Armchair Critic: Twenty points for advisers to ponder

Awkward questions

clock • 5 min read

Socrates argued the unexamined life was not worth living but what about the unexamined industry? Here our Armchair Critic - and occasional armchair philosopher - Brendan Llewellyn offers points for us all to ponder

1. While a financial services company should probably focus only on profitable clients, if everyone focuses on the middle or above, then the sector will alienate itself from the government and regulator. At best, it will become politically irrelevant - after all, how could a service that cannot help the majority of the population be politically relevant? Does that matter? 2. We know from our behavioural economics that marginal utility falls with levels of income and wealth - and it follows that consumers are more indifferent to rises than they are to falls. It would also follow that aggr...

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