Regulatory Information & Consumer Protection

All content on this website is provided for informational and educational purposes only.

It reflects the views and experience of individual contributors, drawn from research, observation, and professional practice.

​

Website content does not constitute FCA-regulated investment advice, legal advice, tax advice or accounting advice unless a separate engagement expressly states otherwise and the person providing that service is appropriately qualified and authorised where required.

We take reasonable care in preparing website content, but general educational material may not reflect your individual circumstances and may become outdated.

You should verify material that is important to a significant financial, legal or tax decision and obtain appropriate professional advice where necessary.

Nothing on this website excludes or limits liability where it would be unlawful to do so.

Use of the site is entirely at your own discretion and risk.

We do not guarantee that content will be kept up to date and accept no responsibility for third-party material accessed via links or references.

Financial planning is not automatically FCA-regulated investment advice.

Under FCA PERG 8.26, advice for the purposes of Article 53(1) must concern a particular investment. The FCA expressly gives “financial planning” as an example of generic advice that may fall outside that regulated activity.

The Academy does not recommend that clients buy, sell, hold or otherwise act in relation to particular regulated investments. We do not arrange regulated investment transactions or receive remuneration from investment products or assets under management.

The regulatory boundary depends on what is actually done in practice, not on the label applied to a service. Where a matter requires FCA-regulated advice or implementation, the client should use an appropriately authorised firm.

The Academy does not provide regulated pension transfer advice or a personal recommendation to transfer, convert or retain safeguarded pension benefits.

We may help clients understand pension terminology, scheme benefits, guarantees, risks, trade-offs and questions they may wish to explore.

Where regulated pension transfer advice is legally required or otherwise appropriate, the client must obtain that advice from an appropriately authorised pension transfer specialist.

The Academy does not:

• Provide advice on specific investments

• Arrange or bring about regulated transactions

• Make arrangements with a view to investment business

• Issue or transmit dematerialised investment instructions

• Advise on the liquidation of debt

Generic financial advice is specifically excluded from regulated activities.

This position is supported by the FCA’s Perimeter Guidance:

PERG 8.26 — Generic Financial Advice

Academy services are subject to applicable UK consumer law.

The Competition and Markets Authority is one of the public bodies responsible for enforcing consumer law. Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, the CMA has direct enforcement powers in relation to certain consumer-law breaches.

The CMA is not an ombudsman for individual complaints and does not provide the same function as the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Individual clients retain their contractual and statutory consumer rights, including rights relating to reasonable care and skill, misleading practices and other applicable remedies.

Our planning services are designed as stand-alone professional services.

If you require financial products:

• These may be sourced directly from the market, or

• Via regulated intermediaries

If you are seeking a personal recommendation for an investment product, you should consult an FCA-authorised adviser.

If you are dissatisfied with an Academy service, please raise the matter with us first using our published complaints procedure.

We will investigate complaints fairly and respond within the timescales stated in that procedure.

Academy financial-planning services described on this page are not FCA-regulated investment advice and complaints about those services are not generally within the jurisdiction of the Financial Ombudsman Service or Financial Services Compensation Scheme merely because they concern financial planning.

Clients may nevertheless have rights under contract, consumer law and the general law, including rights relating to services not performed with reasonable care and skill.

Depending on the circumstances, external routes may include Trading Standards, applicable alternative dispute-resolution arrangements, professional bodies or the civil courts.

Details of our professional indemnity insurance and complaints process are available on request.

The Academy’s complaints and consumer-protection arrangements do not depend on any campaign group, professional network or external organisation with which Stephen Conley may separately be associated.

Complaints about Academy services are handled under the Academy’s published Complaints Procedure. Where a complaint concerns Stephen personally, or where he has been directly involved in the matter complained of, an independent person may be asked to review the complaint or proposed outcome where reasonably practicable.

Any external organisation with which Stephen is associated remains responsible for managing its own conflicts of interest. Stephen would not expect to participate in the handling of a matter by another organisation where he had a material conflict.

Academy clients remain free to obtain independent legal advice, consumer assistance or other professional support at any time.

We sell plans, not products.

The Academy of Life Planning Limited is a UK service-sector trading company.

• Registered in England & Wales: 08016568

• Registered Office:
  9 Franklin Way, Spilsby, Lincolnshire, PE23 5GG, United Kingdom

• Registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

• ICO Reference: ZA502687

For further information, please refer to our Terms and Conditions.

If you have any questions or require clarification, you are welcome to contact us.