Financial Planner Life Podcast

Lewis Prosser has spent years myth-busting what it takes to go chartered. He is joined this week by David Tait of Redmill Advance.
Lewis runs the St. James's Place programme supporting advisers from Level 4 through to Chartered status, and one of the most common myths he encounters is the assumption that becoming a Chartered Financial Adviser requires five years of experience, specifically as a financial adviser. 
Interestingly, Lewis has  never advised a client himself, yet he’s chartered, a fellow across three professional bodies, and holds a master's degree in finance. In this conversation, alongside David, he unpacks the real data behind whether becoming Chartered is worth pursuing at all, including a 2025 market survey showing chartered financial planners earn 31% more income than Level 4 advisers (around £30,000 a year in real terms), and an average 50% increase in business linked to going chartered. Lewis also reveals that he actually found becoming a Fellow easier to achieve than Chartered and thinks that's wrong, arguing the Fellowship should demand more from candidates, not less.
Beyond the numbers, Lewis walks through the credit system behind becoming chartered, his own hacks for getting there faster, and why the process requires three years of recorded CPD. He shares how a study text would switch him off after a couple of pages, how he leaned on audio and video learning instead, and how a realistic two-to-three-year plan with mentors got him through it: sacrifices, rugby, and all. 
David also shares how Redmill Advance is using AI avatars to keep training current and scalable for a growing population of advisers working towards Chartered.
Key takeaways from this episode:
Why the five-year experience requirement for Chartered doesn't have to be as a financial adviser
Why chartered financial planners earn 31% more income than Level 4 advisers, according to a 2025 market survey
Why becoming chartered is linked to a 50% increase in business on average
What actually changes between Level 4 and Level 6 qualifications
The credit system behind Chartered, and Lewis's sequencing hacks for getting there faster
Why Lewis found Fellow easier to achieve than Chartered, and why he thinks that's backwards
How the SJP and University of Gloucestershire master's programme works for chartered advisers
How Redmill Advance is using AI avatars to help scale training for advisers working towards Chartered
This episode is for financial advisers weighing up whether to pursue Chartered or Fellow status, and for training providers and firms thinking about how to structure long-term professional development.
Learn more about St. James's Place at www.sjp.co.uk, and about Redmill Advance at www.redmilladvance.com.

Financial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill Advance
Whether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.
✅ Trusted by top UK firms
👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fpl

Be sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. 
Reach out to sam@financialplannerlife.com in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production. 
Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Drop Sam a message.

Hardy Michel is the founder of Marloo, an AI tool for financial advisers, and one of the most unusual things you'll hear him say as a tech founder, is that he'd rather you didn't sign a long-term contract for AI - even though it works against him commercially!
Spending years working behind the scenes at retail investing platforms, Hardy Michel watched the same pattern play out again and again: people wanting to do the right thing with their money, then panicking and getting it wrong the moment markets got volatile. That observation, more than any grand plan, is what eventually led him to found and build "Shares" in New Zealand, which grew to over 20% of the country's population as users and 250 employees, and later Lightyear, launched across 22 European countries.
Rather than build another consumer-facing platform, Hardy chose to focus on advisers directly. 
He and his co-founder spent six months embedded inside advice firms across the UK and Australia researching the profession before building Marloo, shadowing every role from managing director to paraplanner to understand exactly where time and energy were being lost. What that research surfaced was a profession where a single one-hour client meeting can generate ten hours of follow-up work. Hardy says Marloo can cut an annual review report from 3 hours down to 20 minutes.
The conversation also covers a candid warning: Hardy tells advisers not to lock into long-term AI contracts, even though it works against Marloo's own commercial interest, because he's seen firms overpromised and under-delivered by competitors who don't keep pace. He also addresses how Marloo handles client data differently to advisers using ChatGPT or Claude directly, and where he sees AI fitting alongside, rather than replacing, a firm's CRM.
Key takeaways from this episode:
Why Hardy believes the real gap in financial advice is access, not quality
How a one-hour client review meeting can generate ten hours of follow-up admin
Why Hardy says Marloo can cut an annual review report from three hours down to 20 minutes
Why Hardy and his co-founder spent six months researching inside advice firms before building Marloo
Why Hardy advises against long-term AI contracts, even though Marloo only offers monthly ones
How Marloo's data handling differs from advisers using ChatGPT or Claude directly
Why Hardy sees AI as a complement to a firm's CRM, not a replacement for it
This episode is for financial advisers and firm owners weighing up whether an AI tool is worth adopting, and for anyone curious about the research that goes into building software for a profession this heavily regulated.
Visit https://www.marloo.com/us  to try Marloo.

Financial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill Advance
Whether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.
✅ Trusted by top UK firms
👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fpl

Be sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. 
Reach out to sam@financialplannerlife.com in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production. 
Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Drop Sam a message.

Natalie Cheesman, Partner at St. James's Place, joins Sam Oakes to talk about how she built a financial planning practice to £6 million in funds under management in 18 months, without ever fully stepping away from the mortgage business she'd run for 15 years. In this episode, Natalie explains why a transactional mortgage career, however loyal her 1,200-client bank was, left her wanting something more predictable, and what it actually took to build financial planning on top of it rather than instead of it.
Natalie talks through passing the CII Investment Advice Diploma in under a year while still running that mortgage business solo, and training through the St. James's Place Academy while continuing to submit mortgage applications in the evenings and on breaks. She describes the support that got her through those first months as a new financial planner, including a business development manager she'd sometimes speak to daily and an administrative specialist who had her submitting business from day one, and how she methodically worked back through her existing client bank and added mortgage-introducer partnerships to grow from £40,000 to £6 million in funds under management through organic growth alone.
She also talks about the moment a client realises they can retire years earlier than they thought, what it took to keep building a business through a genuinely hard period in her own life, and what winning the Mike Wilson Award meant to her after 18 months of work.
Key takeaways from this episode:
Why Natalie kept her mortgage business running while training as a financial planner
How she passed the CII Investment Advice Diploma in under a year while running that business solo
What day-to-day support from a St. James's Place business development manager and administrative specialist looked like
How she rebuilt momentum with her existing 1,200-client mortgage bank
How a mortgage-introducer partnership became a steady source of new business
How she grew from £40,000 to £6 million in funds under management in 18 months
What winning the Mike Wilson Award meant to her, and the resilience behind it
This is an episode for mortgage advisors weighing up whether financial planning is the right next move for them, and for newer financial planners looking for a practical blueprint on client conversion and introducer relationships.
Learn more about St. James's Place at www.sjp.co.uk 

