Consolidation is an interesting word and it’s probably something very much on the mind of many Financial Planners and financial advisory firms as the M&A wave continues.

News this week that life expectancy in most of the UK has fallen for the last couple of years has raised a few eyebrows and also got me thinking about the impact of this on all sorts of major financial services challenges, the State Pension being one.

The Chancellor could easily have turned up to the Mansion House this week dressed as a magician because she certainly pulled some rabbits from the hat.

There was a welcome pledge from the FCA this week that it would strive to speed up enforcement action in future, despite the challenges. This is promising but I suspect it will be harder to achieve than they expect.

While we wait for the Budget and its threatened changes to pensions taxation with bated breath, it’s worth remembering that the public is beginning to accept that retirement, while not yet extinct as a notion, is not quite what it was.

I hope you are enjoying your penny off a pint of beer, as proclaimed in the Budget, possibly the most pathetic 'giveaway' announced in any Budget I can recall.

The FCA gave the broadest hint yet this week that it is ready to reform the Consumer Duty and cut out some of the unnecessary red tape.

I’m prompted to ask the question posed in the headline after reading several recent surveys suggesting that, given a choice, most people do their very best to avoid taking financial advice.

Financial Planners play a unique role in the lives of their clients. For clients losing their planner, at some point due to retirement or exit, can be a challenging, unsettling time.

I suspect there were some gasps this week when the Financial Services Compensation Scheme announced that its annual levy would fall by a whopping £150m from a predicted £415m to £265m for the 2024/25 funding year.