I don’t think I was the only one a little surprised by the Chancellor’s decision this week to order a significant review of at least part of the Consumer Duty, which was only fully introduced in 2023.

I attended the launch in central London this week of the Personal Finance Society’s £1m drive to find new blood for the profession and tackle the worrying long-term decline in new entrants. It was a sobering morning.

Back in 2002 Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defence, coined a phrase which has been repeated a million times since but I’m increasingly wondering whether it could be applied to UK pensions and ultimately financial advice (or rather lack of it).

The sheer scale of the financial scams and cons facing the UK came home to me this week with the publication of the FCA’s latest report on the many suspect financial promotions it had tackled over the past year.

Nothing sums up Britain’s rising claims culture than the astonishing figures published by the Financial Ombudsman Service this week.

Our annual Financial Planning Today survey is under way and the early findings are already revealing some surprising findings, including the depth of confidence in the profession despite the economic headwinds and concerns about the rising cost of regulation.

Financial Planners, of course, concentrate on the better off. They need to focus on people able and willing to pay their fees and that’s perfectly reasonable, indeed it's a business requirement.

A new offering from wealth manager and Financial Planner Foster Denovo caught my eye this week as one possible pointer to the promised ‘financial guidance’ future.

Today the FCA announced it was spearheading a global crackdown on rogue social media influencers. About time many will say.

One of the big Financial Planning stories of the week was the merger announced of two of the more significant players in the wealth management / Financial Planning space: Mattioli Woods and Kingswood.

I have to confess that I am in two minds on the rapid spread of AI into regulation, despite assurances from the FCA that it will help cut down on admin and generally be a boon.

The reappointment of FCA CEO Nikhil Rathi this week for a further five year term was a surprise to some who expected a new face at the helm of the UK’s leading financial regulator.

Truth be told, it’s been a bit of a tempestuous week on the old financial markets thanks to a certain Mr Trump.

There is a major force reshaping pensions and it is unstoppable, it’s called demographics and it will require the pensions industry to rethink everything it does.

It’s a shame to admit it, but fear is clearly driving demand for Financial Planning advice in some quarters.

The FCA is clearly inching its way towards breaking down the boundary between advice and guidance with the aim of giving more ’targeted support’, as it calls it, to millions of pension savers.

Financial Planning continues to evolve and it’s clear that due to a number of pressures - and opportunities - many planners are shifting their focus to more upmarket clients with bigger portfolios.

I suspect many in the regulatory community never expected to be readying to throw some of their carefully-crafted rules on a bonfire of red tape to boost business growth, but that’s exactly what they are being asked to do by the government which this week stepped up its efforts to demand regulatory reform to promote business expansion.

I’ve always believed that we should look after the wealth creators; the entrepreneurs, the business starters, the self employed, the pioneers, the creative people who spot a market opportunity, the professionals who launch new services and start-ups.

FCA bashing is something of a sport in the trade press, and we’ve certainly levelled criticism at the regulator ourselves, so it was pleasing this week to have a good reason to portray the FCA as the hero rather than the villain.