In this regular column for Financial Planning Today, our new columnist Carly Dunningham, chair of the CISI's Financial Planning Forum, shares some personal reflections on how planners can help clients coping with grief.

As Financial Planners, we play a vital role in our clients' lives, helping them navigate complex decisions.

Our profession demands clarity, focus and a deep commitment to addressing each client’s unique needs.

However, life can throw challenges our way too, and bereavement is one of the most profound. Balancing grief with being at your best for your clients can be incredibly challenging.

This is something I experienced first-hand following the loss of my mum this year. It has been a deeply upsetting time for me and my family, bringing a wave of complex emotions that have affected my focus, energy and ability to be present with others.

Grief is not something you can compartmentalise, and learning how to navigate these feelings has been essential for my personal and professional life.

Grief affects everyone differently. It can cloud judgment, sap energy, and disrupt focus - qualities critical to a Financial Planner’s role. Acknowledging and understanding these impacts is the first step to managing them effectively.

Being open with colleagues and management can also foster support.

While the instinct to "push through" might be strong, delegating tasks or adjusting workloads can help you meet client expectations without overwhelming yourself. These adjustments are not a weakness but a practical approach to maintaining professionalism.

Interestingly, personal grief can deepen empathy and strengthen connections with clients, especially those dealing with sensitive issues.

This is certainly something I have found and by navigating my own challenges, I feel I’ve become more compassionate towards others and better equipped to support them.

Carly Dunningham is a Chartered and Certified Financial Planner. She is the new Chair of the CISI Financial Planning Forum.

https://www.cisi.org

• This column first appeared in Financial Planning Today magazine, Jan-Feb 2025 edition. Carly's column appears in each issue of the magazine. You can subscribe to the magazine by registering for this website and then checking package options.

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. 

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.

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.

Consolidation is an interesting word and it’s probably something very much on the mind of many Financial Planners and financial advisory firms as the M&A wave continues.

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.

News this week that life expectancy in most of the UK has fallen for the last couple of years has raised a few eyebrows and also got me thinking about the impact of this on all sorts of major financial services challenges, the State Pension being one.

In this Guest Column for Financial Planning Today, Ilana Miller, investment lead, distribution at Royal London, looks at some potential answers to the advice gap.