ABOUT TOTAL WEALTH PLANNER™
A plan for your whole life. A planner who helps you own it.
Money matters. So do your health, work, family, time, relationships and sense of purpose. Total Wealth Planning™ helps you see how those parts affect one another, make decisions you understand and keep adapting your plan as life changes.
I'm Steve Conley, a Chartered Financial Planner with more than 40 years' experience in financial services.
I founded the Academy of Life Planning because I believe financial planning should begin with your life and the decisions you need to make—not the investments a firm might manage.
My approach combines focused professional support with Academy OS, giving you the capability to continue planning independently between conversations.
Bring me the problem, not the portfolio.
About Steve
I’ve seen financial planning from both sides of the table.
I spent more than 40 years in financial services, including senior roles at HSBC, RBS Group and Santander. I was Head of Investments within HSBC Bank plc’s UK Retail Investment Business.
That experience taught me how much technical knowledge matters—and how easily the design of a service can put products, portfolios or the institution ahead of the person.
In 2012, I founded the Academy of Life Planning to develop another way of working. My role now is to help you understand your situation, challenge assumptions, organise complexity and recognise when specialist expertise is needed. I do not manage your investments or need to keep your information in my system for the work to be valuable.
BSc FCII APFS · Chartered Financial Planner · Chartered Insurer · Former Head of Investments at HSBC · Founder, Academy of Life Planning
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About Total Wealth Planning™
Plan your life first. Then align your money.
Traditional financial planning often begins with the assets a firm might manage. Total Wealth Planning™ begins with your life and the decisions in front of you. It considers four connected forms of wealth:
Financial wealth. Your money, pensions, property and the obligations that sit against them. It matters, and we plan it carefully. But it is usually a store of wealth already created, not the source of it.
Human wealth. Your skills, knowledge, health, energy and capacity to do meaningful work. If financial capital is the reservoir, human capital is the river that fills it. For most people it is the largest asset they will ever have, and the one planning most often ignores.
Social wealth. Your relationships, family, friendships, networks and communities. The people you support, the people who support you, and the tribe you do your best work with.
Environmental and spiritual wealth. The places you live and care for, and your sense of purpose, meaning and contribution. What you want your life to have been for.
These four affect one another. A decision about money is rarely only about money. Working less may protect your health and relationships, but cost you income and purpose. A generous gift may strengthen your family but narrow your security. Total Wealth Planning helps you see those connections before you commit, so the question moves from "How much money will fund my life?" to "What wealth is already present in my life, and what must be activated?"
Beyond the finish line
Much of the financial world points towards a finish line: build up enough, then stop. I see it differently.
For many people, the most fulfilling stage of life is not reaching personal goals. It is turning outward: using their gifts in the service of others and leaving things better for having lived. I plan with that in mind.
That is also why I favour ICE ("I'll Continue Earning") over FIRE ("Financial Independence, Retire Early"). Financial independence can be a valuable stepping stone. But meaningful work by choice, social connection and a little healthy struggle are good for us, and they tend to help us live longer and better. The aim is not to escape work. It is to make your work, paid or unpaid, truly your own.
Your Academy OS helps you keep your record, explore options and build a Total Wealth Plan™ over time. AI can help organise information and generate possibilities. A Total Wealth Planner™ helps test what the tools assume, what they may have missed and which decisions warrant professional or specialist input.
The aim is a plan you understand and can use—during ordinary life and through major change.
What working together feels like
You can bring a question, your own research, an AI response, a cashflow model or a collection of documents you have not yet been able to make sense of. We begin by clarifying what matters and what decision is actually being made.
I help you connect the parts of your life, compare realistic options, test the assumptions and identify missing information. If the matter needs a regulated recommendation, legal or tax advice, or another specialist, we make that boundary visible. You decide what to do and keep the record of why.
The amount of professional support can increase when life becomes complicated and reduce when the work is done. Your information, your plan and your decisions remain in your hands.
The Academy behind the approach
The Academy of Life Planning develops the frameworks, education and AI-assisted tools that help people become more capable planners of their own lives.
Total Wealth Planner™ is the human support layer: a second brain when a decision is complex, stressful or consequential.
The Academy’s GAME Plan™ helps turn what matters into goals, actions, means and execution. My Life Record™, Navigator™ and Total Wealth Plan™ give you ways to keep that work alive between conversations. You can use the tools independently and invite support when it helps.
Planning in real lives
Different circumstances. The same commitment to client agency.
These examples are adapted from existing anonymised case studies. Names and identifying details have been changed. They illustrate an approach, not a promise of a particular financial outcome.
A family weighing several futures
Two working parents wanted to coordinate family life, property ambitions, new careers and the possibility of retiring earlier. Cashflow scenarios showed that their initial timetable placed too many demands on the same resources. By changing the sequence of their plans and testing different ways of earning, they could examine a more workable route before making commitments.
What changed: the conversation moved from “Can we afford everything?” to “Which order gives us genuine choices?”
Care, work and a life with purpose
A couple were financially secure but balancing work, support for an adult daughter and a desire to live differently. Whole-life conversations and financial modelling helped them examine whether a move and a change in pace could fit their responsibilities.
What changed: they could consider a meaningful next chapter alongside the provision their family needed.
Living well while giving well
An older client wanted to enjoy her resources, help family and give generously, while protecting her long-term security. A lifetime cashflow plan and clearer gifting boundaries made the trade-offs easier to see.
What changed: she had a more grounded basis for deciding how much was enough for her and what she could share.
In clients'words
“Our regular meetings helped me take action and empowered me to make decisions about my financial planning.”
“I was recently widowed when I came to Steve to help me sort out my finances. Steve charged a much more reasonable fee to help me get my finances in order and was incredibly good at patiently explaining things to me. My bereavements meant I suffered from brain fog, so I found it hard to grasp things. Our regular meetings helped me take action and empowered me to make decisions about my financial planning. Steve is incredibly kind, supportive and knowledgeable and I really appreciated his help during one of the most stressful periods of my life.”
Lisa Jackson, Lancing, England, March 2025.
Testimonial reflects one client’s experience. Outcomes depend on individual circumstances.
Professional standards and boundaries
I am a Chartered Financial Planner and Chartered Insurer and a member of the Personal Finance Society and Chartered Insurance Institute. My professional designations and code of ethics are distinct from FCA authorisation.
Total Wealth Planner™ provides personalised financial planning, education and decision support. It does not arrange or manage investments or recommend that you buy, sell, hold or transfer a particular regulated financial product. Where regulated advice or another specialist service is needed, I help you recognise the need and find the appropriate route.