By Steve Conley, Academy of Life Planning Overnight in Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered what I believe will be remembered as an era-defining speech. Not because it was dramatic.Not because it was ideological.But because it named reality. Carney spoke about geopolitics.But what he really described was every untrustworthy system that survives by ritual, … Continue reading Take Your Sign Down: Why Financial Planning Must Stop Living Within a Lie
Tag: Financial Planning
Crossing the Bridge: From Advice‑Only to Total Wealth Planning
A gentle map of where the profession is heading — and why it matters There is a quiet shift happening in financial planning. It is not loud. It is not revolutionary (yet). And it is not being announced as a paradigm change. But if you look closely at how progressive advisers are evolving their fee … Continue reading Crossing the Bridge: From Advice‑Only to Total Wealth Planning
Life on the Other Side of Financial Planning
Why Human Capital Strategies Mastery Is Becoming the Bridge to the Profession’s Future There’s a quiet moment many financial planners reach. Nothing has gone wrong.Clients are still engaging.The rules are still being followed.The numbers still add up. And yet something feels incomplete. Not because financial planning has failed —but because the world it serves has … Continue reading Life on the Other Side of Financial Planning
AI Cash-Flow Planning vs Traditional Lifetime Cash-Flow Tools
A reflection for planners navigating what comes next For decades, lifetime cash-flow planning tools have played a central role in professional financial planning. They brought structure, consistency, and a sense of rigour to conversations about the future. Many advisers built their confidence — and their practices — around them. So it’s understandable that the emergence … Continue reading AI Cash-Flow Planning vs Traditional Lifetime Cash-Flow Tools
AI Isn’t Eating Your Lunch — It’s Changing Who Brings It to the Table
Introducing the Total Wealth Plan™ licensing options A quiet shift in how clients prepare for advice More and more clients are arriving having already used AI to: explore scenarios compare options question fees and sense-check decisions Not because they want to bypass their adviser —but because AI now gives them agency before the meeting. For … Continue reading AI Isn’t Eating Your Lunch — It’s Changing Who Brings It to the Table
From Human Capital to Human Flourishing
Why Total Wealth Planning Must Replace Individualised Finance For decades, mainstream economics — and by extension much of financial planning — has rested on a deceptively simple idea: People earn what they are worth because they are productive. This belief, known as human capital theory, is so embedded in modern thinking that it often goes … Continue reading From Human Capital to Human Flourishing
From Personal Significance to Collective Well-being
Why the Future of Prosperity Begins with How We Define a “Life Well Lived” For decades, society has measured success with blunt instruments. GDP.Asset values.Productivity metrics. Yet none of these tell us whether people are well, whether communities are coherent, or whether our systems are helping human potential unfold—or quietly exhausting it. A growing global … Continue reading From Personal Significance to Collective Well-being
💉 “New Blood” or Old Habits? Why a £1 Million Recruitment Drive Risks Solving Yesterday’s Problem
Steve ConleyDecember 15, 2025 The Personal Finance Society (PFS) has recently announced that more than 400 people have expressed interest in its new Pathway to the Profession initiative — a £1 million recruitment campaign designed to attract and nurture new entrants into financial planning. On the surface, this is welcome news. A profession that genuinely … Continue reading 💉 “New Blood” or Old Habits? Why a £1 Million Recruitment Drive Risks Solving Yesterday’s Problem
Human Capital: The Forgotten Foundation of Total Wealth
By Steve Conley, Founder, Academy of Life Planning “Investment in human capital is not merely an economic act — it is a declaration of faith in humanity itself.” For generations, the financial world has been fixated on the growth of money — GDP, stock portfolios, property values — while quietly neglecting the deeper force that … Continue reading Human Capital: The Forgotten Foundation of Total Wealth
Cosmic Maintenance: How the GAME Plan Renews an Ancient Human Mission
Across cultures and centuries, our ancestors told the same story in different tongues:creation is not finished, and humanity’s work is to keep the universe in balance.At the Academy of Life Planning, the GAME Plan — Goals → Actions → Means → Execution — is our practical expression of that timeless task.It is not merely a … Continue reading Cosmic Maintenance: How the GAME Plan Renews an Ancient Human Mission
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