Why Does a Three-Hour Problem Lead Naturally to a Thirty-Year Commercial Relationship? If you can now earn a good living solving people's financial problems without capturing their assets, why are you still making surrender of the assets a condition of helping them? A person walks into a financial planner's office with a problem. Perhaps they … Continue reading Why Does a Three-Hour Problem Lead Naturally to a Thirty-Year Commercial Relationship?
Tag: investing
NatWest Wants 500,000 Investors. I Suggested Part of the Model Almost 20 Years Ago.
Democratising Coutts investment capability is a good idea. Calling a product-distribution pathway financial planning would not be. There is something rather familiar about NatWest's ambition to grow the number of its retail customers who invest with the bank from around 170,000 to more than 500,000. I know because, almost 20 years ago, I was sitting … Continue reading NatWest Wants 500,000 Investors. I Suggested Part of the Model Almost 20 Years Ago.
Wake Up, Consumers: Stop Sleepwalking Through Your Financial Future
What if financial planning started with your life, rather than your investments? I recently joined Kevin Whelan on the WealthBuilders WealthTalk podcast for a conversation about something much bigger than pensions, investments or financial products. It was about who should ultimately be in control of your financial life. The answer sounds obvious. You should. Yet … Continue reading Wake Up, Consumers: Stop Sleepwalking Through Your Financial Future
Are You Being Treated Like an Item of Inventory by Your Adviser?
How do you feel about your adviser relationship being sold to another firm? You probably thought you had a relationship with your financial adviser. Perhaps you thought it was a relationship of stewardship. You own your money. You own your life. You make the decisions. Your adviser brings expertise, experience and perspective to help you … Continue reading Are You Being Treated Like an Item of Inventory by Your Adviser?
The Financial Planning Business Model Parliament Could Imagine — But Not Believe Would Work
Non-intermediating financial planning is older than my career. AI may finally make it economically obvious. I joined Refuge Assurance as an actuarial student in 1982. At the time, Professor Laurence Gower was already conducting the Review of Investor Protection that would help reshape British financial regulation. So there is an irony I had never appreciated … Continue reading The Financial Planning Business Model Parliament Could Imagine — But Not Believe Would Work
Who Said Financial Planning Needed a Product Licence?
Why the trailblazers of financial planning are moving from the regulated 1% to the human 100% Most financial planners did not enter the profession because they wanted a licence to sell products. They entered because they wanted to help people. They wanted to help people make better decisions, avoid costly mistakes, prepare for uncertainty and … Continue reading Who Said Financial Planning Needed a Product Licence?
The Salary Trap: What Is a Graduate Really Signing Up For in an AUM Advice Firm?
The Graduate Advice Trap: Your Salary, Their Assets, Someone Else’s Business A graduate enters financial services wanting to become a financial planner. They want to help people understand money, make better decisions and build a life around what matters. The industry offers them something apparently reassuring: A salary. Training. Professional qualifications. A career path. Perhaps, … Continue reading The Salary Trap: What Is a Graduate Really Signing Up For in an AUM Advice Firm?
When the Trusted Adviser Is Not the Adviser
You Checked the FCA Register. You Were Still Scammed. From Advice to Agency A message arrives on WhatsApp. The sender appears to be a regulated financial adviser. They use the adviser’s real name, photograph, FCA registration number and company details. They recommend an investment. They create urgency. They tell you where to transfer the money. … Continue reading When the Trusted Adviser Is Not the Adviser
Same Expertise. Different Price.
Same Expertise. Different Price. The Academy of Life Planning has launched a new Cost Comparison Calculator to show what happens when the same level of professional expertise is priced in two very different ways. A Chartered Financial Planner can work in two fundamentally different models. As a conventional financial adviser, they may charge an ongoing … Continue reading Same Expertise. Different Price.
Do You Understand the Business Model Behind Your SJP Advice?
A clarity check for more than one million St. James’s Place clients Your adviser may know your family, your ambitions and your worries. They may have helped you through retirement, bereavement, a business sale or a difficult investment decision. You may trust them—and that trust may be well deserved. But there is another question worth … Continue reading Do You Understand the Business Model Behind Your SJP Advice?
