The stories that have kept us busy in 2025

0:13Welcome to the last Margin Notes podcast of 2025 with me Simini Kiriakou, editor of FTadvisor. and what a year it has been. From budget leaks to service campaigns, from regulatory reviews to championing the cause of financial advisors, FT Advisor has been at the forefront of the news that matters to you and to your businesses and, of course, to your clients. As we look back on our year of campaigns, of developments and hard-hitting commentary, I'm pleased to welcome two of our senior journalists at FT Advisor here to join us on this podcast. With us in the studio, we have Amy Austin, news editor, and Ima Jackson-Obot, she is the Deputy Features Editor.

0:52They'll be talking about what made the headlines and what deserved digging deeper into over the course of the year. And we might even make some predictions about next year. Although, I quote an old baseball legend who once said, it's tough to make predictions, especially about the future. That was, of course, the inimitable Yogi Berra. Not to be confused with Yogi Bear for those Generation X listeners out there. Anyway, let's get straight to it. So what did we go into 2025 expecting to see? Amy, what topics were the Newsdesk focusing on? So in 2024, we were actually talking about pensions coming into the scope of IHT and we are actually still talking about it now.

1:34And we'll probably still be talking about it next year. I think it was just one of the big reforms that has affected everyone, you know, providers, clients, advisors. it was just a lot of work we still don't have you know all of the rules we don't know how it's all going to work in principle properly um and even in this budget there was still being changes made to like personal representatives and stuff like that so i think that is going to be another one for next year as well um we're also at the end of last year gosh it sounds seems very very long ago now but we were talking about trump um and come him like you know the return of him what it would meme for markets for everything um we found out you know going into 2025 that we had liberation day and trump tariffs um these spooked markets so we had all of that to deal with around the summer and then this year i actually feel as though we've focused a lot on growing artificial intelligence and how firms are using it and how people are going to adopt this new technology i feel like this is obviously a trend we're going to see going into next year but i just feel like this year a lot of stories have been focusing on more tech more ai you know how we're going to use it what does it mean for compliance what about the regulations i've you know we still haven't really seen what the fca is going to do in this space with advice and ai but i think it's definitely something we should look out for yeah i think it's definitely a big thing i was at a breakfast briefing this morning and the fund manager said that ai take-up among u.s businesses had risen from about 3 % of all US businesses to 9%.

3:06And that seems so small, but this is those that are actively using it and have implemented AI policies and implementing AI. But he expects that sort of triplicate growth to happen over next year and next year. So you can see like on a graph exponentially, it's going to be huge. So I think the AI is not going to disappear. Emma, I can see you're nodding you're in very much agreement there. What was sort of features analysing in the first quarter of the year? So, I mean, just to go back to the AI in the US aspect of it, you know, you talk about a lot of companies are investing in AI, but some of the things they're invested in aren't even things they're going to use it for.

3:39They're just throwing loads of money at it just to see what works. This is like almost like a big R &D period at the minute, which is why I guess some investors were worried about whether is AI going to continue growing at the expectation or the rate that they expect it to, which I suppose those were the fears around the bubble issues. And then you have the US obviously being a large proportion of global stocks. And, you know, with that, again, that causing to worry, like, you know, what Amy was talking about, Trump tariffs and the impact on the global market. So that's been a big piece, obviously.

