Adviser 3.0: The Podcast

The FCA has asked the world's biggest AI companies to behave themselves. Politely.Rebecca Aldridge, Managing Director and founder of Balance: Wealth Planning, joins Abraham Okusanya and Matt Pitcher on the SoapBox, and the debate gets lively.A major provider wants to hand advisers slick, white label advice tech for their smaller clients. Brilliant innovation, or a way for advisers to eat their own lunch? And when the tech gets it wrong, whose name is on the advice?The regulator's answer to AI giving out financial advice is a request for disclaimers, not a rule. Matt wants proper rules. Abraham takes the side of the AI firms. Rebecca asks why the advice profession feels it has to care at all.New research suggests plenty of people are happy to invest on their own. So where should the line be before you bring in an adviser? Rebecca argues it's about complexity, not the size of the pot, and that the basics of protection are being forgotten in the rush to gather assets.Then, send in the clones. Abraham asks Rebecca whether she'd let him build "Becky AI", and the panel argues over how close a copy could ever get to the real thing.Plus, another tax on the banks. Easy target, or just politics?

Who Pays? Part 2 of 2Britain’s billionaires are packing their bags. Should we feel sorry for them?In the second half of this bumper SoapBox, Matt Pitcher and Abraham Okusanya are back with Clémence Chatelin, Chartered Financial Planner at Ovation Finance, and the gloves come off.First up is the London Stock Exchange. Companies are being bought up and taken private, almost nobody is listing, and the UK’s slice of global markets keeps shrinking. Abraham thinks that’s bad news for entrepreneurs, investors and the country. Clem explains how we got here, and what UK pensions could do about it.Then the big one. Abraham argues that losing the wealthiest taxpayers leaves the rest of us with a bigger bill. Matt would rather go after the tax they avoid on the way out. And Clem has a different kind of sympathy: they never get to feel they have enough.Finally, with the Budget almost here, the panel makes its predictions on capital gains tax, the banks, the triple lock and whether any of it will fix the big problems.Missed Part 1? Go back for Gen Z, ESG and the return of Help to Buy.

Who Pays? Part 1 of 2What if the worst-case scenario in your cash flow model isn’t bad enough anymore?In the first half of a bumper SoapBox, Matt Pitcher and Abraham Okusanya are joined by Clémence Chatelin, Chartered Financial Planner at Ovation Finance, and the sparks fly early.Clem asks how you plan a retirement in a world of floods, wildfires and homes that can no longer be insured. Abraham isn’t buying the idea that the future will be worse than the past, and he brings the data to make his case.Then the generational fault line opens up. Why are younger investors turning to crypto and prediction markets instead of pensions and ISAs? And did ESG ever deserve its moment, or did the industry oversell it?Finally, the government wants first-time buyers on the ladder with just a 2.5% deposit. Clem has lived through Help to Buy and has a warning for anyone tempted by its comeback. Abraham, a proud homeowner, isn’t so sure.Part 2, on vanishing billionaires, a shrinking London Stock Exchange and the Budget, follows on Friday.

“My business is my pension.” Reme Holland hears it all the time from business owners, and he always gives the same answer: it really isn’t.Reme runs financial planning inside Albert Goodman, one of the South West’s biggest accountancy firms. That gives him a front-row seat to what happens when planners and accountants share a building, and a client.He tells Abraham Okusanya how he went from knocking on doors on commission only to running a planning business, why planners rank somewhere down with traffic wardens on trust, and how a simple referral from the accountant can quietly turn planning into a one-off transaction.Then it gets candid. Reme took over a business with too many support staff, too few advisers and timesheets nobody took seriously. He rebuilt it, and explains why he’d tell any firm to stop forcing every client into a percentage fee.Plus: private equity is buying up accountancy firms across the country. So why is Albert Goodman saying no, and what happens to the dream of making partner if everyone else says yes?Reme Holland: https://albertgoodman.co.uk/our-people/reme-hollandAlbert Goodman Financial Planning: https://albertgoodman.co.uk/financial-planning

Philippa Hann spent the best part of 20 years as a litigator in financial services, working on the scandals that kept on coming. Underneath every one sat the same question: why do good people do bad things? Her new book, The Fault Lines of Finance, co-written with neuropsychologist Dr Moira Somers, is her answer, and she joins Abraham Okusanya to unpack it.Philippa's argument is that misconduct is rarely a bad person problem. It's a good person problem. Most of us don't like feeling uncomfortable, and when our behaviour clashes with how we see ourselves, our brains find a story to make it okay. She explains how cognitive dissonance, rationalisation and the slippery slope of small decisions can lead capable, well-meaning professionals somewhere they never meant to go, and why working so close to money makes the risk sharper in finance than in most professions.The conversation turns to where ethics training falls short. Spotting a dilemma and knowing what to do are the easy parts. The hard parts are moral motivation, putting your standards ahead of your mortgage or your place in the team, and moral character, holding your ground when someone tells you that's not how things are done around here. Abraham tests the ideas against a grey-area expenses dilemma from his own diary, and Philippa answers it with the question that sits at the heart of the book.For leaders, Philippa sets out integrity by design: the two questions every team is silently asking, what does good look like around here and can I trust what you say, and why a travel policy can tell you more about a firm's culture than its values statement. She argues that the quality of relationships inside a business is what makes difficult conversations possible. She also shares the personal toolkit from the book: knowing your vulnerabilities, writing down your non-negotiables, and keeping a few back-pocket phrases ready for the moment your stomach lurches.She closes with a challenge to the whole profession. The purpose of business isn't to make money, she argues, it's to serve society, and that should shape how every financial professional decides what good enough looks like.An essential listen for anyone leading a firm, managing people, or just starting out in advice.