All too often, our profession deserves its reputation as the home of grey men wearing navy blue suits. Go along to more or less any conference, seminar or professional body event and you are confronted by a lack of diversity along with the absence of anything especially exciting or progressive.

I’ve been getting through an awful lot of printer ink recently. With our friends in Canary Wharf embarking on a publication spree this summer, the latest 114 pages to roll off my trusty HP LaserJet finished off yet another cartridge.

When I first became a Financial Planner in 2002, professional development was fairly straightforward. I would pick the most interesting sounding product provider seminars, turn up at a couple of these each month, and that would be enough to satisfy my continuing professional development needs. How things have changed.

Five years ago today, I launched an online petition calling for fairer funding of the FSCS.