The UK financial advice sector may be approaching another quiet inflection point. Recent reports suggest the FCA is examining the future of trail commission as part of its broader review of simplified advice and targeted support. Industry responses have been swift. Some providers and commentators warn that banning trail commission could create unintended consequences for … Continue reading Is Ongoing Remuneration Payment for Ongoing Work… or Payment for Historical Distribution?
Tag: business
Ecosystems, Human Agency, and the Future of Work
Why the AI era may not simply eliminate jobs — but fundamentally redefine what productive human value looks like For more than two centuries, industrial society has organised human beings primarily around employment. You study.You train.You specialise.You obtain a role inside an institution.You exchange labour for income. That model shaped modern economies. And for much … Continue reading Ecosystems, Human Agency, and the Future of Work
AI Will Not Save Financial Advice — It Will Replace the Need for It
What McKinsey gets right—and what it means for restoring human agency A recent McKinsey & Company Quarterly article makes a quietly radical point. Despite near-universal adoption of AI across business functions, most organisations are not seeing meaningful value. The reason is not technological. It is strategic. Companies are focusing on productivity. And productivity, history shows, … Continue reading AI Will Not Save Financial Advice — It Will Replace the Need for It
Stepping Stones to Nowhere? Or the Quiet Shift from Advice to Agency
Most careers in financial services begin the same way. You learn the system.You build experience.You move closer to “advice.” Each step feels like progress. And for a long time, it was. But what if the path hasn’t changed… and the world has? The traditional model was built on a simple assumption: Clients need experts to … Continue reading Stepping Stones to Nowhere? Or the Quiet Shift from Advice to Agency
The Quiet Question Emerging Inside Financial Advice
There’s something shifting in the profession. Not loudly.Not in headlines or strategy decks.But in conversations — often behind closed doors, or in passing remarks that don’t quite get finished. A different kind of question is starting to surface. Not about products.Not about performance.Not even about regulation. But about role. The Question Beneath the Model Across … Continue reading The Quiet Question Emerging Inside Financial Advice
Most People Don’t Read the Contracts They Sign.
Most People Don’t Read the Contracts They Sign. That’s Not a Personal Failure — It’s a System Design Problem. By the Academy of Life Planning A recent consumer survey of over 50,000 people by Survey Pop asked a simple question: How often do you read the fine print on a contract? The answers should give … Continue reading Most People Don’t Read the Contracts They Sign.
Why Local-First Financial Planning May Be Safer Than Advice-Led Data Aggregation
By the Academy of Life Planning For decades, the financial advice model has operated on a simple premise: To help you, we must first hold your data. Your financial life—income, assets, liabilities, goals, vulnerabilities—is gathered, transferred, stored, and processed across a chain of systems: adviser CRMs, platforms, providers, paraplanning tools, and increasingly, AI. This model … Continue reading Why Local-First Financial Planning May Be Safer Than Advice-Led Data Aggregation
The FCA’s Advice Market Report Reveals the Real Gap: Human Agency
By Steve Conley | Academy of Life Planning The FCA’s 2025 financial advice firms survey has been presented as a picture of a stable, resilient and evolving advice market. Look more closely, and it tells a deeper story. It reveals a market that is consolidating, digitising and preparing for AI, while still operating on an … Continue reading The FCA’s Advice Market Report Reveals the Real Gap: Human Agency
When Your Bank “Invites You to Invest,” Understand What’s Really Happening
Steve Conley There is a quiet shift underway in UK financial services. After years of constraint following the Global Financial Crisis, banks are moving back toward wealth management—re-entering a space they were once forced to retreat from. But they are not coming back as they were. They are returning: with more advanced technology with more … Continue reading When Your Bank “Invites You to Invest,” Understand What’s Really Happening
Vulnerability, Capability, and the Total Wealth Planner
Reframing financial planning beyond the regulatory perimeter The financial services industry has long organised itself around regulation. Advice, products, permissions, and compliance frameworks form the dominant architecture through which financial decisions are understood and delivered. Yet this architecture, while necessary, is partial. It governs only a small part of the reality it seeks to influence. … Continue reading Vulnerability, Capability, and the Total Wealth Planner
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