The FCA is clearly inching its way towards breaking down the boundary between advice and guidance with the aim of giving more ’targeted support’, as it calls it, to millions of pension savers.

News this week that life expectancy in most of the UK has fallen for the last couple of years has raised a few eyebrows and also got me thinking about the impact of this on all sorts of major financial services challenges, the State Pension being one.

The Chancellor could easily have turned up to the Mansion House this week dressed as a magician because she certainly pulled some rabbits from the hat.

It’s no secret that the FCA has come in for flak over it’s naming and shaming enforcement plans and it’s no surprise it has decided to dilute them as a result. But should it be backing off?

There was a welcome pledge from the FCA this week that it would strive to speed up enforcement action in future, despite the challenges. This is promising but I suspect it will be harder to achieve than they expect.

While we wait for the Budget and its threatened changes to pensions taxation with bated breath, it’s worth remembering that the public is beginning to accept that retirement, while not yet extinct as a notion, is not quite what it was.

I hope you are enjoying your penny off a pint of beer, as proclaimed in the Budget, possibly the most pathetic 'giveaway' announced in any Budget I can recall.

The FCA gave the broadest hint yet this week that it is ready to reform the Consumer Duty and cut out some of the unnecessary red tape.

I’m prompted to ask the question posed in the headline after reading several recent surveys suggesting that, given a choice, most people do their very best to avoid taking financial advice.

Financial Planners play a unique role in the lives of their clients. For clients losing their planner, at some point due to retirement or exit, can be a challenging, unsettling time.