This week one of our best read stories on Financial Planning Today website was about a firm based in the United Arab Emirates reportedly targeting UK clients by offering a Financial Planning / wealth management-style service.

I’ve only been to a casino once in my life. Perhaps fittingly for this story, it was during a business trip to Barcelona with life assurance company NPI, at the very start of my career. I walked into the Casino de Barcelona with a colleague, watched a gentleman lose several thousand pesetas on a spin of the roulette wheel, and promptly walked back out again, feeling a little nauseous at the speed and scale of the loss. James Bond, I’m not.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, regulators have held many firms to account for failings, but very few individuals. The Senior Managers & Certification Regime (SM&CR) was introduced to address this.

In a Dear CEO letter issued on 22 March to pension providers the FCA appear to imply that the role of a pension provider is now as a gatekeeper for defined benefit transfers. 

The retirement outcomes review continues to cause fun and games in the world of pensions. Particularly for those with more complex pension products.

I recently attended the “Yes She Can” launch event, hosted by The Wisdom Council. I have to say that I find many of these female-focused events put me off. I am not a fan of positive discrimination and often that is what appears to be suggested. 

I’m in the UK to launch my new book, A Golden Civilization & the Map of Mindfulness, and the London portion of a global movement of Golden Civilization Conversations (www.AGoldenCivilization.com) already in process on 5 continents. It is the purpose of both the conversations and the book to life plan civilization.

Our most read story this week is the news that the FCA is to launch a review of financial advice. Yes, just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water there’s another regulatory shark in the sea - potentially.

I often smile when I read about ‘the next big thing’ in financial services -it’s a sure sign that the so-called experts have no idea.

A new report out today suggests that 6 million people would seek financial advice if it were cheaper.