Panacea Adviser

The US continues to outpace other major economies, driven largely by massive capital expenditure in AI and solid consumer demand The AI capex boom has led to dramatic gains and subsequent technical corrections in technology hardware and semiconductor stocks, particularly in Korea Europe’s performance lags the US while Japan shows a supportive macroeconomic backdrop with strong earnings, though it remains sensitive to potential strengthening of the yen By Daniel Morris, Chief Market Strategist...

Overview: The financial planning profession stands at a defining crossroads. An expanding advice gap, rapid AI advancement, and persistent talent challenges have converged into a single question of relevance and trust. At the 3rd FISRI Conference, we move beyond technical competence to address the rising expectations of modern clients. The firms that will endure are those that integrate technical precision with behavioural intelligence and digital fluency into a human-centred model.

Address Convene, 155 Bishopsgate Overview: Our Autumn Roadshow will explore how advisers can help clients feel secure in the present while giving them greater confidence in what the future holds. Sessions will include a practical deep dive into protection, accumulation strategies, managing investment risk, and using cashflow modelling to support informed, long-term decision-making.

The number of firms giving retail investment advice has fallen 15% since 2022, but adviser numbers have barely moved. The market is not shrinking, it is concentrating, and three forces are driving it. Each year, the FCA’s retail intermediary market data, drawn from the annual RMAR return every intermediary firm must file, gives the clearest read on the shape of the market, and this year’s numbers continue a familiar trend.

Address De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms, London, WC2B 5DA Overview: Following a successful launch last year, The Business of Advice returns for 2026, with an even sharper focus on sharing practical advice which focuses firmly on the realities of running a financial planning firm.

Have you ever had a perfectly good opportunity slip through your fingers? Someone you could have helped, but it never quite went over the line. A prospective client who seemed interested, engaged, and positive, only to disappear. A relationship that showed promise but somehow fizzled out. If you conduct a simple inventory of the past year, you’ll probably find several examples. I know I can.

According to Vanguard research, 94% of clients say trust in their adviser is critical to their overall satisfaction. Just recently I ran a webinar, ‘The part of financial planning no qualification can teach you’, and I asked a simple question: “In your client relationships, on a scale of 1 to 10, how important is trust?” Every answer was 10 (or above!). At first glance, this isn’t particularly surprising. Most advisers would agree that trust is important.

Every financial planner is familiar with the fact find. Its purpose seems obvious enough: know your client. Before giving financial advice, you need to understand their circumstances, aims, assets, liabilities, income, expenditure, attitude to risk, and everything else that enables you to give proper recommendations. It is also an important part of meeting your regulatory responsibilities. So far, so good. But I wonder whether we’ve underestimated what the fact find can really become.

18th August 2026 There's more to 'value' investing than valuations Semantics matter. Words carry associations that can't always be neatly translated into a different cultural context. First impressions often determine whether investors are prepared to allocate money to an investment strategy. Read more Investments