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Academy Membership
Practical tools, independent support and a community committed to restoring human agency
Join the Academy of Life Planning and gain access to practical tools, community support, independent expertise and the latest thinking on restoring human agency in financial planning.
Academy Membership is open to anyone interested in the Academy in a personal or professional capacity.
You may be seeking greater clarity and confidence in your own financial life. You may be a planner, coach, educator or practitioner exploring a more human-centred approach. Or you may simply believe that good financial planning should strengthen people’s capability rather than create dependency.
Choose flexible monthly membership or save with annual membership.
£24 per month or £245 per year
One membership. Two ways to use it.
Personal
membership
Use the Academy’s tools, resources and support to better understand your financial life, explore important decisions and know where to turn when something does not feel right.
Personal members can use the Academy to:
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Academy OS Access & Support Desk
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organise important financial and life information
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understand unfamiliar financial concepts
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prepare for decisions and professional conversations
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ask short questions as they arise
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obtain reassurance before taking action
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identify potential problems before they become difficult to reverse
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develop greater confidence and independence over time
The purpose is not to turn everyone into a financial expert.
It is to help you become a more capable participant in decisions that affect your life.
Professional membership
Use the Academy’s frameworks, tools and community to develop a practice that places life before money and agency before advice.
Professional members can use the Academy to:
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Academy OS Access & Support Desk
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explore Total Wealth Planning™ principles and methods
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apply Academy frameworks in their own work
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access business-planning templates and practitioner resources
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learn from other planners, coaches and practitioners
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develop new propositions, services and tools
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keep up with emerging thinking on AI, financial capability and human agency
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contribute to a growing public-interest movement
Professional membership does not itself confer accreditation or permission to use protected professional designations. Separate development and accreditation pathways are available for practitioners who wish to take their involvement further.
What is included
01
Full access to Academy OS
Academy OS brings together practical tools, frameworks and resources for thinking clearly about financial and life decisions.
It can be used personally to understand your own circumstances or professionally to support better planning conversations and capability-building.
02
AI Life Planner
Use the AI Life Planner to explore questions, clarify priorities, understand options and turn uncertainty into practical next steps.
It can help you:
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think through an important decision
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prepare questions for an adviser or provider
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understand unfamiliar language
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explore possible consequences
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identify gaps in your knowledge
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organise your next actions
The AI Life Planner is designed to support thinking, not replace judgement.
03
Financial Activation Measure
The Financial Activation Measure helps you assess how confident, informed and capable you currently feel when making financial decisions.
It focuses on agency rather than wealth.
Personal members can use it to identify areas for development. Professional members can use the underlying framework to better understand the difference between informed participation and passive dependency.
04
My Life Record
My Life Record helps you organise the information that matters across your financial and wider life.
Create a clearer picture of your circumstances, preserve important knowledge and reduce the fragmentation that often makes decisions harder than they need to be.
Private WhatsApp community
Academy Membership includes access to the private Academy of Life Planning community on WhatsApp.
The community brings together personal members, planners, practitioners and supporters who share an interest in better decisions, greater capability and more human-centred financial planning.
Short-question community support
Ask focused questions, share experiences and benefit from the collective knowledge of the Academy community.
Topic-based member groups
Join conversations around particular interests without having to follow every discussion.
Groups may cover areas such as:
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personal financial capability
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retirement and later life
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business and professional development
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AI and financial planning
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life planning and well-being
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consumer protection and financial harm
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Total Wealth Planning™ practice
The aim is to create useful conversation, not another source of noise.
Unlimited email Q&A support
Members can submit short questions by email whenever they need clarification, general guidance or an independent perspective.
This may include:
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understanding a financial document or term
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preparing for a meeting or conversation
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exploring the implications of a decision
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checking whether your understanding appears reasonable
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identifying issues that may require closer attention
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discussing how an Academy framework could be applied personally or professionally
Where a question requires substantial research, detailed analysis or personalised planning work, we will explain the appropriate next step before any additional cost is incurred.
Independent support when something does not feel right
Financial difficulty often begins with a feeling that something is unclear, rushed or inconsistent.
