Prime minister Rishi Sunak surprised quite a few people this week with an unexpected announcement direct from No.10 that financial cold calling will be banned.

For as long as I’ve been writing about Financial Planning, several decades now, people have been fretting about the 'fact' that the average age of a Financial Planner is 105 (ok a slight exaggeration) and many planners are ready to quit, leaving an empty shell of a profession.

Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3 has always been one of my favourite Ian Dury songs. It came to mind this week as we reported on the reasons to see a financial adviser.

The UK has an impressive 99% literacy rate, according to international studies. While this is worthy of praises I suspect the 'financial literacy' rate for the UK is just a fraction of this and the country is poorer as a result.