Our guest on this episode is George Kinder. Internationally recognised as the father of the life planning movement, it’s fair to say that George has helped to revolutionise the financial advice profession.

He founded the Kinder Institute of Life Planning in 2003 after three decades as a practising financial planner. He has trained more than 3,000 professionals in 30 countries in the field of financial life planning.

In this episode, Robin Powell speaks to George Kinder about Reflections on Spectacle Pond, which is a collection of George’s poetry, photographs and his thoughts on life, nature, mindfulness and spirituality.

Robin Powell's guest on this episode is Sam Adams. Sam spent 17 years with Dimensional Fund Advisors — and much of that time in London, where he set up DFA’s European operation.

In 2014 he founded Vert Asset Management in California.

Vert designs and builds sustainable portfolios, educates investors and financial advisers about ESG investing, and helps advice firms to engage with clients and prospects about sustainability and values-based advice.

Sam and Robin discuss the growth of ESG investing on both sides of the Atlantic, how to combine ESG with an evidence-based approach, and how advice firms can best integrate sustainability into their value proposition.

Wherever your firm is on this particular journey, you’ll find what Sam has to say on this subject both interesting and useful.

Our guest on this episode is Rohan Sivajoti. Rohan is one of the movers and shakers in UK financial advice. He founded the financial planning firm Postcard Planning, and is also one of the founders of NextGen Planners — a community for best practice in the profession.

Whether you’re just starting out or you’re looking to take your firm to the next level, there’s something in this interview for everyone.

We also tackle one of the profession’s elephants in the room: Why, in 2021, is financial planning still dominated by white, middle aged-men?

Alan Smith, co-founder of Capital Asset Management in London, talks about how he and his business partner Donald Fraser built the firm into the success it is today. He also discusses the UK's changing advice landscape and why his firm charges fixed fees.

Over a 20 year career in the retail financial services profession, financial planner Martin Bamford found that he was enjoying the marketing side of his business more and more. So, he launched his own agency, Bamford Media, in 2017.

Now a prolific personal finance writer and commentator, he has received multiple awards for his work, including Best Blogger of the Year and Best Social Media Adviser.

In this podcast, Martin tells us what's most important for an adviser to get right when it comes to their website, and what kinds of content have been most effective during the Coronavirus crisis.

Faith Liversedge has been helping financial advice firms to clarify their message and connect with their clients since she set up on her own agency last year. Before that, Faith spent 15 years in marketing working at Nucleus, Royal London, Prudential, and Standard Life.

In this podcast, Faith explains the importance of advisers telling their brand story effectively, something that sadly, far to few advisers are doing.

Although Faith concedes that producing content and marketing your own firm well has its challenges, she believes that it's still something that's within the reach of every adviser.

Barry LaValley is a consultant to financial advice firms around the world. In this interview he explains how the advice profession is woefully unprepared for the demographic trends expected over the next 20 or 30 years.

By 2045, the Office for National Statistics predicts that nearly a quarter of the UK population will be over the age of 65. It's a similar situation in other Western Countries.

Advice firms need to prepare themselves for people spending longer in retirement, says Barry, and they need to feel more comfortable addressing sensitive issues such as dementia and end-of-life care.

Robin Powell interviews Anthony Morrow, CEO of OpenMoney, an online investment provider based in Manchester.

OpenMoney, which has the financial backing of Duncan Cameron, co-founder of the comparison site Moneysupermarket.com, doesn’t just offer investment solutions for people across the UK, but also financial advice.

Anthony explains why, in his view, the term robo-adviser is a misnomer, and why robo firms need to offer more than they do in order to be successful.

In this in-depth interview, Carolyn Gowen, Branch Principal at the London-based financial planning firm Bloomsbury Wealth, explains how she became converted to an evidence-based investment approach, and why financial education is a key component of what an advice firm should be doing.

She also gives her thoughts on how the financial advice profession in the UK is developing and the changes she expects to see in the future. One of the biggest changes over the next ten years, she says, will be the rise of social media as the biggest source of new clients for firms.

Robin Powell interviews Harry Chemay, co-founder of Clover, a robo-adviser based in Melbourne, Australia.

Harry talks about his career in that financial industry and how he came to realise that traditional asset management and financial advice were failing consumers.

Harry says: “The investor takes the risk, the investor puts all the money down, and the investor should get the lion’s share of the return from the market. But it just doesn’t happen. I thought there’s something fundamentally wrong here.”

Harry talks about robo-advice and how it will never replace face-to-face advice from a good adviser. He also discusses the shocking revelations that came out of the Royal Commission into Australian financial services.