Members can seek an independent perspective before making an important decision or when they are concerned about something they have been told.
Membership includes:
Independent second opinions
Receive an impartial perspective on a financial decision, proposal, contract or professional situation.
Reassurance before acting
Check your understanding, identify missing information and consider what further questions should be asked.
Early warning
Recognise possible risks before they develop into costly or stressful problems.
Priority email support
Receive priority support during periods of complexity, pressure, uncertainty or change.
Short telephone check-ins
When something unexpected happens, a short conversation may be enough to restore clarity and identify the next sensible step.
These check-ins are intended for focused questions rather than detailed planning engagements.
Learning, webinars and events
Membership includes access to:
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regular Academy updates
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member webinars
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exclusive events
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open learning sessions
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the Academy Webinar Video-on-Demand Channel
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new tools and resources
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continuing improvements to Academy OS
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emerging research and thought leadership
Members can follow the development of the Academy’s ideas and participate in the wider conversation about how financial planning should evolve in the age of AI.
Business planning templates and professional support
Members developing a practice, service, project or sustainable livelihood can access business-planning templates and general professional support.
Resources may cover:
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purpose and positioning
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client needs
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propositions and services
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pricing and business models
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delivery processes
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communications
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professional development
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practical implementation
The emphasis is on building useful, sustainable work that strengthens the agency of the people it serves.
Fund the Trail
Academy membership does more than give you access to training, tools, community and professional support.
Your subscription helps fund the trailblazing work needed to make space in the market for financial planners who are not regulated financial advisers.
That work includes:
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engaging with regulators so they understand that financial planning need not be a regulated activity;
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challenging professional bodies to recognise that Certified and Chartered Financial Planners do not need a product-sales licence to practise financial planning;
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helping professional indemnity insurers distinguish agency-centred planning from regulated product advice;
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challenging platforms and search engines that wrongly assume every financial-planning service must be FCA-authorised;
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developing the standards, language, contracts, tools and evidence needed to make this model credible;
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and demonstrating that planners can help people understand, choose and act without selling products or taking control of their assets.
These barriers will not disappear by themselves.
They move because somebody is willing to challenge inherited assumptions, establish the facts and build a working alternative.
Academy members help make that possible.
You are not simply joining a professional community.
You are helping create the space in which a new profession can grow.
We push the walls down so that those who follow do not have to.
Additional one-to-one planning support
Some personal or professional questions require more time than can reasonably be provided through community discussion, email Q&A or a short telephone check-in.
Members can access additional one-to-one planning support for £200 per hour.
This may include:
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detailed personal life and financial planning
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scenario analysis
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decision support
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retirement planning
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document review
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business planning
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proposition development
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practice development
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support during major transitions
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preparation for complex professional conversations
You remain free to use as much or as little additional support as you need.
A different relationship with expertise
Traditional financial services often treat expertise as something people must continually rent.
The Academy takes a different approach.
Good expertise should help people understand more, decide more confidently and become progressively less dependent on unnecessary professional intervention.
For personal members, that means greater control over your own financial life.
For professional members, it means developing services that leave clients more capable than you found them.
The aim is not independence at all costs.
It is appropriate interdependence: the capability to handle ordinary life, combined with access to trusted support during exceptional moments.
What Academy Membership is not
Academy Membership is not an investment-management service.
The Academy does not take control of your assets, charge a percentage of your wealth or manufacture financial products.
General education, planning tools and decision support do not replace regulated financial, legal, tax or medical advice where that is required.
Where specialist or regulated advice appears necessary, we will help you recognise that need, prepare appropriate questions and engage more confidently with a suitably qualified professional.
Join the Academy of Life Planning
Academy Membership is for people who want to:
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understand their financial lives more clearly
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make better-informed decisions
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retain control while knowing support is available
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develop more human-centred professional practices
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explore the future of financial planning
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contribute to a movement restoring human agency
Flexible membership
£24/ month
No long-term commitment.
Annual membership
£245/ year
Receive twelve months of membership for the cost of approximately ten.