4:12Then just looking back over the first course or the start of the year, still reeling from IHT and pensions, you know, advisors to playing. What does that mean? And like Amy said, even now, they're still what does it mean in practice? how am I going to help my clients how are things changing um there's a lot been a lot of headline dramas but I think just the day-to-day work advisors are having to deal with putting all these all this all these complexities together I think advisors have just been looking for help and how how we tie all these things together retirement has been massive as well you know you know we talk about retirement no longer being one one day in your life it's more about many many decades in your life so how do you combine that with the whole IHT and pensions there's just so much going to advise and I think it's really about the day-to-day and helping their clients live live well into retirement that's been a massive issue as well and obviously talking around ongoing advice with the FCA's advice guidance boundary review so it's always a bit of a mouthful for me again that's the day-to-day work you know so I think there's so much day-to-day things that advisors are really grappling with and then you drop into consumer duty into that and that you know so it's just never this non-stop isn't this non-stop yeah there's always something going on isn't there and then we see some policy decisions which are very different from market decisions and market movements but sometimes policy does have an effect on the market so we saw Trump's sort of anti-dei wash and his anti sort of green washing wash i don't know how many washes i've got in there um that sort of started to unravel in in the uk and in europe as well we're starting to see perhaps a bit less money going into the sustainable sector perhaps some uh less money going into the advancement of de and i um which is is worrying but it seems to be a policy decision that probably in about three or four years will kind of reverse again um but ai you know that probably will not reverse i you You know, it's been described as the fourth industrial revolution.

6:10I'm pretty confident that that will be. Emma, I'm just going to stick with you and sort of go to, I think, you know, I had this on my list of points. It was really just to talk about advisors being hungry for their insight and analysis. Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about the CPD that you were seeing or the popular CPD that have been really popular? Yeah, yeah. So anything to do with IGT and pensions is really popular. Anything to do with vulnerability is really popular. Retirement income is, you know, is massive. So those are really massive, you know, massive things. And I think for a lot of advisors, the sudden realising, you know, the long-held assumption that pension pots sit comfortably outside the estate, you know, doesn't hold anymore.

6:56So with these changes, advisors are really under huge pressure to rethink legacy planning strategies, you know, And that's been stable for years, but that's sort of shaken up now. The conversations with their clients, also intergenerational conversations as well. You know, obviously that's coming more to the fore. Then you also have like the whole issue about care, you know, health and social care. Obviously, we know that wasn't in the budget again. But I think there's a commission going through at the minute. Baroness Casey, I believe. So she's looking into the state of, you know, of health and social care.

7:32But again, it's advisors are really sort of, like I say, grappling with how do we help our clients now with a look to the future as well. So that's been massive. So we've, you know, we've been trying to focus on giving advisors clarity where we can. And so that's why the CPDs have been really, really popular. And other CPDs have been popular also on artificial intelligence. You know, how like on a practical day to day basis, how advisors can use this. because I've seen sometimes when we've done stories, comments from advisors who say, oh, but how does this work in practice sort of thing? So I think we've hopefully tried to sort of expand on that with our CPDs and how AI actually works in practice.

8:13What does it actually mean, you know, for soft skills, empathy skills? How do you marry the two? You know, AI supporting you when you're admin in your back office and allowing the advisors to focus on the relationship building. Yeah, really interesting stuff. And obviously, soon we'll be coming out with our top 10 CPD of the year. So if you need to bank your CPD, keep sticking with FT Advisor. We're about to come up with some really good lists very shortly. Amy can I come back to you obviously we do a lot of CPD we do a lot of education analysis but FT Advisor is also a campaigning paper and we try and do at least two campaigns a year while not dropping ongoing ones and obviously we're still continuing with our support for mortgage prisoners we've been doing that for a couple of years now but Amy talk to us about our H1 campaign which was letters of authority yeah so we've done the whole fixing LOA stuff I mean will we ever fix LOAs I'm not sure hopefully if we'll ever get to the end point but um but yeah it's it was such a successful campaign you know there was a lot of advisors kind of engaging with content you know looking at what we were doing we've done a lot with pension lab and criterion who have been launching a lot of stuff to do with LOAs you know they've got a data checklist they're speaking to providers they've got advisors providers clients you know all sorts all signed up to say yeah actually we really do want to fix the LOA problem you know it's taking too long you know there's so much information and I actually was speaking to a couple of former advisors the other week watch this interview will be coming out about how they've actually made an LOA automation tool and because they are advisors they know what the problems are so yeah even though it was our H1 campaign as you can see it's just continuing it's still going you know we're still talking about it I think maybe things will get better you know with tech and this automation that's coming through but yeah it's just you know in this day and age we should not be needing a wet signature like it's ridiculous post-covid yeah literally you know you've got to go down to the post office you've got to sign it you've got to take it in and then it's like it will come back and be like oh we don't have this you've got to go through the whole process again like it's just taking way too much time when if someone wants to transfer you know let's just get it done yeah so yeah exactly and of course advisors and providers can still sign up to the voluntary set of standards that were created by criterion so that should really help kind of speed things up so everyone knows exactly what's supposed to be sent to whom and to when exactly and I think at the moment it's just the pensions but they're looking to do it for investments and protection as well so it will be like the whole kind of cohort and Criterion have kind of taken over the fixing LOA stuff from Pension Lab now I mean Pension Lab will still be involved but where Criterion are you know the data standards that's the next natural step like they will now really push it so hopefully in 2026 we will see some change in this area.

