This is my final column for Financial Planning Today as I'm aiming to reduce my workload. With this in mind, Financial Planning Today editor Kevin O'Donnell asked me to do one final article so here it is.

As I promised a little while ago, this is my promised: ‘What do we do much better than before’ article. Instead of a very long list (which it would be), I want to focus on four connected and fundamental things.

As a child who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, I feel vaguely cheated. Between Tomorrows' World, Blue Peter and Magpie, I definitely feel we were promised individual jetpacks by now. But somehow that has not happened.

We have had a few ‘interesting’ interactions with clients and providers this week. One client is struggling with their bank. In essence, they have banked with them for over 50 years, and have always had a ‘personal banker’. They used to be called bank managers….

I’ve had a few wake up calls recently that have reminded me that I am now officially too old to die young. 

We have had an interesting interaction with a very old fashioned provider this week. Our client had discovered that they had a couple of Child Trust Funds with this provider but were struggling to get any information. 

I was lucky enough to be in Exeter recently and saw the impressive and moving mural commissioned by the Exeter Kindness project. You can view it here:  

https://exeterkindness.co.uk/

I read a slightly odd and very worrying article on the social media platform Twitter / X the other day. Some of you may have seen it…

Before starting this month's column, I wanted to list all the providers and consultancies who have contacted me in relation to the challenges I set out in my column last month for Financial Planning Today: 'The glaring missing link in much fintech'.

We are often told that the only certainties in life are death and taxes. While that may be true, you cannot easily discern that truth from the policies and actions of many product providers.

Here's a question for you: What do Equitable Life, Key Data, Shepherds and Arch Cru have in common?