The way financial advice is delivered has changed massively over the years.

Certainly, over the last 12 months or more, financial advisers and planners have had to find new ways to support and help their clients.

Here Lifetime MD Ian Dickinson (pictured) talks about the changes in our profession:

“In the late 1980s and through the 90s the advisers’ job was pretty simple. We talked about savings and what to do with surplus earnings and occasional lumps sums from retirement or inheritance. The reason for this was pretty much everything else was organised for people, company pensions where provided, strict rules about mortgage lending and little chance of gaining too much credit and little use of credit cards.

“Now our profession has a much bigger part to play!

• How do you manage your investments that sit with in flexible pensions?
• What choices can I make as I approach retirement?
• How do I best use the looser credit lines available?
• How do I manage this tax effectively?
• How can I help my children as most go on to further education?

“The list is endless and we as advisers are much better prepared via technology to get the public to plan better.

“This is our duty as advisers. The difference that we can make today is much more profound than it was back then!

“Times have changed!”