Amid a sea of gloomy news - zero growth anyone? - it was cheering to see this week that global Financial Planner numbers are on the rise.

The FCA has done a pretty good job in cracking down recently on scams and dodgy financial promotions, stung into action by some major failures over the last few years.

The year has not started well for the adviser sector with nearly a dozen firms already declared as failed by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Many pundits have put forward the view that the Financial Planning sector has been little affected by the cost of living crisis and economic uncertainty.