When Human Capital Increases Inequality

Critical lessons for Total Wealth Planners from the latest economic evidence For decades, financial planning has rested on a comforting assumption: If we educate people more, inequality will fall. It feels intuitively right. Education raises earnings. Skills create opportunity. Human capital lifts all boats. But the evidence no longer supports that simple story. A major … Continue reading When Human Capital Increases Inequality

Human Capital Is the Missing Asset Class: What Total Wealth Planners Must Learn from the Energy Transition

What Do We Mean by the “Energy Transition”? The energy transition refers to the global shift from fossil-fuel-based energy systems (coal, oil, and gas) toward cleaner, lower-carbon sources such as renewables, electrification, and energy efficiency. At its core, it is not just a technological upgrade. It is a structural transformation of how economies produce, distribute, … Continue reading Human Capital Is the Missing Asset Class: What Total Wealth Planners Must Learn from the Energy Transition

Human Capital Isn’t a “Soft” Concept — It’s the Hardest Driver of Fair Wealth Outcomes

Lessons for Total Wealth Planners from Global Evidence on Income Equality For decades, financial planning has been dominated by one narrow question:How do we grow financial capital? But global evidence increasingly points to a deeper, more foundational truth: Societies that invest in human capital don’t just grow wealth — they distribute it more fairly. A … Continue reading Human Capital Isn’t a “Soft” Concept — It’s the Hardest Driver of Fair Wealth Outcomes

Human Capital Lessons Every Total Wealth Planner Should Understand

What a global development study reveals about planning, productivity, and prosperity For Total Wealth Planners, human capital is not a soft concept. It is the primary engine of long-term wealth, resilience, and freedom. A major academic study on the development and effective use of human capital in developing countries offers powerful lessons that are just … Continue reading Human Capital Lessons Every Total Wealth Planner Should Understand

Human Capital Is Not a Footnote to Financial Planning

What Three Landmark Studies Teach Total Wealth Planners For decades, financial planning has treated human capital as a background assumption—future earnings, career trajectory, or “capacity for work.”The evidence tells a very different story. Across three major studies—spanning poverty, inequality, life expectancy, and economic growth—a consistent message emerges: Human capital is not merely an input to … Continue reading Human Capital Is Not a Footnote to Financial Planning

What Total Wealth Planners Can Learn from the “Education Irony”

Most people arrive at financial planning believing education equals security.Degrees. Credentials. Certifications.Yet the evidence increasingly shows a deeper problem: education can fail to develop the very human capabilities people need to navigate work, money, and life well. A recent peer-reviewed study, The Education Irony: When College Degrees Lead to Unemployment, Mindless Thinking, Debt, and Despair, … Continue reading What Total Wealth Planners Can Learn from the “Education Irony”

Why a Total Wealth Plan Feels So Different from a Financial Plan

Why a Total Wealth Plan Feels So Different from a Financial Plan And why it isn’t a bolt-on People approaching a Total Wealth Plan—whether as individuals or professional advisers—often do so with a familiar mental model. They expect a better financial plan.More depth. More insight. Better projections. That expectation is understandable.It’s also where confusion usually … Continue reading Why a Total Wealth Plan Feels So Different from a Financial Plan

Lessons on Human Capital for Total Wealth Planners

Lessons on Human Capital for Total Wealth PlannersWhat long-term economic growth teaches us about life-first planning Most financial planning still treats people as inputs into a system: earn, save, invest, retire.The attached study on human capital as a determinant of long-term economic growth quietly dismantles that assumption. Its core finding is simple but profound: Sustainable … Continue reading Lessons on Human Capital for Total Wealth Planners

From the 1% to the 100%: An Invitation to Financial Advisers Ready to Practise Total Wealth Planning

Most financial advisers didn’t enter the profession to sell products. They entered it to help people make better decisions about their lives. And yet, many now find themselves constrained — not by their ethics or competence, but by the narrow scope of the system they work within. This article isn’t a critique of advisers.It’s an … Continue reading From the 1% to the 100%: An Invitation to Financial Advisers Ready to Practise Total Wealth Planning

Total Wealth Planners: The Antidote to Inequality — Without Ideology

Inequality is usually framed as a political problem.But increasingly, it’s a structural one. The gap widening beneath modern economies isn’t only about income or assets. It’s about who gets access to judgment, responsibility, and compounding human capital—and who doesn’t. A recent reflection prompted by a study on education pathways, alongside a Wall Street Journal article … Continue reading Total Wealth Planners: The Antidote to Inequality — Without Ideology