11:19Great which would be a great success for the campaign and obviously something that we'll carry on uh carry on looking at imma coming into the end of q2 you got a story from the treasury which we broke um exclusively an ft advisor um you got wind of a change at foz um moving back to another bugbear that advisors have it's not just letters of authority it's also the financial ombudsman service sorry to any foz people who are listening um the treasury admitted it was going to do a root and branch review of the ombudsman you did Talk a bit about why this really matters for advisors, why this matters for our readers.

11:56I mean, it's their livelihood, isn't it? I mean, that's in a nutshell, but it's significant. I mean, up until then, FOS reform has kind of felt like something that's been spoken about a lot, but hasn't really felt like it was any sort of government buying or government interest in it. So I think advisors have been flagging inconsistency in FOS decisions, escalating case fees and the sheer stress of dealing with legacy complaints which we're going to come to next really interesting story um but nothing concrete had shifted so i guess with this story that the treasury is really looking at fos claims how the fos works particularly long stop you know which is which is um which is a massive been a massive issue for for advisors it could be literally be a game changer you know for the industry for claims for uh professional indemnity insurance you know we've written over the years about how professional indemnity has been so unaffordable in some ways so many ways for some advisors they've had almost considered going out of business because it's been so so high so it would really be a game changer for advisors also the anxiety around liability and how long am I responsible for the claims yeah or you know so it's just it's massive really yeah yeah absolutely I know over the many years I've had phone calls from widows.

13:17I remember a widow in tears to me on the phone because she was being chased personally for a claim that belonged to her late husband who was an IFA. Because of all his business and everything, he transferred everything to her name. And she was by then retired. She didn't know what to do. And this is, again, an egregious harassment of a very vulnerable woman. I had another financial advisor in a hospital bed calling a financial advisor back then and saying that he was being chased by Fox. And even though he told the ombudsman that he was sort of having like a double bypass surgery, they were still chasing him.

13:56So, I mean, all of these things are really harrowing, absolutely harrowing cases to hear, let alone to go through. And Amy, we've been dealing with at least two really big cases, haven't we? You know, it came to light sort of earlier on this year, a particular IFA called John Nightingale So can we talk briefly about him? We know that there's still like an ongoing case, but if we can talk about the him and how that story is developed. Yeah. So kind of in a nutshell, this IFA, who is no longer an advisor, you know, he's doing something completely different now. You know, 20 years after giving his advice, you know, the FOS came knocking on his door and was like, you need to pay up, you know, for this advice that you gave all these years ago.

