Hello.
I am a big fan of the TV show Frasier and look very dimly on anyone who isn’t. I tested myself based on a previous episode of Mastermind and performed well enough to be pleased with myself but not so good that I had to ask myself serious and existential questions.
I have spent the week thinking a bit about Walden, an odd piece of literature by the transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. It’s about a man romanticising his new life off grid, connecting with nature and all that lovely stuff.
Separately but relatedly, I read the market moving piece about the worst-case economic scenario if the AI bear case continues (available below). Not for the first time, I imagined a life off grid as a sort of instinct to “touch grass”. Better hurry my mate up about those fishing lessons I keep asking him for.
Anyway, I first encountered Walden in an episode of Frasier, where our titular character, disturbed at his son’s technology addled-brain and who hasn’t read the book they were supposed to discuss together ends up dragging him out into the wilderness with his own dad in tow. I won’t spoil anything, but there is a bit of a realisation that there’s a complex web between intellectually romanticising nature, experiencing it and to what extent you can control any of that, and in neat sitcom fashion the situation is resolved within 22 minutes.
So, this idea of technological anxiety and a desire to run away has all happened before.
Perhaps AI will be an economic doomsday, perhaps not. It’s nice to have that thought of escape if it does, and maybe I’ll have had some fishing lessons by then. But sometimes you have to live and fight in the real world, and just take stock of what you can control and what you can’t.
The News:
LANG CAT & CLIENT MENTIONS
Gender experiences vary across advice profession – FTAdviser
Some of the discussion from Steve’s webinar last week with Empowered Women in Finance.
Source: FT Adviser
Adviser AI usage more than doubles in last year
Some AI findings from SOTAN.
Source: Professional Adviser
GBST appoints AI transformation lead to drive adoption
GBST has appointed Jai Swaminathan as AI transformation lead in a newly created role.
Source: Money Marketing
Noel Butwell: Trusts rise as planning complexity deepens | Money Marketing
The Aberdeen Adviser CEO talks about trusts and intergenerational planning.
Source: Money Marketing
Advisers search for more than 100,000 pension transfers via Origo
Stats relate to adviser searches on Origo’s Unipass transfer tracking portal in its first year.
Source: Professional Adviser
Guardian among the experts quoted.
Source: IFA Magazine
Financial firms risk missing a golden opportunity in targeted support
Ortec Finance’s Mark Glover sees targeted support as an opportunity.
Source: Professional Adviser
ADVISERS
‘Homegrown talent is the answer’: Why this Top 100 IFA has taken on an apprentice
I would rather Celtic football club was the one signaling the strong commitment to homegrown talent, but I’ll guess Celtic Financial Planning will have to do.
Source: Citywire NMA
PLATFORMS
FCA asks platforms on cash and transfers in data request
Platform and regulation crossover episode.
Source: Citywire NMA
PROTECTION
CIExpert set to launch annual research into UK protection market
The second edition of its annual research into the UK protection market is set for later this month.
Source: Money Marketing
INVESTING AND WEALTH MANAGERS
Paramount clinches Warner Bros deal after Netflix walks away
Drama at every turn.
Source: FT
REGULATION & POLICY
Joe Norburn: Consumer Duty and the next phase of advice regulation | Money Marketing
I’m a big fan of Consumer Duty being expressed as “the Duty”. It makes it sound like some cowboy going round exacting financial justice.
Source: Money Marketing
FCA selects four firms to test stablecoin innovation in its sandbox | Money Marketing
The FCA’s testing will primarily focus on stablecoin issuance. The four selected firms will look into stablecoin use, such as payments, wholesale settlement and crypto trading. Revolut is an interesting choice given it is still waiting for lending licences.
Source: Money Marketing
Football clubs may become FCA regulated under new deal
The new Independent Football Regulator has been set up by the football sector to improve governance in the professional game and is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport.
Source: Financial Planning Today
FCA fines influencers for issuing unauthorised financial promotions – FTAdviser
Forex scamming, how very 2020. Before digital tokens, crypto and ETFs really put the bro into bronance.
Source: FT Adviser
AJ Bell warns FCA pension transfer plans could delay consolidation
Pensions and regulation crossover episode. “This is a classic case of a solution looking for a problem,” CEO Michael Summersgill said.
Source: Money Marketing
AI
‘We got three leads from AI last month’
A practical guide to becoming more discoverable on AI.
Source: Citywire NMA
Good paraplanners make AI ‘work with us rather than against us’ – FTAdviser
Reminiscent of SOTAN findings also.
Source: FT Adviser
Adviser leaves Sense network to charge flat fees and use AI more
Ian Else has become directly authorised so that he can drop percentage charges and make use of changes in technology to spend more time with clients.
Source: Citywire NMA
A doomsday love in. If you want to brave the original article it is here. I suppose we’ll see come 2028.
Source: The Guardian; Citrini Research
TECHNOLOGY
Tech firm tackles integration ‘pain point’ – FTAdviser
A lack of integration between technology continues to be referenced as a major pain point, according to ZeroKey CEO Joseph Williams.
Source: FT Adviser
Exclusive: FNZ offers staff ‘voluntary departure programme’
Source: Citywire NMA
PENSIONS & RETIREMENT
Steven Levin: Pensions policy cannot keep being used as political theatre | Money Marketing
The Quilter boss looks to depoliticise pensions and advocates for an independent standing commission.
Source: Money Marketing
Carers face retirement shortfall due to financial strain | Money Marketing
More than a third of unpaid carers aged 45–75 expect to be poorer in retirement because of their caring responsibilities, research from Just Group has found.
Source: Money Marketing
TRADE & ECONOMY
Jobs may be a particularly unruly thorn in this government’s backside.
Source: The Guardian
Reeves aims to reassure business with ‘boring’ Spring Statement
If there’s anything business loves more than money it is boring.
Source: FT
Energy bills to fall in April in price cap change and charges shake-up – BBC News
Rare improving cost of living conditions.
Source: BBC News
CRAZY CAT STORIES
Beloved Metro cat snatched by woman at train station found safe | News UK | Metro News
A station cat, known for lying on copies of the Metro, was stolen from his perch by a woman who stuffed him into her shopping bag.
Source: The Metro
OUTSIDE THE TRADE
you also need the stuffed monkey – by Adam Aleksic
Fascinating wee essay on Punch the viral monkey.
Source: Adam Aleksic Substack
Doom Bar maker Sharp’s Brewery in Cornwall to be closed by US owner | Beer | The Guardian
Boos from the Campaign for Real Ale.
Source: The Guardian
Sean McKinven is PR account executive at the lang cat
