Why the Academy believes the next 6–12 months should be a period of serious business-model review for financial advisers. By Steve Conley | Academy of Life Planning | 24 October 2026 There is a reassuring response to research showing younger investors using AI. “Our clients are older.” It sounds like a reason to carry on. … Continue reading Your clients are becoming more capable. Is your business model keeping up?
Tag: technology
You Can Build Your Own Apps. So Can Your Clients.
What building Academy OS has taught us about AI, human agency and the future of professional support. There is a particular excitement in watching an idea become a working tool. A scorecard you once needed someone else to create. A cashflow model shaped around the questions you actually ask. An everyday task that used to … Continue reading You Can Build Your Own Apps. So Can Your Clients.
Who Equips the Citizen?
Why the Mills Review mattered beyond financial intermediation By Steve Conley, Founder, Academy of Life Planning | 19 October 2026 A person opens a letter from their pension provider. They understand the words, but cannot see what the assumptions mean for them. Another receives an adviser’s proposal. They want to examine the charges, alternatives and … Continue reading Who Equips the Citizen?
Equip the Davids. Stop waiting for the Goliaths to behave.
Join us in restoring human agency—helping citizens use AI to prevent financial exploitation, challenge institutional power and pursue recovery. For years, consumer campaigners have asked financial institutions to behave better. Be more transparent. Treat people fairly. Investigate properly. Put things right when harm occurs. We take evidence to regulators. We speak to parliamentarians. We attend … Continue reading Equip the Davids. Stop waiting for the Goliaths to behave.
When your clients already have the answers, what are your fees for?
New research puts AI almost level with human advisers as a comfortable place to ask financial questions. The bigger challenge is what happens to the business model when clients need fewer answers from you. For thirty years, I have watched a pattern repeat across financial services. As consumers gain visibility, understanding and the means to … Continue reading When your clients already have the answers, what are your fees for?
There is a place for you in the future we are building.
There is a place for you in the future we are building. Helping financial advisers find a worthwhile role in a world where people become more capable. What happens to your work when the people you help can do more for themselves? For a financial adviser, that question can feel threatening. You have spent years … Continue reading There is a place for you in the future we are building.
Good financial planning has a future. Investment intermediation must earn its place.
When AI helps consumers understand, question and decide, the value of human support cannot automatically justify the cost of the investment channel attached to it. Ask what happens to financial services when consumers become dramatically more capable, and a familiar defence appears. Good financial planning is about more than technical competence. People value coaching, education, … Continue reading Good financial planning has a future. Investment intermediation must earn its place.
What happens when retail investment consumers become “superintelligent”?
When clients can interrogate the expertise they once had to take on trust, the investment industry faces a question bigger than automation: what are people still paying to depend on? The days when retail investment advisers could shout down their critics and expect everyone else to look the other way should be well and truly … Continue reading What happens when retail investment consumers become “superintelligent”?
A £50 meeting with Steve Conley
A £50 meeting with Steve Conley "I need experienced help with a specific decision, without signing up to an ongoing advice relationship." If that sounds like you, this meeting is for you. About 50 minutes, £50, one conversation about the thing that matters right now. Most of the questions people bring are an 18-month problem, … Continue reading A £50 meeting with Steve Conley
AI Is Making Financial Planning Faster. Is It Making People More Capable?
By Steve Conley, Founder, Academy of Life Planning | 12 October 2026 Financial planning firms are becoming better at using AI. They can capture conversations, organise information and produce documents with less manual work. That is a real improvement. But a faster process does not tell us whether the person at its centre understands their … Continue reading AI Is Making Financial Planning Faster. Is It Making People More Capable?
