I attended last week’s CISI / IFP Paraplanning Conference at Hinckley in Leicestershire. It was a big success and yet...something is still missing from the burgeoning Paraplanning profession and something quite big. It needs a new direction.

Even in these gender-fluid days I have to confess to being entirely male, as far as I know. This means that I will never truly experience what it feels like to be a women patronised by a man. I will never know what it’s like to be treated as a second class citizen by a financial adviser or mortgage broker.

There has been a growing, and somewhat contentious, debate among Financial Planners and Paraplanners recently about the fairest way to charge clients. Despite years of regulatory intervention in the advisory sector it remains a surprisingly grey area.

The Canadians are showing the lead globally and moving closer to protecting the designation 'Financial Planner' and it's about time the UK followed this positive step to improve consumer trust in the advice profession.

The news that MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis is suing Facebook for seemingly allowing scam advertising to appear featuring his face and name should come as no suprise.

It is easy to forget that it has been over five years since the implementation of the then FSA’s Retail Distribution Review, or RDR for short, and indeed since their replacement by the now FCA’s regime in April 2013. So, is our world better five years on? I think the answer is very much a ‘yes’.

Recently we’ve covered a spate of stories about financial advisers being arrested, sent to jail or just incurring the wrath of regulators or the police.

I am always impressed by how much Financial Planners do year round to help consumers. They give up free time and sometimes work time to help consumers understand the benefits of Financial Planning in its widest sense on a pro bono basis and, indeed, many give up their time and often their cash to volunteer in their local communities. It's a generous profession.

Crooks will always target pensions - that's a given - but that should not deter us from applauding the significant progress made this week in tackling scammers with a new law banning pension cold calling.

The changes to the taxation of transfers to Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS) has been received both positively and negatively by the pensions industry.