When people are harmed by powerful institutions, the first barrier is rarely the absence of evidence. More often, the barrier is overwhelm. The documents are there. The letters are there. The emails are there. The statements, decisions, timelines, contradictions and red flags are often scattered across inboxes, folders, drawers and memory. But when someone is … Continue reading Goliathon Version 3 Has Arrived: Turning Evidence into Action Just Became Easier
Tag: mental-health
We Built Something to Level the Playing Field. It’s Now Live.
By Steve Conley, Founder — Academy of Life Planning & Get SAFE There is a moment most of us have experienced. You are about to sign something. A contract, an agreement, a set of terms and conditions. The other party hands you a document — sometimes thick, sometimes thin, always dense — and waits. There … Continue reading We Built Something to Level the Playing Field. It’s Now Live.
Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire?
Should Financial Advice Academies Market Themselves as a Wellbeing Escape Route? There was something in a recent recruitment message from St. James's Place that genuinely stopped me in my tracks. The campaign highlighted rising levels of burnout, stress, emotional exhaustion, and poor mental wellbeing across the UK workforce. It cited research suggesting: 1 in 4 … Continue reading Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire?
From Employee Assistance to Human Agency: What Today’s Wellbeing Programmes Reveal About the Future of Planning
For decades, Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) have sat quietly in the background of organisational life. Originally designed as counselling and crisis-support services, they were often associated with stress, addiction, bereavement, or workplace difficulties — a safety net for people under pressure. But something is changing. Modern EAPs are no longer simply mental health helplines. They … Continue reading From Employee Assistance to Human Agency: What Today’s Wellbeing Programmes Reveal About the Future of Planning
When Justice Arrives Too Late: The Human Cost of the LCF Scandal
In May 2026, former London Capital & Finance (LCF) CEO Michael Thomson was jailed for contempt of court after breaching Serious Fraud Office restraint orders designed to preserve assets linked to the collapse of the mini-bond firm. His wife received a suspended sentence for related breaches. The offences involved the sale of luxury items, including … Continue reading When Justice Arrives Too Late: The Human Cost of the LCF Scandal
The Right to Understand Before You Lose Everything
There is a quiet assumption built into many financial and legal systems: If you signed the document, you understood it. But real life is rarely that simple. People sign agreements while tired, stressed, grieving, overwhelmed, intimidated, rushed, hopeful, trusting, distracted, or simply trying to keep life moving. Sometimes they believe they are agreeing to one … Continue reading The Right to Understand Before You Lose Everything
Help Us Prevent Financial Harm Before It Happens
Most people do not read terms and conditions before signing. Research regularly suggests around 7 in 10 people either never read them properly or only skim them. Not because they are careless. Because life is busy. Because contracts are overwhelming. Because sales environments create pressure. Because people trust the brand, adviser, broker, lender, provider, or … Continue reading Help Us Prevent Financial Harm Before It Happens
Do People Need Life Planning Anymore?
There is a quiet question emerging beneath the noise of modern self-improvement, financial planning, coaching, and even parts of the AI revolution: What happens when the goals no longer feel meaningful? For decades, society has organised itself around achievement. Earn more. Accumulate more. Optimise more. Retire earlier. Scale faster. Build the business. Hit the target. … Continue reading Do People Need Life Planning Anymore?
Targeted Support Is Not the Same as a Life Plan
Why better nudges don’t replace better thinking—and why human agency matters more than ever There is a quiet shift underway in financial services. Providers are moving from passive information delivery to something more active—what the regulator now calls “Targeted Support.” The intention is clear: use data, behavioural insight, and simplified communication to help people make … Continue reading Targeted Support Is Not the Same as a Life Plan
Stepping Stones to Nowhere? Or the Quiet Shift from Advice to Agency
Most careers in financial services begin the same way. You learn the system.You build experience.You move closer to “advice.” Each step feels like progress. And for a long time, it was. But what if the path hasn’t changed… and the world has? The traditional model was built on a simple assumption: Clients need experts to … Continue reading Stepping Stones to Nowhere? Or the Quiet Shift from Advice to Agency
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