What Health Services Can Teach Financial Planning About the Future of Human Capability For decades, both healthcare and financial services have operated around a remarkably similar assumption: The expert knows best. In healthcare, the doctor diagnoses, prescribes, and directs. In financial services, the adviser recommends, structures, and manages. The individual — patient or client — … Continue reading Restoring Human Agency in the Age of AI
Tag: business
The Missing Voice at Adviser Conferences: What Advisers Aren’t Hearing About AI
What sits underneath many industry conferences is an uncomfortable structural reality: the ecosystem is largely self-referential. The sponsors fund the event.The media platforms depend on industry advertising.The exhibitors sell to advisers.The speakers often come from firms benefiting from the existing model.The audience attends within that commercial architecture. That does not automatically make the discussions wrong. … Continue reading The Missing Voice at Adviser Conferences: What Advisers Aren’t Hearing About AI
Op-ed: The Great Independent Advice Illusion
[A reflection on Citywire's article, How SJP advisers are using Policy Services to pitch independent advice 14 May 2026] By Steve Conley The financial advice profession has spent decades arguing over a question that, from a genuine life planning perspective, may matter far less than the industry would like to believe. Restricted or independent? Whole … Continue reading Op-ed: The Great Independent Advice Illusion
Is Ongoing Remuneration Payment for Ongoing Work… or Payment for Historical Distribution?
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?
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
Academy of Life Planning 