I’ve always believed that when it comes to investing you should get what you pay for. If you buy an actively-managed fund you expect a smart human (and his or her friends) to be taking some wise decisions with your money. The personal touch, if you like.

In these days of remote working, video calling and cloud computing, it suprises me that actually getting together with other finance professionals remains not just popular but increasingly so.

Bristol-based Financial Planning firm Paradigm Norton became the latest firm this week to launch its own academy, this time a twist on the more general initiatives with a ‘Leadership Academy’ in partnership with University of the West of England.

The euphoria following a landslide election victory is probably not the best time to make long-term investment decisions and I’m sure many planners will have treated today as business as usual, partly because many of the fundamentals are the same as last week.

The appointment of Andrew Bailey as the new Bank of England Governor today came as little surprise but it does open to door to opportunities for a new direction for the FCA.

Just before Christmas I suggested that the FCA needed a new direction post-Bailey. It may already have found one although it is clearly not the direction everyone wants.

I was reminded this week that Financial Planning is much more of a profession than a business by the latest Charles Stanley results.

The FCA’s long awaited DB transfer review was published today with, seemingly, a ban on contingent charging which turns out to be not a complete ban after all.

A new poll of Personal Finance Society members suggests nearly 90% of Financial Planners will never return to the way they worked before the pandemic.

It’s been an exciting couple of months at Jane Smith Financial Planning.