wealth management and stockbroker shares were among the hardest hit on Wednesday as the market reacted to fresh fears over artificial-intelligence disruption. Shares in major UK firms — including St. James’s Place, AJ Bell, Aberdeen Group and Quilter — slid sharply, following investor concerns that new AI-driven tools could automate functions once seen as … Continue reading Is the Fall in Wealth Manager Shares Just the Start of the Evolution? →

Stop Managing Dry Wells

Only 1 in 10 Britons are financially secure. That headline should stop us in our tracks. But it shouldn’t surprise us. For decades, financial planning has focused on managing what people already have — not on increasing their capacity to create more. And here’s the uncomfortable truth: You cannot empty the pockets of those whose … Continue reading Stop Managing Dry Wells →

The Crunch That Finally Breaks the Advice Model

If you’re an adviser right now and you feel pressure… You’re not imagining it. You’re being squeezed. From every direction. And this isn’t a temporary wobble. It’s structural. Let’s line them up. Crunch #1: Regulation Got Heavier Consumer Duty didn’t “tweak” things. It raised the bar. Evidence. Justify. Document. Monitor. Every client. Every year. That … Continue reading The Crunch That Finally Breaks the Advice Model →

A Financial Plan Without Human Capital Is Structurally Incomplete

Most financial plans model assets.Few model the asset that drives them all. If you are approaching the bridge from traditional advice into Total Wealth Planning, this is one of the most important structural shifts you will make: Human capital is not a soft add-on. It is the primary productive asset. And the academic foundation for … Continue reading A Financial Plan Without Human Capital Is Structurally Incomplete →

Banks Are Back in Advice — But Nothing Fundamental Has Changed

Why incumbents should be wary — and why citizens should be cautious In 2012, I left banking. Not because I fell out of love with financial planning — quite the opposite — but because the banks had fallen out of love with advice. The exit of the major banks from bancassurance following the Retail Distribution … Continue reading Banks Are Back in Advice — But Nothing Fundamental Has Changed →

AI, Adviser Survival, and the Missing Step Nobody Is Showing

There’s a lot of talk right now about advisers facing an “AI disruption event”. The language is dramatic.Meteorites. Dinosaurs. Extinction. And while the risk is real, the framing is often wrong. What I’m seeing on the ground isn’t complacency or incapability. It’s something far more human. Advisers Aren’t Failing — They’re Overloaded Most advisers I … Continue reading AI, Adviser Survival, and the Missing Step Nobody Is Showing →

Can You Really Make a Living Outside Regulation?

A practical answer for advisers thinking about what comes next For many regulated advisers, the desire to step away from regulation isn’t ideological. It’s practical. Rising compliance burden Shrinking emotional bandwidth Clients who need thinking space, not products And a quiet question that won’t go away:“There must be a better way to do this.” Yet … Continue reading Can You Really Make a Living Outside Regulation? →

Why Human Capital Must Sit at the Heart of a Total Wealth Plan

What the evidence really tells planners at the bridge For many financial planners, the journey toward Total Wealth Planning begins with a quiet but uncomfortable realisation: “I’m excellent at modelling money — but that’s no longer where the real risk or opportunity sits.” This is not a philosophical concern. It is now an evidence-based one. … Continue reading Why Human Capital Must Sit at the Heart of a Total Wealth Plan →