A scam rarely happens in one place. A fraudulent advert may appear on Facebook. The conversation moves to WhatsApp. A convincing phone call follows. Money leaves a bank account, passes through another institution and eventually reaches a cryptocurrency platform. The criminal sees the entire journey. Each institution sees only its own part. And the victim … Continue reading Institutions May Divide the Case Between Themselves. Academy OS Gives the Individual a Complete View of the System.
Tag: finance
How to Stop Making Scams So Easy
In response to the collapse of Woodville Consultants and a challenge from The Times, we have updated Investigator™—because government should close the loophole, but people need protection while it remains open A form is placed in front of an investor. It asks them to confirm that they are “high net worth” or a “sophisticated investor”. … Continue reading How to Stop Making Scams So Easy
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 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
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
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
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.
When the Badge Becomes the Blindfold
Before You Trust the Badge, Use Intelligence A difficult conversation with QROPS victims forced me to revisit what regulation actually does, what it does not do, and why understanding should come before intermediation. It also reminded me that the people trying to help have feelings too. It is after three in the morning as I … Continue reading When the Badge Becomes the Blindfold
Permission Is Not Protection: What British Expats Need to Know Before Trusting a “Locally Regulated” Financial Adviser
If you are a British expatriate with a UK pension, “find someone regulated where you live” sounds like sensible consumer protection. It may not be enough. Imagine you spent your working life in Britain. Perhaps you worked for the NHS, a local authority, the armed forces or a private employer. You built up a valuable … Continue reading Permission Is Not Protection: What British Expats Need to Know Before Trusting a “Locally Regulated” Financial Adviser
Your Future Financial Life Cannot Be Separated From the Future World in Which You Will Live
What might the future require of me — and what forms of wealth will help me meet it? Most financial plans make forecasts. They forecast your pension. Your investments. Your income. Your expenditure. Inflation. Investment returns. Perhaps your life expectancy. Then they project those numbers twenty, thirty or forty years into the future. But there … Continue reading Your Future Financial Life Cannot Be Separated From the Future World in Which You Will Live
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