[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.

There were no doubt a few rolled eyes recently at our story reporting that over half of adults do not trust financial advisers.

One of the things that has always puzzled and dismayed me about the miserable London Capital & Financial (LCF) debacle is: where were the whistleblowers?

There is little doubt that in 2018 the FCA’s call centre was in a mess. Demoralised, poorly trained staff were inundated with a barrage of calls from consumers, some of them angry and abusive, even racist and homophobic.