14:38So, you know, CMC had contacted his client saying, we think we have a case here. You know, the client not really knowing and just going, yeah, sure. You know, someone comes to you and says, I think I can get you a good sum of money. You're going to do it, aren't you? So he went along with it. Yeah. Now, you know, the network kind of didn't really challenge the FOS on their decision. I mean, it didn't even go to the ombudsman. It just adjudicated stage. So they didn't even challenge it. And they just turned around. you know they're in administration and said to the IFA well you need to pay it now and he's now facing you know 155 ,000 pound bill which is you know he's like nearing retirement that's kind of yeah plus all fees you know he's you know winding down you know he's trying to enjoy his you know he's the rest of his life um and yeah where do you find that money from you know I know most of us if someone said you need to pay this I would be in severe stress and shock and where do I go what do I do you know I'd be looking at flights to Peru or something I'm going into hiding um so yes it's a really sad case but on the flip side what has been nice is to see the advisor support that has come out of it you know advisors have really got behind him he's doing a crowd funding um campaign because you know it might come that he cannot fight this you know there might be people on his side but it might be that he has to pay it out so the crowd funder is really nice you know ifas and other advisors have come out and offering support and help and saying well why don't you try this why don't you do that yeah you know we've been writing lots of stories on it and everyone is really really you know sympathetic and because if you're not being funny if it can happen to him it can happen to anyone exactly so you just you just think like that's so ridiculous all these years later and you're still getting chased you know there's got to be a cut off yeah absolutely I mean it's uh it's just it must be so harrowing for him yeah and a worry for his family as well and what sort of legacy is he going to be able to leave his descendants but you know like like Amy said the the wonderful thing about being um a title such as FT advisor is that we're always trying to build community with our readers.

16:49We're trying to, you know, I explained to one of my interns recently that I know when some of my readers, I know when their children are going to university, I know what universities are going to. I've spoken to them in hospital. Several of them have called me from hospital beds, you know, to let me know what's going on with them. I know when they're getting married. I know when they're getting divorced. You build up a real affinity and a love and a care for the reader. you really understand who they are. And I think understanding who they are helps to build that community. And that's what we really have seen coming through, the amazing support that advisors have been giving to John Nightingale and to others as well who are in similar situations.

17:30So I think it's quite a beautiful thing. So let's keep that kind of Christmas spirit going throughout the whole year. But let's not forget our second campaign of the year, which was conditional selling. Conditional selling has been a nightmare for advisors and brokers clients for so many years Can you both talk about why FTA has been putting its back behind the campaign, Emma? Okay, sure I mean, I think for years now, even before I joined, as you said, for many decades now buyers have reported being pressured by estate agents to use in-house or preferred mortgage brokers with the implicit threat that their offer will not be considered unless they do I mean, which is just egregious.

18:14It's so unfair. And, you know, this practice is like the buyer doesn't have the choice of who they go to. And then that's already a risk of foreseeable harm because you're not able to pick who you want to pick to help you buy, make the largest purchase you're probably going to make in your whole life. So just that practice is so unfair. And the fact that it's been allowed to go on for so many years is really quite, so it's great that we've, you know, we've really sort of jumped on board and we're sort of trying to get more, get more, get this noticed, get by MPs, get this push, get this, you know, get this sort of driven out of the market, basically.

18:54Yeah, because I mean, there was an act, I think, in the 70s, 79 or something like that, shortly after I was born, sometime after I was born, which did say it was illegal. But clearly there are loopholes which are being people are finding ways around it. And estate agents, national chains of estate agents are still doing it, but they're claiming every time we're like, oh, it's just an isolated incident. Well, it's isolated incidents all over the country. It sounds like an epidemic. So clearly something has to change. But Amy, you've been sort of looking at Tom Dunstan. He's been driving a lot of this as a mortgage reporter.

19:28Can you talk a little bit more about his push? Yeah, so we've been doing, you know, as part of the campaign, we've set up a petition alongside a mortgage broker who has particularly, you know, had enough. Let's just say, you know, it was, you know, after the Panorama kind of documentary came out, I feel like a lot of people were really talking about it. It's important to make sure, you know, we don't just talk about it for a week while the documentary is on and then forget about it. So he's actually been very good at contacting not just his own MP, not just quite a few MPs. He keeps going back to Parliament, talking to them and it's actually quite shocking how many he's had to sit down and explain to them exactly what it is and they're like, oh, I didn't know this was a thing.

20:11I guess if you haven't bought your house or haven't really experienced it, you might not know it happens which is the worrying thing. Or it's happened to you and you wouldn't even know. You wouldn't even know. You saw the broker and you just did whatever you were told. Exactly. I think it's more, I think the worry is for more for first-time buyers. You know, it's extremely stressful buying your first house. You know, as a first-time buyer, you've probably never kind of given up that amount of money before. And for someone, if you find your dream house and someone's like, oh, yeah, you can have it, but you have to use this broker.

