From an AoLP perspective, this is a significant and largely well-argued intervention into a very important structural issue: whether the UK redress system is evolving to protect consumers — or evolving to manage institutional liability more efficiently. Overall, though, this is a serious, thoughtful, and important contribution. It articulates many concerns that ordinary consumers struggle … Continue reading Response to the FCA’s Consultation Paper CP26/9:Modernising the Redress System
Tag: total-wealth-planner
Ecosystems, Agency, and the Future of Human-Centred Planning
Why the next era of financial planning will not be built around products — but around connected systems that help people thrive For most of modern history, people have lived inside systems they did not fully understand. Financial systems. Legal systems. Pension systems. Healthcare systems. Education systems. Employment systems. Each evolved separately. Each developed its … Continue reading Ecosystems, Agency, and the Future of Human-Centred Planning
Vulnerability, Capability, and the Total Wealth Planner
Reframing financial planning beyond the regulatory perimeter The financial services industry has long organised itself around regulation. Advice, products, permissions, and compliance frameworks form the dominant architecture through which financial decisions are understood and delivered. Yet this architecture, while necessary, is partial. It governs only a small part of the reality it seeks to influence. … Continue reading Vulnerability, Capability, and the Total Wealth Planner
2026: The Year Financial Planners Either Step Forward… or Step Aside
There are moments in an industry’s history where change is gradual.And then there are moments where it is sudden, structural, and irreversible. 2026 is the latter. If you are a financial planner who has not yet engaged with the Academy of Life Planning this year, this is not a criticism. It is a signal. Because … Continue reading 2026: The Year Financial Planners Either Step Forward… or Step Aside
When Trust Becomes the Weakness: Why Financial Advice Must Return Agency to the Client
A former financial adviser is jailed. £45,000 is taken from a vulnerable client. The regulator bans him—years after the damage is done. And the industry response is predictable: “A bad actor. An isolated case. The system worked.” But it didn’t. Because the real question is not who committed the fraud. It is this: Why was … Continue reading When Trust Becomes the Weakness: Why Financial Advice Must Return Agency to the Client
The Problem Isn’t the Words. It’s What Sits Behind Them.
By Steve Conley Recent research from Oxford Risk and NextWealth has drawn attention to a growing unease among retirement clients. The conclusion is clear enough: the language advisers use—phrases intended to reassure, guide, or inform—is too often doing the opposite. It is creating anxiety, eroding trust, and disengaging the very people it is meant to … Continue reading The Problem Isn’t the Words. It’s What Sits Behind Them.
The Six Traits That Determine Whether You’re Ready to Become a Total Wealth Planner
“Financial planning is not being disrupted by technology.It is being exposed by it.” There’s a growing conversation in financial services about skills. Assessments.Frameworks.Competency models. They all ask a version of the same question: “Do you have what it takes to become a financial adviser?” But this question belongs to an old world. Because it assumes: … Continue reading The Six Traits That Determine Whether You’re Ready to Become a Total Wealth Planner
Salary or Self-Employment? For new planners, which path is actually safer in the age of AI?
For new planners, which path is actually safer in the age of AI? There is one objection that keeps coming up in conversations with Academy prospects: “I’d love to become a Total Wealth Planner, but I need the security of a salary.” It is a fair concern. It is also a revealing one. Because behind … Continue reading Salary or Self-Employment? For new planners, which path is actually safer in the age of AI?
Why Human Capital Must Sit at the Heart of Future Financial Plans
For decades, financial planning has focused almost entirely on financial capital. Savings.Investments.Portfolios.Tax wrappers. But there is a deeper asset sitting quietly behind every financial plan. An asset that often dwarfs the portfolio in value. That asset is human capital. And in the age of AI, demographic change, and longer working lives, financial planners who fail … Continue reading Why Human Capital Must Sit at the Heart of Future Financial Plans
A New Profession Is Emerging in Financial Planning
Introducing the Total Wealth Planner For decades, financial planning has been organised around a simple idea: Help clients manage their financial capital. Investments.Pensions.Insurance.Portfolios. That model made perfect sense in a world where financial markets were opaque, products were complex, and consumers had little direct access to financial tools. But that world is changing rapidly. Three … Continue reading A New Profession Is Emerging in Financial Planning
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