You’re all doing financial planning wrong.When one person stands against the crowd, it’s easy to dismiss them as difficult, disruptive, or wrong. But what if that one person simply sees the truth differently? For years, I’ve been that “annoying guy” in your feed saying the financial planning industry has lost its way. It’s not about … Continue reading AoLP Blog: “Let’s Get the Debate Over With”: You’re all doing financial planning wrong.
Tag: finance
Reconceptualising Wealth: From Human Capital to Human Capability
In the Academy of Life Planning, we believe wealth is not what you have — it’s what you can do.This philosophy resonates powerfully with a landmark paper by Paula England and Nancy Folbre, Reconceptualizing Human Capital (2000) — a text that redefines what it means to be “wealthy” in human terms. Beyond the Balance Sheet … Continue reading Reconceptualising Wealth: From Human Capital to Human Capability
The Securitisation Trap: The Hidden System Behind UK Repossessions & Why Your Bank Won’t Let You Switch to Interest-Only
How Financial Engineering, Legal Ambiguity and Regulatory Silence Create Structural Risk for Homeowners A Quiet Crisis Behind the Possession Courts Most homeowners believe repossession happens for simple reasons: arrears, expired terms, or a broken agreement with their lender.But behind the scenes, a silent and vastly more complex machine is operating — one that even judges … Continue reading The Securitisation Trap: The Hidden System Behind UK Repossessions & Why Your Bank Won’t Let You Switch to Interest-Only
When “Independent” Advice Firms Disappear — The Plot Twist No One Saw Coming
Why the decline in regulated advice firms is not a crisis, but a turning point for Holistic Wealth Planners The headlines are alarming:“Number of independent advice firms continues to fall.”Commentators talk of consolidation, capacity issues, and the supposed “advice gap.” But the industry’s story is only half the truth. What’s collapsing is the old model … Continue reading When “Independent” Advice Firms Disappear — The Plot Twist No One Saw Coming
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
The Moore Doctrine: What HBOS Taught Us About Structural Untrustworthiness
By the Academy of Life Planning Paul Russell Moore (1958–2020) was the former Head of Group Regulatory Risk at HBOS and the whistleblower who warned, years before the 2008 crash, that the bank’s aggressive sales culture and weak controls posed a serious risk to customers and financial stability. For speaking up, he lost his job, … Continue reading The Moore Doctrine: What HBOS Taught Us About Structural Untrustworthiness
Why Britain Needs Total-Wealth Planners — Not 1% Advisers
For years we’ve told people that “financial advice” means picking funds, switching products, or optimising the investable sliver of their portfolio. But this narrow definition has hidden a deeper structural truth: regulated retail investments — the only area most advisers are authorised to touch — account for less than one percent of the total wealth … Continue reading Why Britain Needs Total-Wealth Planners — Not 1% Advisers
When “Alpha” Broke the Bank
In 2007, I was Head of Savings and Investments Strategy at RBS Group, based in the gleaming Gogarburn headquarters that symbolised the bank’s soaring ambition. I had just completed a five-year strategic plan designed to position RBS as a sustainable market leader — one that could combine profitability with prudence, and growth with genuine customer … Continue reading When “Alpha” Broke the Bank
🌍 The Human Capital Multiplier: What Economists Now Confirm About Wealth and Well-being
A recent study by Andrés Erosa, Tatyana Koreshkova, and Diego Restuccia — “How Important Is Human Capital? A Quantitative Theory Assessment of World Income Inequality” — offers a powerful confirmation of what we at the Academy of Life Planning have been teaching for years: human capital is the true source of sustainable wealth. While traditional … Continue reading 🌍 The Human Capital Multiplier: What Economists Now Confirm About Wealth and Well-being
🧭 Auto-Enrolment’s Hidden Crisis: 10 Million Dormant Pots and the Price of Passive Saving
By Steve Conley, Academy of Life Planning “When systems are built on inertia, they collapse under disengagement.” New data released under a Freedom of Information request has revealed a shocking truth:Less than one-third of Nest’s 13.7 million members are paying into their pensions.That means nearly 10 million workers—almost half the UK workforce—have abandoned their pension … Continue reading 🧭 Auto-Enrolment’s Hidden Crisis: 10 Million Dormant Pots and the Price of Passive Saving
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