20:40Or we won't take off the mugger or it won't be for you. It's a threat. Yeah, yeah. As a first-time buyer and if you're young, I feel like I would be like, yeah, okay then. Like if I didn't know better. you know I'd be like okay sure I'll just use yours like sorry to this mortgage broker but I'm going to go to this also time is of the essence right yeah yeah yeah like you're panicking aren't you especially in this kind of housing market where they are getting snapped up a lot quicker now you don't have time to think you know you find it you've got to put that off and it's those time pressure tactics that the government always talks about you know beware of scammers beware of fishers because they say like one of the big tactics is time pressure yeah and this is giving you a time pressure say well like the buyer won't do it unless you use this and we're not going to progress it it's it's it's blackmail really it's yeah it's horrible well we've had mp say to us that they are going to raise it as part of their questions you know in prime minister's questions and in parliament and say you know ft advisor are doing this and we have had you know things online being like some one of the mp said oh yeah i'm aware of it because of ft advisors campaign so that's nice like it's being noticed you know it's not gone quiet like people are paying attention so yeah let's see well exactly because we don't do campaigns to make ourselves look good we do campaigns because there are things that matter and we can use our voice we are the fourth estate we can use our voice to actually drive real change i think that's really important we must never lose sight of that but obviously like talking about sort of that's the poor service delivery that estate agents do let's talk about service delivery both from IFA's and providers So firstly, we did a top 100 advisors this year, and it had a really big revamp because one of the things that readers used to keep writing in to me about, saying, well, I'm a small IFA, I can't compete with the big guns because of the way the methodology works.

22:20So this year we worked really hard with ISS Market Intelligence, and they did a really good job of finding a way to celebrate advisors with 10 or fewer registered financial advisors on their books. And so we saw some brilliant sort of 50 in the 50 boutique firms. We saw one firm reach the top three. And I think they have just two financial advisors and they're really chuffed. And it was really wonderful to be able to see some smaller firms compete against the big guns and get their name in the FT, get the name of the FT advisor. And I think that's really important because advisors have been doing an amazing service this year, considering the number of people calling them up about IHD and calling them up about tax relief and pensions and VAT on school fees.

23:05And ADR and BPR. Oh, my gosh. Yes. And I can't believe it's not BPR. I mean, there's so much. But we've also focused on the Financial Advisor Service Awards. And again, in years past, some financial advisors would take to social media platforms such as X, formerly known as Twitter for the Gen X among you, and they would sort of say, well, you know, this provider gives us really bad service. You know, how come they're getting these many, this many stars? So what we did, we brought a lot of financial advisors in to help go through the methodology and to help refine it and to give us some real backing.

23:41And since then, we've seen a real change. You know, we've actually really seen an improvement in the methodology and how the star rankings are working. But we've also embarked on a bit of a campaign every year, haven't we, Amy? when we um we're naming and shaming now aren't we yeah that was yeah the platform stuff is really good yeah yeah it's been interesting i mean i think as you were saying simile with your story that mortgage providers have actually gotten better like their service has improved from last year the ones that weren't you know that were kind of lagging behind pensions i can't say the same i still have a lot on the list that weren't doing so well last year and are still like sitting at one stars so there hasn't been much improvement um I think pensions is always a harder one because with you know the transfers and that you know if they're slow that's just it's always going to be ranked low service by advisors you know whether you put in teams to help or whatever if you're not going to speed up your transfers or you know there's not going to be you know a person you can pick up the phone and who will sort it out quickly for you they are going to be ranked low and I don't think you can expect anything else.

