Most people arrive at financial planning believing education equals security.Degrees. Credentials. Certifications.Yet the evidence increasingly shows a deeper problem: education can fail to develop the very human capabilities people need to navigate work, money, and life well. A recent peer-reviewed study, The Education Irony: When College Degrees Lead to Unemployment, Mindless Thinking, Debt, and Despair, … Continue reading What Total Wealth Planners Can Learn from the “Education Irony”
Tag: technology
Why £497 Is the Right Price for Real Planning — And Why It’s Finally Possible
For more than a decade, policymakers have asked the same question: Why don’t more people access financial advice? The answer has never been a lack of interest.It has been a mismatch between what people value, what the system delivers, and what it costs to provide. At the Academy of Life Planning, we are now offering … Continue reading Why £497 Is the Right Price for Real Planning — And Why It’s Finally Possible
Total Wealth Planners: The Antidote to Inequality — Without Ideology
Inequality is usually framed as a political problem.But increasingly, it’s a structural one. The gap widening beneath modern economies isn’t only about income or assets. It’s about who gets access to judgment, responsibility, and compounding human capital—and who doesn’t. A recent reflection prompted by a study on education pathways, alongside a Wall Street Journal article … Continue reading Total Wealth Planners: The Antidote to Inequality — Without Ideology
From Intermediation to Ownership:
What the US Adviser Awakening Signals for Global Total Wealth Planners in 2026 2025 may go down as the year the wealth-management industry finally admitted what many advisers had quietly felt for years: The ground has shifted — structurally, technologically, and psychologically. In the US, record consolidation, forced platform migrations, and accelerating breakaways exposed a … Continue reading From Intermediation to Ownership:
Mazur v Charles Russell Speechlys — What This Means for You
If you are dealing with a dispute, complaint, or legal process, you may already feel overwhelmed, mistrustful, or exhausted. This page is here to steady the ground, not to push you into action. You do not need to be a lawyer.You do not need to do anything differently today.This is about understanding, not escalation. Summary: … Continue reading Mazur v Charles Russell Speechlys — What This Means for You
Total Wealth Planning™ Is No Longer a Fringe Idea
“Moving from restricted planning to whole-of-wealth planning isn’t a change of tools —it’s a change of allegiance: from products to people.” Steve ConleyAcademy of Life Planning Why 2026 Is the Year the Profession Must Change By Steve Conley | Academy of Life Planning | December 2025 For more than a decade, the Academy of Life … Continue reading Total Wealth Planning™ Is No Longer a Fringe Idea
From Personal Significance to Collective Well-being
Why the Future of Prosperity Begins with How We Define a “Life Well Lived” For decades, society has measured success with blunt instruments. GDP.Asset values.Productivity metrics. Yet none of these tell us whether people are well, whether communities are coherent, or whether our systems are helping human potential unfold—or quietly exhausting it. A growing global … Continue reading From Personal Significance to Collective Well-being
Litigation Funding, Access to Justice, and the Risk of a False Binary
Why “David vs Goliath” Framing Is Not Enough By Steve ConleyAcademy of Life Planning When governments speak about access to justice, they often reach for a familiar story. David versus Goliath.Ordinary people versus powerful institutions.The little person finally getting their day in court. The government’s decision to reverse the impact of the PACCAR judgment has … Continue reading Litigation Funding, Access to Justice, and the Risk of a False Binary
When Flexibility Becomes Forgetting: Removing Annual Suitability
Why Removing Annual Suitability Risks Burying the UK’s Fee-for-No-Service Reckoning By Steve ConleyAcademy of Life Planning A trustworthy regulator does not erase the audit trail when the bill is about to fall due. A quiet proposal with loud consequences The Financial Conduct Authority is consulting on removing the requirement for annual suitability reviews for advisers, … Continue reading When Flexibility Becomes Forgetting: Removing Annual Suitability
💉 “New Blood” or Old Habits? Why a £1 Million Recruitment Drive Risks Solving Yesterday’s Problem
Steve ConleyDecember 15, 2025 The Personal Finance Society (PFS) has recently announced that more than 400 people have expressed interest in its new Pathway to the Profession initiative — a £1 million recruitment campaign designed to attract and nurture new entrants into financial planning. On the surface, this is welcome news. A profession that genuinely … Continue reading 💉 “New Blood” or Old Habits? Why a £1 Million Recruitment Drive Risks Solving Yesterday’s Problem
Academy of Life Planning 