By Steve Conley, Founder – Academy of Life PlanningDecember 2025 | 5 Minutes Read 🧩 The New Frontier — or the Same Old Game? The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has just launched what it calls a “safe space for AI” — a controlled testing environment where the UK’s largest financial firms can experiment with artificial … Continue reading 💠 Captured AI: When the Regulator Becomes the Sandbox
Tag: ai
When AI Knows the Law: What Becomes of the Lawyer? And What It Means for Citizen Investigators
By Steve Conley | Academy of Life Planning / Get SAFE “Knowing the law will be one thing — but AI will also know the law. The question is, what do you bring on top of that?”— Max Junestrand, CEO, Legora The legal world is being shaken to its foundations. Not by a new statute … Continue reading When AI Knows the Law: What Becomes of the Lawyer? And What It Means for Citizen Investigators
FOS Reforms: Why Citizen Investigators Must Step Forward Now
How the “Targeted Support” era reshapes justice for victims of financial harm 🧩 Introduction: When Protection Becomes Permission The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) — long seen as the last resort for ordinary consumers — is quietly transforming. Beneath the headlines of “operational efficiencies” and “targeted support,” we’re witnessing the reshaping of Britain’s financial justice landscape. … Continue reading FOS Reforms: Why Citizen Investigators Must Step Forward Now
From City Pro to Superhuman: The Rise of the Holistic Wealth Planner
💼 The City Has Grown, But Its Soul Has Shrunk What London’s job boom tells us about the future of financial planning “London financial services jobs have risen 30% since 2019.”At first glance, that sounds like a renaissance story — a post-Brexit, post-pandemic comeback for the Square Mile. But look closer, and a different picture … Continue reading From City Pro to Superhuman: The Rise of the Holistic Wealth Planner
🤖 When Algorithms Deny Humanity: The AI Arms Race in Health Insurance — and What It Teaches Us About Financial Justice
By Steve Conley, Founder, Academy of Life Planning In the United States this winter, a quiet war is unfolding in the world of health insurance.It’s not between doctors and patients, or even between insurers and regulators.It’s between two algorithms. One denies life-saving treatment.The other fights back. This “AI arms race” is reshaping the boundaries of … Continue reading 🤖 When Algorithms Deny Humanity: The AI Arms Race in Health Insurance — and What It Teaches Us About Financial Justice
🚖 Waymo vs. Uber: When the Driver Becomes the Passenger
Let me tell you a story. A friend of mine was in San Francisco recently and decided to try one of those new Waymo autonomous taxis.You just open an app, order a car, and a few minutes later, up it rolls — completely empty.No driver. No small talk. No “Sorry, mate, wrong turn.”Just a quiet … Continue reading 🚖 Waymo vs. Uber: When the Driver Becomes the Passenger
Financial advisers – your jobs have gone.You and your clients just don’t know it yet.
Financial advisers – your jobs have gone.You and your clients just don’t know it yet. That’s the uncomfortable starting point for this piece. Mind the gap? What gap? For years, the UK financial services industry and its regulators have talked about the advice gap – the millions who “need advice” but don’t get it. The … Continue reading Financial advisers – your jobs have gone.You and your clients just don’t know it yet.
The 95% Myth: How the Advice Industry Manufactures Trust While Silencing the Truth
Why a single headline tells you everything about the system we are fighting to change This week, a new claim appeared across the trade press: “95% say financial advice helps them hit financial goals.”(Opinium survey of 8,000 UK adults, commissioned by St. James’s Place.) To the casual observer, it reads like a national truth.To those … Continue reading The 95% Myth: How the Advice Industry Manufactures Trust While Silencing the Truth
When Bureaucracy Forgets Its Purpose: How AI Helps Citizens Stand Tall Again
Across the country, thousands of ordinary people are discovering the same uncomfortable truth: the systems designed to protect us are often the very systems that overwhelm us. Recent events shared by members of our community highlight the widening gap between process and people inside major public institutions. When a frail 94-year-old lifelong resident receives a … Continue reading When Bureaucracy Forgets Its Purpose: How AI Helps Citizens Stand Tall Again
Fee-for-No-Service: The Hidden Consumer Duty Crisis — and the Rise of AI-Empowered Financial Planning
By Steve Conley, Academy of Life Planning For the first time since records began, the number of clients receiving ongoing financial advice in the UK has fallen.According to new FCA data, advisers switched off ongoing services for 335,286 clients in 2024, a dramatic spike from the previous year. Headlines attribute this to the Consumer Duty.But … Continue reading Fee-for-No-Service: The Hidden Consumer Duty Crisis — and the Rise of AI-Empowered Financial Planning
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