24:49And there's been a lot of consolidation hasn't there in the pension sector so sometimes you get a really great service provider being bought by someone who's less quality service like platforms and the tech behind them you know it takes it's not going to turn around in one year you know people buying these big platforms that you're going to have to embed them see what you want to use see what you don't want to use change the tech you know get all the clients over so I understand that it takes time um so hopefully we will start to see you know from next year um it starts to improve a bit more yeah i'd like to see more improvement and i and again shout out to the mortgage lenders because last year when i went to them and said some of you have been doing badly since 1999 and they tried to argue with me but i have got a spreadsheet because i spent ages in lockdown compiling it dating back to 1993 i can see every single score every single star rating for all of these companies since 93 um and it was kind of eye-opening for some of them they hadn't realized just how brokers perceived them they thought everything was good um so about Emma obviously you were at the the service awards as well when you heard the uh the rallying call yeah yeah I think it's great not to hear in the nicest possible way like the the names that have been in the past just you know there are new people that new people new businesses and I think that sort of just keeps it fresh as well and also just shows is that we are really listening to the industry, so the advisors, as to who are really providing the great service.

26:18You know, it's not just because you're big doesn't make you better at all in any way. It's, you know, and data is massive. It's a massive deal for advisors. If advisors don't have the right kind of data when they need it, they can't provide the right kind of service for their clients. So if you're not winning on data and speed and efficiency and, you know, having someone there that has the knowledge that can help them, then advisors really just aren't, and which is why I really like advisors, they're not afraid to tell you how they feel. They're not afraid to, which I think has been really highlighted from the Financial Advisor Service Awards.

26:53And seeing the story that we did on the platforms, that was so interesting. I mean, that was really quite punchy as well. And I suppose we'll be something that we'll be keeping a close eye on over the course of next year, really how they're improving and the issues for advisors, whether it's getting better. Yeah, I can't believe that platforms which are set up to be an online technological-based service. Some of them still want wet signatures on things. I mean, it's ridiculous. You're set up to be the technology to do everything online and you can't even do online well. It's bonkers. Bonkers being a B word.

27:28We also had another B word recently. Sorry to mention the budget. Amy, what shocked or surprised you about the budget? Nothing, really. because I think the most shocking thing was when I was upstairs in the canteen grabbing lunch and heard my phone buzz and I thought what is going on and I could hear the hum of people talking and I thought something's happened and I ran back to that desk sat down was like oh the leak the leak it's all out that was the most shocking thing I think apart from that what was actually in the budget none of it really surprised me because we've been speaking about it all before you know the leaks are just getting way too much you know exactly it's not exciting yeah it's not exciting to cover a budget as such anymore because you know i knew isis was probably going to be in there somewhere you know depending on what it would be and how it would exactly work yeah okay but i knew it was coming salary sacrifice was just spoken about too much that you kind of knew it was coming you know you can always you get your nuggets and you're like right okay you know mansion tax we kind of knew that may be coming down the road there was just loads of little little little bits which some of them were a bit more like oh okay that's surprising but not like shocking like fall off my chair you know not like when they scrapped like the lifetime allowance and stuff like that I was like oh my gosh that was the ones that shocked me and the changes to the tape but they were shocking budgets this one yeah oh you heard it there that's a news editor without blowing the raspberries like that in the headline yeah yeah budget and then um oh yeah sorry going back to the budget um i think i mean amy's really said it all i think it was less surprise probably more frustration in parts right depending on sort of i suppose what segment of client you serve you know so i don't it wasn't really anything surprising in there i think it's just there are a lot of things i feel that can sort of just affect each other and it's the unintended consequences I think we'll be looking at over the course of the next 12 months as to what's really going to impact what you know the salary sacrifice I know it's not coming into 2029 but you know a lot of these things are sort of backloaded right but again it's sort of how that's going to shift behavior how what companies are how it's going to impact companies what decisions companies are going to start making now are going to impact their their employee employees two three years down the line that sort of thing so yeah like I said as like Amy said not really surprised more sort of I suppose frustration in parts and will this work will it not work and I think one of the biggest other than the absence of the health and social care was snap duty on on you know in mortgages you know that would have just been a big win for I guess for a lot of people first-time buyers particularly but who knows I guess maybe if things do if she gets a bigger headroom next year who knows maybe it might be something I don't know but because you always cover the opposition's response right yeah to this did the opposition come up with anything credible as an alternative or was it just critical it was critical i mean but kemi badenot claims that she spent half of her speech coming up with responses to sort of uh alternative fiscal ideas but i think it was more about they were just saying that they would scrap the two cap the two the two-child cap, sorry, they would reinstate it, the cap on the two-child benefit.