Financial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill Advance
Whether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.
✅ Trusted by top UK firms
👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fpl

Be sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. 
Reach out to sam@financialplannerlife.com in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production. 
Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Drop Sam a message.

Dan Hobbs, CEO at New Leaf Distribution, joins Sam Oakes to talk about what building their own podcast has delivered for an IFA Network. He's joined by his father, Founder & Chairman of New Leaf Distribution, Mark Hobbs, whose own scepticism about podcasting turned around once it started outperforming close to £1,000,000 spent on Google Ads." In this episode, Dan and Mark explain why Mark was initially convinced podcasting was a gimmick, and what it took for Dan to change his mind. They talk about why New Leaf deliberately avoided the well worn topics every other network already covers, choosing instead to focus on what it is actually like to become an adviser and what happens in the silence after qualifying, when the phone stops ringing. The conversation also covers how New Leaf supports advisers through retirement and exit, including a striking story about completing a business sale with no contract in place after an adviser's death, and why New Leaf positions itself as a compliance thought leader rather than buying out its own advisers' client banks.
Dan and Mark also share what happened after their very first guest, Kelsey Phillips, went live on the podcast, and why New Leaf's own advisers are now lining up, asking to be featured on the podcast.
Key takeaways from this episode:
Why most business podcasts fail, and what New Leaf built theirs around instead
How Mark went from thinking podcasting was a gimmick to backing Dan's idea completely
Why New Leaf avoids generic advice content in favour of what it is really like to become an adviser
How New Leaf supported an adviser's family through a business sale with no contract in place
Why New Leaf positions itself as a compliance thought leader rather than buying its own advisers' client banks
Why New Leaf would rather a business stay within its own network than go to an M&A buyer
How Kelsey, New Leaf's first podcast guest, ended up with more development finance leads than she was ready for
Why New Leaf's own advisers are now asking to be featured on the podcast
This is an episode for anyone running a business in financial services, who is weighing up whether a podcast is worth the investment, and for any adviser starting to think about what their own exit from the profession might look like.
Learn more about New Leaf at https://newleafdistribution.co.uk/ 

Financial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill Advance
Whether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.
✅ Trusted by top UK firms
👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fpl

Be sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. 
Reach out to sam@financialplannerlife.com in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production. 
Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Drop Sam a message.

Dan Armitage (CEO of Neuro Sparks) and David Tait (Founder of Redmill Advance,) joins Sam Oakes to talk about supporting neurodivergent individuals in financial planning. Dan spent a decade as a regulated financial adviser, as well as a bank manager in his early twenties, before founding Neuro Sparks with his mother three years ago. He lives with ADHD, dyslexia and dyscalculia himself, and that experience now shapes every part of how he trains other financial planners.
In this conversation, Dan explains what it was like navigating a career in financial services before he had the language for his own neurodivergence, and what changed once he understood it properly. He and David discuss why 15% of the population is neurodivergent, and why so many employers still are not equipped to identify or support that within their own teams. They also walk through Dan's own academic journey, from sitting his CII exams with a short term memory in the bottom 1% of the population, through to completing a level seven postgraduate certificate in neurodiversity at university - something he describes as the first time in his life he felt he could genuinely study.
David shares how Redmill Advance builds neurodivergent support directly into training academies of up to 500 delegates at a time, including how trainers are taught to spot when someone is struggling and quietly adjust their approach without singling anyone out. Sam also shares his own ADHD diagnosis in detail, and how it changed the way he runs Financial Planner Life, once he understood his own way of working.
Key takeaways from this episode:
Why 15% of the population is neurodivergent and what that means for financial planning firms today
How Dan built Neuro Sparks with his mother after a decade as a regulated financial adviser
What it was like working in financial planning before Dan was diagnosed with ADHD, dyslexia and dyscalculia
How Dan sat his CII exams with a bottom 1% memory 
What employers notice, and what they don't, when it comes to how their people think
What reasonable adjustments actually mean under the Equality Act, and where the limits of "reasonable" sit for employers
How Redmill Advance tailors training for neurodivergent delegates inside academies of up to five hundred people
Why Sam decided to share his own ADHD diagnosis on the podcast, and what it changed about how he runs Financial Planner Life
This is an episode for financial planning firms thinking seriously about how they support neurodivergent staff, for managers who want to spot the signs before someone reaches a crisis point, and for any financial planner who has ever wondered whether their own brain works a little differently to everyone else's.
Learn more about Neuro Sparks Business Solutions at www.neurosparksolutions.com and Redmill Advance at www.redmilladvance.com/fpl 

Financial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill Advance
Whether you're starting out, already qualified, or building a training academy, Redmill Advance delivers expert-led learning, exam support and CPD from Level 4 to Chartered.
✅ Trusted by top UK firms
👉 www.redmilladvance.com/fpl

Be sure to follow Financial Planner Life on YouTube for extra content about  career development within Financial Planning. 
Reach out to sam@financialplannerlife.com in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production. 
Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? Drop Sam a message.