Why the “DIY client” may be the future of financial planning, not a prospect to defeat I recently read a sales article about how advisers should handle people who prefer to manage their own finances. It described the “DIY prospect” as a battle. Advisers were told to weed such people out before they wasted time, … Continue reading When Human Agency Looks Like Sales Resistance
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When a Professional Body No Longer Recognises the Profession
The Personal Finance Society is losing members. Is retirement really the whole explanation—or is it suffering from a growing relevance deficit? The Personal Finance Society has lost almost 2,000 members in a year. According to its 2025 Annual Report, membership fell from 38,703 to 36,807—a decline of 4.9%. Membership revenue fell from £7.66 million to … Continue reading When a Professional Body No Longer Recognises the Profession
When fraud takes your money it also tries to take your agency
£70M FRAUD. 15 YEARS IN JAIL. BUT WHO HELPS THE VICTIMS? The latest release of The Recoverer ™ is now available free at http://www.the-recoverer.app A £70 million pension fraud has ended with three men in prison. But the story exposes a harder truth: justice may arrive years later, while victims need a practical way to … Continue reading When fraud takes your money it also tries to take your agency
A Faster Answer to the Wrong Question Is Still Wrong
PARLIAMENT • REDRESS • HUMAN AGENCY A Faster Answer to the Wrong Question Is Still Wrong Parliament is redesigning financial regulation in the name of growth. But efficiency without effective challenge may simply make consumer harm easier to finalise—and harder to correct. Academy of Life Planning 8 September 2026 There is a familiar promise at … Continue reading A Faster Answer to the Wrong Question Is Still Wrong
The Future Isn’t Trusted AI. It’s Capable Humans Using AI.
People are already asking AI what to buy, what to invest in, what something means and what they should do next. There is just one problem. They do not necessarily trust the answers. Recent McKinsey research found significant scepticism towards algorithm-driven sources of information, with trust in generative AI below 40 per cent. Yet consumers … Continue reading The Future Isn’t Trusted AI. It’s Capable Humans Using AI.
Britain Has Been Growing the Wrong Thing
For forty years, governments have treated financial-services growth as though it were national economic growth. Andy Burnham now has an opportunity to change that — by making human agency, capability and the wealth of ordinary people the real engine of prosperity. Will Andy Burnham Change Britain’s Growth Strategy, and grow the wealth of ordinary people … Continue reading Britain Has Been Growing the Wrong Thing
When the Establishment Gives the Prime Minister His Orders
Britain does need growth. But we may have spent too long asking the wrong people what growth means. Something revealing happened this week. Britain had a new Prime Minister. And almost immediately, the financial establishment began telling him what he was allowed to do. Andy Burnham was warned that unless he restrained public spending, Britain … Continue reading When the Establishment Gives the Prime Minister His Orders
Interactive Investor Has Broken One Link. Now Let’s Break the Other.
If the price of advice need not rise with your wealth, why should the duration of advice rise with your lifetime? Something important happened in financial advice this week. Interactive Investor launched an ongoing financial advice service for £100 a month for an individual and £150 a month for a couple. There are no initial … Continue reading Interactive Investor Has Broken One Link. Now Let’s Break the Other.
The Age of Aquarius Is Not Something That Happens to Us. It Is Something We Build.
Restoring human agency in the age of AI For most of human history, power has followed scarcity. If knowledge was scarce, those who possessed knowledge held power. If capital was scarce, those who controlled capital held power. If access to markets, institutions, law, medicine, education or professional expertise was scarce, the organisations controlling that access … Continue reading The Age of Aquarius Is Not Something That Happens to Us. It Is Something We Build.
The First Dividend From AI May Be an Agency Dividend Before It Becomes a Financial Dividend
On 25 August 2026, McKinsey published two complementary pieces on the next stage of artificial intelligence: its global survey, The State of AI in 2026: On the Road to ROI, and a shorter commentary, Four Perspectives on What Matters Now in AI. Together, they reveal an important tension. AI adoption is accelerating, individual productivity and … Continue reading The First Dividend From AI May Be an Agency Dividend Before It Becomes a Financial Dividend
