For 2019 I’ve started incorporating a little of the Paraplanner Powwow essence in our team meetings. At the Powwows, people who work on their own or in a small team can learn from others. It’s a sharing environment that not only wants to share good practice, but also get things fixed! A key characteristic is that when we meet up it is a ‘safe space’ where all contribute – not just the wizened owls.

I was bothered more than most by the banking crisis of 2007-8 and the following great recession. I’d started work in the industry in the Great Recession of 73/74, and was part of the early Financial Planning and fee-only communities in America, reacting to the institutionalisation and product sales orientation of the bulk of the profession. 

Like many of you, I’m sure, there is always a never-ending “to do” list of things that need to be done – work for clients, regulatory and compliance demands and plenty of work to be done on building and developing the business. 

This weekend I had the pleasure of hosting the Christmas Lights switch-on event in our village.

“Age is no guarantee of efficiency and youth is no guarantee of innovation.”

As an avid reader, my book choices tend to fall into one of a handful of genres. I’m a sucker for a good biography. Maybe that’s a voyeuristic tendency, but the ability to look into the lives of others and learn from their experience, while at the same time being entertained by their antics, is a great formula.

Regardless of a client’s personal circumstances, they are likely to have concerns about their financial future.  As such, when clients seek financial advice for the first time, often their primary focus is on receiving guidance on how to invest money wisely, ensuring they get good returns for years to come.

Robo-advisers are encroaching on IFAs more than ever before. How? By complementing their algorithms with human advisers. 

“There is one and only one social responsibility of business – to use its resources and engage in activities designed to improve its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition, without deception or fraud.” [Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, 1962.] How things have changed!

What exactly is the purpose of Financial Planning? How do we represent it to the public? Why should they feel compelled to engage and pay fees for it? What is the value? I’m not going to go deeply philosophical on you – don’t worry! But what is it that we do? What purpose – economic, social, or other – do we serve? If we aren’t clear in our own minds how can we help clients to realise the importance of what we do.