30:53That was one of the things she said that would, you know, and then also that, but she didn't really go into detail as to how they would actually save money or how they would, I think welfare is a big area that they would definitely target in terms of, you know, which is an area, but again, she didn't go into that much detail. So a lot of it was spent, you know, accusing Rachel Reeves of breaking promises. and, you know, taxing everyone from everything to milkshakes. It was a very tense exchange, definitely. Yeah, well, no one's milkshake is going to be bringing anyone to the yard because it's too expensive now.

31:30You can look at it from a distance, but, you know, that's it. Yeah, I think everyone gets that reference. There's enough people in their 40s who will get that reference. Just very lastly, like a couple of successful things. So as listeners probably are aware, we run the Insurance United Against Dementia campaign here at FT Advisor. We don't run it. We're part of it. But I'm an ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society on IUAD. And we've been very successful. So far, we've raised about£600. We've got a card sale coming up as well. So hopefully we can push this to over£1 ,000 by the end of December, which will be absolutely fantastic news because it really does go to funding valuable research into sort of combating dementia and allowing people with dementia to live a life where they can manage a condition just as you maybe have diabetes and you can live a long while managing that condition.

32:28So that's really successful. So if you haven't seen our IUAD campaign fundraising and you'd like to know more, just log on to ftadvisor.com. and anyway just as we head into Christmas what are each of you looking at any sneak peeks into 2026 targeted support yeah I think advice guidance boundary how it's going to work how targeted support's going to work you know who's going to kind of be doing it you know I think it will fall on the providers more than anyone else you know advisors probably won't be looking at targeted support as much just keeping on top of you know what's going on with networks what's going on with training advisors you know how are we going to get these young advisors in how are we going to get advisor numbers up most importantly you know once everyone starts retiring we won't have enough um so yeah just be kind of looking at that and then like obviously the tax world IHT pensions yeah the big the big stuff the big stuff the big stuff Emma what's features going to be focusing on so pretty much everything Amy has said but then also I think things like um looking at the Employees Bill, Employer Rights Bill, how that's going to impact the industry.

33:36I guess looking at graduates coming in through, we've talked about the massive advice gap, we've talked about Asian financial advisors, succession planning. So I think that's quite an interesting area to look at. Obviously, we've talked about FOS and redress, what that's going to look like next year, when we really do get a bit more certainty as to what will be reformed, what will not be reformed, how that's going to change the market. M &A continues, you know, at pace. But obviously there are certain things I think I feel sort of, not slowing it down, but I think private companies who are sort of some of the main drivers within the consolidation ecosystem, a lot of them are more mature now, so they're a lot more aware of, sort of, they're more familiar with IFA business, understand a bit more about liability.

34:26also debt is an issue that the fca raised in its multi-firm review on consolidation last month and so i think again that's another area that they'll be you know really focused on due diligence um integrating their businesses you know so i think that's going to be something that will continue to rumble on next year as well yeah nice yeah definitely a lot of really good stuff to to look out for and also hopefully we will get something sorry from baroness casey on health and social care because I mean Amy will probably agree but we a lot of the providers talk about that aspect of care you know if you don't sort that out then it just yeah and the costs are enormous and we've been talking about this since even before the Dilnot review and your Dilnot must be really upset every time you know care isn't really given the focus that should be given and keeps getting kicked into the long grass of policy yeah so yeah let's really hope that comes up with something.

35:18Thank you, Emma, a really important thing there. But I've got to say that is a wrap, a lovely big Christmas wrap with a beautiful big bow. Thank you, Amy. Thank you, Emma, for taking the time to chat with us. And thank you, as always, for listening. Thank you very much. Until next time, have a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

35:47Thank you.