AI may take years to reshape financial planning. The time available to build a viable alternative could be much shorter. By Steve Conley, Founder, Academy of Life Planning Your business is profitable. Clients are staying. The existing model still pays the bills. Meanwhile, a new technology promises to change what customers can do for themselves … Continue reading When do you change your business model? Before the cash cow stops paying.
Tag: technology
AI-led advice—or an AI-led route to your money?
Open comparison can expose the cost of distribution. Commercially captured AI can channel customers into it. By Steve Conley, Founder, Academy of Life Planning A recent Citywire headline announced Moneybox’s plans to roll out AI-led advice. With two million customers and £23 billion in assets under administration, the story promises an explanation of how the … Continue reading AI-led advice—or an AI-led route to your money?
Clients have AI too. What happens to your business when they become more capable—and need less of what you currently sell?
Why Customer Operating Systems belong at the centre of the conversation about the future of financial planning. By Steve Conley, Founder, Academy of Life Planning Imagine your next prospective client arriving with their financial records organised, their objectives written down and several possible futures already explored. They have compared charges. Read the documents. Identified inconsistencies. … Continue reading Clients have AI too. What happens to your business when they become more capable—and need less of what you currently sell?
HSBC’s adviser cuts: we have seen this before. This time, redesign the role.
AI creates an opportunity to combine continuous personal capability with episodic human expertise. Cutting advisers is only one possible response. By Steve Conley, Founder, Academy of Life Planning7 October 2026 Reading the news that HSBC could cut around 70% of its UK wealth financial advisers gave me a strong sense of déjà vu. Fifteen years … Continue reading HSBC’s adviser cuts: we have seen this before. This time, redesign the role.
Who Is the AI Operating System For?
A firm can become more efficient while its clients remain just as dependent. That is the question beneath this week's agentic AI announcements. Imagine joining a wealth management firm. You upload identification, answer questions about your finances and supply documents. An AI agent notices what is missing, prepares the forms, starts identity and sanctions checks, … Continue reading Who Is the AI Operating System For?
Customers Have AI Too!
The profession is asking how AI can make advisers more productive. What happens when it makes customers more capable? This week, financial planners gather in Windsor to “turn the page on established thinking”. Here is the page I would turn. Imagine your next prospective client arriving on a video call. They have organised their financial … Continue reading Customers Have AI Too!
The risk bitcoiners rarely tell you about
When you become your own bank, your family can become part of the security perimeter. By Steve Conley | Asset Recovery | 3 October 2026 Content note: this article discusses violent robbery and threats against a family. The attackers did not need to break the encryption. They broke into the house. In a BBC report … Continue reading The risk bitcoiners rarely tell you about
An FCA Check Is Only the Start: Investigate Before You Invest
A firm appears on the FCA Firm Checker. You breathe a little easier. But what, exactly, have you checked? You have checked something important: whether the firm is authorised and has permission to provide the service you want. You have not established that the person contacting you works for that firm, that this particular investment … Continue reading An FCA Check Is Only the Start: Investigate Before You Invest
Your Plan. Your OS. Your Support.
Introducing the new Total Wealth Planner website—and a practical model of planning we can build together A great deal of financial planning still begins with a professional asking for your information. You complete a fact-find. They build a plan in their system. You receive a report. Then life changes, and you may need the professional … Continue reading Your Plan. Your OS. Your Support.
Who validated the warning about AI and your money?
An evidence audit of a financial AI headline, its commercial context and the poll that followedSteve Conley | Academy of Life Planning | 23 September 2026 I watched a poll ask people how much of their money they would let AI decide with. Before they answered, it told them that chatbots had got 57% of … Continue reading Who validated the warning about AI and your money?
