By Steve Conley – Academy of Life Planning When new research tells us that “older Londoners can’t afford to retire,” it’s worth pausing to ask: is that really the full story? According to data analysed by Bower Home Finance, seven of the UK’s top ten areas where people over 65 remain in work are in … Continue reading 🧭 Affordability or Opportunity? Rethinking Why Older Workers Keep Working
Tag: mental-health
🌱 Lessons for Holistic Wealth Planners from the Science of Spiritual Well-Being
By Steve Conley, Academy of Life Planning In the quest to understand what truly makes life fulfilling, psychology has long focused on the concept of subjective well-being — how people evaluate the quality of their own lives. For decades, this field has measured happiness through domains such as health, relationships, safety, and community connection. But … Continue reading 🌱 Lessons for Holistic Wealth Planners from the Science of Spiritual Well-Being
💙 Why I Started Get SAFE
Rebuilding Lives. Restoring Justice. When I left the banks in 2012 and founded the Academy of Life Planning, I thought I was simply stepping away from an industry that had lost its soul. What I didn’t realise then was that I was walking straight into the lives of those it had left behind. Everywhere I … Continue reading 💙 Why I Started Get SAFE
🌍 Meaning Is the New Currency of Recruitment
When Purpose Becomes the Bait There was a time when financial advice was sold as a career of prestige, profit, and professionalism. But not anymore. The new recruitment language of our industry has changed — and it tells us something profound about where society is heading. Last week, St. James’s Place — the UK’s largest … Continue reading 🌍 Meaning Is the New Currency of Recruitment
🌿 From Decision Trees to Living Choices
How Life Planners Transform Analysis into Awareness When faced with life’s most important decisions, people don’t struggle because they lack information — they struggle because they are torn between head and heart. In Mhairi’s Dilemma (Mullin et al., 2008), a ten-year-old girl faced an impossible choice: whether to attend the funeral of her beloved priest. … Continue reading 🌿 From Decision Trees to Living Choices
🌿 “Life Planning Is Not a Cult — It’s Conscious Suitability”
By Steve Conley, Founder, Academy of Life Planning When George Kinder says “we’re not a cult,” he’s right. Life Planning, at its heart, is a disciplined, structured, and ethical practice rooted in autonomy — not allegiance. I trained under George and share his conviction: you cannot do financial planning properly without first understanding life itself. … Continue reading 🌿 “Life Planning Is Not a Cult — It’s Conscious Suitability”
Closing the Philanthropy Gap: 10 Lessons for Holistic Wealth Planners
By Steve Conley | Academy of Life Planning “The measure of wealth is not what you keep, but what you set free.” Recent research from Barclays Private Bank and Wealth Management has exposed a revealing truth about our industry.While 81% of high-net-worth (HNW) clients want advisers to raise the topic of philanthropy, only 33% have … Continue reading Closing the Philanthropy Gap: 10 Lessons for Holistic Wealth Planners
From Policy to Practice: Lessons on Empowerment for Planners
When governments test education reforms, we often find lessons that resonate far beyond schools and universities. One such lesson comes from the economics of human capital research [Essays on the economics of human capital accumulation By Lucio Rizzica]: raising aspirations alone is not enough. The UK’s Widening Participation initiative in the 1990s, for example, encouraged teenagers … Continue reading From Policy to Practice: Lessons on Empowerment for Planners
Get SAFE Community Briefing: Government Review of Opt-Out Collective Actions
Open call for evidence: Opt-out collective actions regime reviewFrom: Department for Business and TradePublished: 6 August 2025Deadline for responses: 11:59pm on 14 October 2025 Why This Matters for Get SAFE For too long, victims of financial exploitation have been forced to battle alone. Individual complaints to regulators, ombudsmen, or the courts can be exhausting, expensive, … Continue reading Get SAFE Community Briefing: Government Review of Opt-Out Collective Actions
When Bankers Betray Trust: Why Structural Change is Needed
Sometimes I’m accused of being disingenuous when I say, “bankers in general can’t be trusted.” People hear it as a sweeping statement, unfair to the many good people working in finance. Then stories like this one come along. This week, former Co-operative Bank chairman Paul Flowers was ordered by the CPS to repay £184,862 to … Continue reading When Bankers Betray Trust: Why Structural Change is Needed
Academy of Life Planning 