Interactive Investor Has Broken One Link. Now Let’s Break the Other.

If the price of advice need not rise with your wealth, why should the duration of advice rise with your lifetime? Something important happened in financial advice this week. Interactive Investor launched an ongoing financial advice service for £100 a month for an individual and £150 a month for a couple. There are no initial … Continue reading Interactive Investor Has Broken One Link. Now Let’s Break the Other. →

Different Tradition. Same Human Journey: What The Four Agreements Reveals About the GAME Plan

Yesterday, a conversation among Academy members began with a book recommendation. Geoff Dyckes had just finished The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz, which presents what Ruiz describes as Toltec wisdom as a practical route towards personal freedom. That prompted an interesting discussion. The language was different. But the journey felt remarkably familiar. Ruiz talks … Continue reading Different Tradition. Same Human Journey: What The Four Agreements Reveals About the GAME Plan →

Two Ways to Delegate Your Wealth: Bundled Advice or Specialist Delegation?

If you have accumulated significant wealth, who should you delegate it to? For many people, the conventional answer is simple: Find a good Independent Financial Adviser and let them look after it. There is another way. Instead of asking one advisory relationship to encompass planning, investments, products and ongoing oversight, you can separate the jobs: … Continue reading Two Ways to Delegate Your Wealth: Bundled Advice or Specialist Delegation? →

I Was Wrong About the Financial Concierge

The professional’s job is not to occupy the pathway between the client and their money, but to keep that pathway clear. Why a Total Wealth Planner should be at reception, not permanently in your room For several years, I have described the emerging role of the holistic financial planner as a financial concierge. I still … Continue reading I Was Wrong About the Financial Concierge →

Why Build a Total Wealth Planning Practice Alone?

Most financial planning businesses begin with one person. One planner. One diary. One network. One set of skills. One person carrying the whole thing. That can work. But it also creates an obvious weakness. If everything depends on you, you may have created a practice — but you have not yet created much organisational resilience. … Continue reading Why Build a Total Wealth Planning Practice Alone? →

Same Expertise. Different Price.

Same Expertise. Different Price. The Academy of Life Planning has launched a new Cost Comparison Calculator to show what happens when the same level of professional expertise is priced in two very different ways. A Chartered Financial Planner can work in two fundamentally different models. As a conventional financial adviser, they may charge an ongoing … Continue reading Same Expertise. Different Price. →

From Registered Life Planner to Total Wealth Planner

Fifteen years ago, I completed the Registered Life Planner pathway with the Kinder Institute. It changed the way I listened, the way I planned and the way I understood the relationship between money and life. Today, I am a Total Wealth Planner. That journey was not a rejection of life planning. It was the next … Continue reading From Registered Life Planner to Total Wealth Planner →

Agency Story No. 2: The Couple Who Came Back When the Decision Changed

Rachel and David did not need someone permanently managing their financial lives. They needed a way to explore retirement for themselves, followed by focused human support when the remaining decisions became more complex. Names and certain identifying details have been changed to protect client confidentiality. The underlying circumstances, planning process and client quotations remain faithful … Continue reading Agency Story No. 2: The Couple Who Came Back When the Decision Changed →

When the Investigator Becomes the Target

Reputation attacks against people who investigate financial misconduct When people think about financial misconduct, they usually imagine the victims. The pensioner who lost their retirement savings. The family persuaded into a high-risk investment they didn't understand. The business owner who trusted the wrong people. What they rarely consider is what happens to the people who … Continue reading When the Investigator Becomes the Target →

Why the Future of Financial Planning Needs More Women (and Fewer Sales Targets)

There has never been a more interesting time for women to enter financial planning. But perhaps there has also never been a more important time to ask a different question. Not simply: "Which firm should I join?" But: "What kind of profession do I want to help build?" Recently, St. James's Place published an article … Continue reading Why the Future of Financial Planning Needs More Women (and Fewer Sales Targets) →