The latest FCA Retail Mediation Report for 2025 makes for interesting if conflicting reading. It shows the retail investment sector is mostly in robust health financially except there’s a problem - the number of advisers is declining, significantly.

In just a few weeks the FCA’s much-heralded Targeted Support changes will arrive (on 6 April) and the advice world will change for the better - at least everyone hopes it does, because nothing is certain.

I attended the CISI Financial Planning Conference in Windsor this week and I can report that, despite all the challenges, the mood, or the vibe as many call it these days, was a good one.

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

To delete or not delete (emails) - that is the thorny question the FCA has had to face and a move which forced one of its senior execs to defends its email deletion plans this week.

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.