The qualities that help leaders reimagine institutions can also prevent them from seeing what their institutions have become Trust, curiosity and optimism sound like exactly the qualities leaders need in the age of AI. Charlie Nunn, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, recently discussed all three in a McKinsey interview about institutional longevity, technological change … Continue reading Trust, Curiosity and Optimism in the Age of AI
Tag: ai
Before asking whether AI gives the wrong financial advice, we should ask whether the industry has been measuring the right kind of wealth
A striking headline appeared in Financial Reporter: “AI models give wrong financial advice 57% of the time.” The claim came from research commissioned by financial technology company Saturn. It reportedly tested 18 AI models using 121 financial questions, repeated five times, producing more than 10,000 responses. Across those responses, 57% were classified as wrong. On … Continue reading Before asking whether AI gives the wrong financial advice, we should ask whether the industry has been measuring the right kind of wealth
The Man in the Suit Was Me. But He Is Not Me Now.
Why Total Wealth Planner now reflects the person—and the proposition—you can experience today For years, the Total Wealth Planner website featured a photograph of me in a suit. I looked younger. Successful. Confident. Prosperous. It was a professional photograph of the sort commonly used throughout financial services. It conveyed experience, authority and achievement. The photograph … Continue reading The Man in the Suit Was Me. But He Is Not Me Now.
The Establishment Is Defended. The Market Keeps Moving. The Profession Is Left Looking Backwards.
A professional body may believe it is protecting financial planning by excluding challenges to the established model. It may actually be protecting its members from the very ideas they most need to hear. I was scrolling through the programme for this year’s Festival of Financial Planning when the pattern became difficult to ignore. There were … Continue reading The Establishment Is Defended. The Market Keeps Moving. The Profession Is Left Looking Backwards.
When Human Agency Looks Like Sales Resistance
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
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
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.
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
Academy of Life Planning 