🤖 When Algorithms Deny Humanity: The AI Arms Race in Health Insurance — and What It Teaches Us About Financial Justice

By Steve Conley, Founder, Academy of Life Planning In the United States this winter, a quiet war is unfolding in the world of health insurance.It’s not between doctors and patients, or even between insurers and regulators.It’s between two algorithms. One denies life-saving treatment.The other fights back. This “AI arms race” is reshaping the boundaries of … Continue reading 🤖 When Algorithms Deny Humanity: The AI Arms Race in Health Insurance — and What It Teaches Us About Financial Justice

🚖 Waymo vs. Uber: When the Driver Becomes the Passenger

Let me tell you a story. A friend of mine was in San Francisco recently and decided to try one of those new Waymo autonomous taxis.You just open an app, order a car, and a few minutes later, up it rolls — completely empty.No driver. No small talk. No “Sorry, mate, wrong turn.”Just a quiet … Continue reading 🚖 Waymo vs. Uber: When the Driver Becomes the Passenger

Financial advisers – your jobs have gone.You and your clients just don’t know it yet.

Financial advisers – your jobs have gone.You and your clients just don’t know it yet. That’s the uncomfortable starting point for this piece. Mind the gap? What gap? For years, the UK financial services industry and its regulators have talked about the advice gap – the millions who “need advice” but don’t get it. The … Continue reading Financial advisers – your jobs have gone.You and your clients just don’t know it yet.

Human Capital Is the Hidden Engine of Holistic Wealth

Lessons for Holistic Wealth Planners from the Human Capital–Gallup Correlation MapBy Steve Conley | Academy of Life Planning Holistic Wealth Planners already know that numbers alone don’t create wealth — people do. Johan’s insightful mapping between Dr Mahesh Daru’s Human Capital Framework and Gallup’s Microeconomic Pathway makes this truth undeniable. It shows, with data and … Continue reading Human Capital Is the Hidden Engine of Holistic Wealth

When “Independent” Advice Firms Disappear — The Plot Twist No One Saw Coming

Why the decline in regulated advice firms is not a crisis, but a turning point for Holistic Wealth Planners The headlines are alarming:“Number of independent advice firms continues to fall.”Commentators talk of consolidation, capacity issues, and the supposed “advice gap.” But the industry’s story is only half the truth. What’s collapsing is the old model … Continue reading When “Independent” Advice Firms Disappear — The Plot Twist No One Saw Coming

The 95% Myth: How the Advice Industry Manufactures Trust While Silencing the Truth

Why a single headline tells you everything about the system we are fighting to change This week, a new claim appeared across the trade press: “95% say financial advice helps them hit financial goals.”(Opinium survey of 8,000 UK adults, commissioned by St. James’s Place.) To the casual observer, it reads like a national truth.To those … Continue reading The 95% Myth: How the Advice Industry Manufactures Trust While Silencing the Truth

When Bureaucracy Forgets Its Purpose: How AI Helps Citizens Stand Tall Again

Across the country, thousands of ordinary people are discovering the same uncomfortable truth: the systems designed to protect us are often the very systems that overwhelm us. Recent events shared by members of our community highlight the widening gap between process and people inside major public institutions. When a frail 94-year-old lifelong resident receives a … Continue reading When Bureaucracy Forgets Its Purpose: How AI Helps Citizens Stand Tall Again

AI, Evidence, and the Turning Tide: How Ordinary People Are Finally Winning Against Extraordinary Power

Some stories mark a shift in the landscape — and last night’s session delivered another one. John stood up and shared something remarkable. Just four weeks ago he was overwhelmed. Thirty-five years’ worth of paperwork, emails, and documents sat in boxes, impossible to decipher, impossible to articulate. He knew he was right, but like so … Continue reading AI, Evidence, and the Turning Tide: How Ordinary People Are Finally Winning Against Extraordinary Power

The Moore Doctrine: What HBOS Taught Us About Structural Untrustworthiness

By the Academy of Life Planning Paul Russell Moore (1958–2020) was the former Head of Group Regulatory Risk at HBOS and the whistleblower who warned, years before the 2008 crash, that the bank’s aggressive sales culture and weak controls posed a serious risk to customers and financial stability. For speaking up, he lost his job, … Continue reading The Moore Doctrine: What HBOS Taught Us About Structural Untrustworthiness

When the Public “Plays Lawyer”: What the Legal Sector Isn’t Seeing — and Why Independent AI Is Now Essential

By Steve ConleyFounder, Get SAFE – Support After Financial ExploitationAcademy of Life Planning Across the legal profession, there is growing frustration with clients who arrive to meetings armed with AI-generated analysis. Blog posts worry about “AI hallucinations,” “scope creep,” and clients who “second-guess” professional advice. See: When clients play lawyer: the hidden cost of AI-assisted … Continue reading When the Public “Plays Lawyer”: What the Legal Sector Isn’t Seeing — and Why Independent AI Is Now Essential