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
Tag: investing
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?
From Registered Life Planner to Total Wealth Planner
Fifteen years ago, I completed the Registered Life Planner pathway with the Kinder Institute. It changed the way I listened, the way I planned and the way I understood the relationship between money and life. Today, I am a Total Wealth Planner. That journey was not a rejection of life planning. It was the next … Continue reading From Registered Life Planner to Total Wealth Planner
Is SJP Redesigning the Value of Advice—or the Economics of Intermediation?
St James’s Place is changing how it pays its advisers. From March 2027, ongoing advice remuneration that was previously paid annually will be distributed monthly. Partners will receive a transitional payment to bridge the change, while remuneration relating to mortgages and individual protection is also being revised. SJP says the changes will give partners smoother … Continue reading Is SJP Redesigning the Value of Advice—or the Economics of Intermediation?
Why Better Financial Decisions Begin with Better Questions
Why Better Financial Decisions Begin with Better Questions The latest Navigator™ update brings financial planning one step closer to real life. For decades, financial planning software has been built primarily for professionals. Most tools were designed to help advisers produce forecasts, reports and recommendations. They were never really intended to help individuals understand their own … Continue reading Why Better Financial Decisions Begin with Better Questions
Why Total Wealth Planning Could Be the Highest Return on Investment You Ever Make
People often ask whether they can justify spending time on Total Wealth Planning. I think they're asking the wrong question. The real question is this: What is the financial cost of not doing it? For decades, financial planning has often been presented as something that helps people "live a better life." That's true. But it … Continue reading Why Total Wealth Planning Could Be the Highest Return on Investment You Ever Make
Academy of Life Planning 