Amid all the gloomy news this week there was a chink of light for Financial Planners, at least on the potential new business front.

I’m not a fan of crypto investing. It’s possibly one of the nastiest and least useful new investment sectors of the last 10 years, if you can call it an investment sector.

There is mounting evidence that vulnerable clients have been left even worse off by the Coronavirus pandemic and the soaring cost of living.

[Content warning - this article contains references to suicide and self harm. Please see footnote]

Most weeks, to be fair nearly every week, we run stories on Financial Planning Today about scammers or financial crooks who have cheated clients out of all or part of their savings.

The true cost of bad advice, and more importantly what it’s going to cost, moved into the spotlight this week with the FCA’s headline-making proposals to compel most financial advice firms, some 5,000, to set aside reserves for the cost of bad advice.

Boundaries are essential for all sorts of good reasons. They make things clear to everyone involved what’s the right side of the line and what’s not. Blurred lines are best avoided.

Perhaps not surprisingly the Association of British Insurers has concluded, after carrying out an advice experiment, that personalised guidance really can work.

For my last column of 2023, rather than give you my eagerly-awaited insights into the latest developments in the Financial Planning profession and financial services, I thought it would be useful to look at other worthwhile things that Financial Planners do when they are not providing financial advice.

Financial Planning Week, the CISI’s annual consumer-focused campaign to promote the benefits of professional financial advice, kicks off on Monday.

I have some bad news for the Chancellor. The financial services sector, one of the great hopes of the government in terms of jobs and economic revival, is shrinking.