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Three retirement planning mistakes destroy wealth you'll never use. Nobel Prize winner Richard Thaler explains the defective telescope effect.

Confirmation bias in financial advice can lead people to seek validation rather than objective guidance. New research shows investors often choose advisers who confirm their preferences, boosting confidence but not decision quality. Recognising this bias helps protect long-term outcomes and highlights the value of evidence-based, objective advice.

Retirement is an outdated concept. More and more people are finding that working later in life can boost health, purpose and income.

There may be some disagreement on the true extent of it, but the UK, like most other western countries, is in the grip of a mental health crisis. Health Secretary Wes Streeting has described it as an “epidemic”. Several interventions have been shown to improve mental health, particularly mindfulness and cognitive behavioural therapy. But there’s one approach that, in my view, deserves far more attention than it’s given, and that’s financial planning. Survey after survey shows

The reason why so many people receive poor financial advice is the same reason why so many of us overpay for car repairs. Simply put, we lack the basic knowledge to distinguish good advice from bad. A phrase we keep reading is the “advice gap”. And I get it. It’s a big problem I’ve written about many times. Only a tiny fraction of the UK population receives financial advice. The Retail Distribution Review, for all the good it has done, has only widened the gap further, as

When you read a book like How to Fund the Life You Want, or Mark Hebner's Index Funds: The 12-Step Program for Active Investors, it can be tempting to try to manage your investments on your own. But is it a good idea? True, Index Funds is an extraordinary book. It equips you with all the information you need on the best way to invest. But it's one thing to have the knowledge you require, and quite another to put that knowledge into practice on an ongoing basis. The main rea

There are a number of factors that hold women back when trying to invest. As King's College London academic Dr. YLVA BAECKSTRÖM discusses in this video, these range from confidence issues all the way to systemic inequalities within the financial system. TRANSCRIPT Robin Powell: This might seem strange, but arguably the biggest risk that investors face is not taking enough risk. To build a sufficiently large retirement pot, you need to invest in equities. But the data show tha

When people look back, in decades to come, at the history of financial advice, I really do believe they will view the last few days as a turning point. On the face of it, the fact that St James's Place is scrapping exit charges is hardly earth shattering. For a start, it won’t happen for another two years, and the firm has also announced an in its ongoing advice charges. But what has become very clear to me in recent days is that things are finally about to change. Where SJP

Robin writes: I believe in financial planning for everyone. Currently, only a small percentage of UK adults have a financial plan, or a financial planner they can turn to when they need assistance. I want to change that. In my view, we should all have a plan, and access to a professional planner, regardless of our wealth or circumstances. Why do so few people have a financial plan? Why, then, don't more people have a financial plan in place? Well, it’s complicated. But the fi

Robin writes: I can’t think of any profession that is more misunderstood than financial planning. So what exactly is it? Why is it worth paying for? And how do you find the right financial planner for you? We address all of these questions in the latest episode of The Investing Show with the help of Helena Wardle, herself a financial planner and also an author entrepreneur. The Investing Show is sponsored by Timeline. You’ll find more videos like this on the Investing Sho

By ROBIN POWELL Financial advisers and consumers are on a steep learning curve. The advice profession is changing beyond all recognition. But can financial regulators keep up? It’s just not the very wealthy who need good financial advice; everyone does. The UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, should therefore be applauded for trying to give a wider cross-section of the population access to it. The problem is, it’s chosen a very strange way to go about it. The FCA r

Robin writes: For many people, paying an evidence-based adviser to manage their investable assets makes perfect sense. But, let's be honest, many don’t need it, and many more either can’t afford that type of financial advice or at least would struggle to justify the expense. The good news is that, in both Britain and the United States, dawn is breaking on an exciting new era for advisers and consumers. It's an era in which it won't be just the wealthiest in society who enjoy

Amid market volatility and an accelerating transfer of intergenerational wealth, the need for sound financial advice has arguably never been greater. But Australia has been fighting a mass exodus of advisers from the profession. Now, at last, there is hope of a reversal. As one of the world’s most wealthy and developed economies, Australia has never been short of resources. It is one of the world’s top five producers of most of the globe’s key mineral commodities. And, accord

By ROBIN POWELL Over recent weeks we’ve been featuring How to Invest, a new documentary series produced by Regis Media. It was commissioned by Wealth Matters, an evidence-based financial planning firm based in the Home Counties of England. In the sixth and final video in the series we look at the value of financial advice. Do you really want to do it? I’m asked about this all the time. Do I really need an adviser? Or can I do it myself? My answer is that it depends. Yes, you

This article by ROBIN POWELL was originally published by the Suitable Advice Institute. It’s easy to let our hearts rule our heads when discussing Neil Woodford. According to a new book, Woodford and his business partner extracted £11.5 million from his failed investment empire, and continued to charge fees even when his funds were suspended. Many of his investors lost life-changing sums of money. Now he’s issued a semi-apology and is in the process of setting up a new invest