Changes in financial planning don’t always arrive with a bang.
Sometimes they come quietly, over time, almost unnoticed – unlike something externally imposed, such as Consumer Duty.
For decades, financial planning has largely been positioned as a technical profession: expertise, products, markets, and performance.
Those things still matter. But on their own, they’re no longer enough. Something subtler is happening. Not all at once. Not for everyone. But enough that it’s shifting the profession.
Here are seven ways the role of a financial planner is quietly evolving.
1. It’s no longer about the money. It’s about the life.
Clients don’t ultimately want a pension, an investment portfolio, or a cashflow model. They want:
- Peace of mind
- Freedom of choice
- Confidence about the future
- Less anxiety and fewer regrets
Money is simply the tool. Increasingly, financial plans are judged not by technical elegance, but by how well they
support a client’s desired life.
2. Attention is shifting from the external world to the internal one
Traditionally, advice has focused on the external: goals, strategies, plans, and products. Yet a client’s experience of money is always internal.
It’s shaped by how they think about it, feel about it, and perceive their circumstances.
Increasingly, the work is less about managing what happens out there and more about helping people navigate what’s happening within them.
When clients feel clearer, calmer, and more grounded, better decisions and choices tend to follow.
3. Advising is beginning to blend with coaching
There was a time when being a good financial planner meant having the right answers. Now, it often means creating the right space.
Space for clients to think. Space to express their thoughts and make sense of them. Space for insight and clarity to emerge.
This isn’t about abandoning expertise. It’s about recognising that lasting clarity is rarely delivered – it’s discovered, through conversation.
4. Technology is removing routine work and that’s an opportunity
AI and automation are steadily taking over the predictable elements of the role:
- Analysis
- Plan construction
- Administration
What remains is the human work. Meaningful conversations, building relationships, and helping clients manage change.
5. Location matters less than connection
Clients no longer need a planner who is geographically close. Platforms like Zoom and Teams have taken care of that.
What they need is someone who gets them. Someone they can think clearly with. Someone they trust when life feels uncertain.
Quietly, the quality of connection is becoming more important than proximity.
6. The so-called “soft skills” are moving to the foreground
Connection. Empathy. Listening. Questions that open rather than close. A calm, reassuring presence.
These qualities were always important. Now they’re becoming central. Not as techniques to deploy, but as natural
7. Planning is increasingly about navigating life transitions, not just finances
Many of the moments that matter most to clients are far bigger than the money itself. They are moments of change:
- Retirement
- Divorce
- Inheritance
- Illness
- Career change
- Selling a business
- Loss
In these moments, a planner’s presence often matters more than their technical expertise. The ability to sit with uncertainty – without rushing to fix or resolve it – is becoming a quiet but profound part of the role.
A different kind of preparation
Preparing for this future isn’t mainly about learning a new set of techniques or adding another qualification.
It’s about understanding how the human mind really works — especially under uncertainty, pressure and change.
From this understanding, human skills are an emergent property, not another subject to learn and pass an exam on.
PS. What are great clients really paying for? Click here.
