A story we’ve run this week has made me think again about people’s use of AI, particularly when it comes to asking financial questions.

There’s nothing that quite beats getting out of the office to meet real Financial Planning professionals and to test the pulse of the profession and I was grateful I managed to achieve that this week at the PFS Awards held in London.

The decision by the new PM to scrap the pensions Triple Lock in its current form is potentially a political master-stroke. For those relying on the State Pension, however, it’s less good news.

Do you know, amid all the doom and gloom these days, the Financial Planning profession seems to be in remarkably robust health, in contrast to some other parts of the economy.

It’s ironic that many pension savers will spend most of their working lives trying to build up a pension pot and then, increasingly, spend a large chunk of their retirement trying to beat off fraudsters, scammers and crooks trying to take it from them.

Over the last few years we’ve run many survey-type stories highlighting that women are often the poor relations when it comes to saving and investing. They often fare worse on pension saving, lack confidence in investing and have less set aside.

The soaring amount the government is raking in from investors was brought home in stark terms this week with new figures on the amount raised by Capital Gains Tax alone.

Not for the first time, we’ve run a story about the dismal state of many adults' personal finances and lack of saving - but the question is what to do about it and why does it happen?

A new report about pensions and housing wealth thinking, or lack of it, has got me considering how we plan for later life financial challenges and the importance of fully comprehensive holistic Financial Planning.

There has been huge coverage of IHT and the fact that unused pensions will be subject to inheritance tax from April next year - unless our new Chancellor steps in and waters down or axes this deeply unpopular new burden, as he should.

The latest FCA Retail Mediation Report for 2025 makes for interesting if conflicting reading. It shows the retail investment sector is mostly in robust health financially except there’s a problem - the number of advisers is declining, significantly.

Most successful Financial Planners that I’ve come across work mainly with an older client base - people in their fifties and sixties - and naturally so, as they are often the ones who have built up considerable wealth and assets over their lifetimes.

I am glad former Pensions Minister Baroness Ros Altmann has warned of the potentially huge damage to pension planning a new government move on State Pension Age, literally slipped in to an OBR report, could cause.

They say the only things certain in life are death and taxes. What they never said was that one day the vast majority of UK workers would end up paying higher rate 40% income tax on their earnings, a levy almost unimaginable a few years ago.

One Labour MP has come up with an idea for early access to State Pensions for the under-40s which some have labelled as crazy. But is it really that off the wall?

There’s been much talk of late about AI (artificial intelligence) and its potentially huge impact on financial services and Financial Planning.

It’s been an interesting week in politics, and some will be pleased at the outcome, but it's not been such a good week for ISAs. Far from it, in fact.

Many years ago BT ran an ad campaign with the tagline: ‘It’s good to talk.’ Older readers may remember it.

I was heartened this week by the efforts of Welsh Financial Planning firm Celtic Financial Planning to both help improve children’s financial literacy and support local charities.

ISAs have been one of the most successful parts of the government’s strategy to encourage saving for several decades now so, of course, it is a perfect time to destroy them (sarcasm intended).