Adviser 3.0: The Podcast

Three CEOs. One stage. The biggest questions facing adviser businesses right now.
Recorded live at Adviser 3.0 2026, this is the first of our Sunset Studio Sessions — a series of four panel conversations captured on stage at our flagship annual conference. The Sunset Studio stage is sponsored by Northern Trust Asset Management. Philippa Mather of Paradigm Norton, Jo French of Attivo, and Alan Smith of Capital Asset Management join Ed Carey, CCO at Timeline, for an honest, wide-ranging conversation covering the topics that will define adviser businesses over the next few years.

On AI, the panel cuts through the noise. Joe explains why Ativo built its own LLMs from the ground up rather than reaching for off-the-shelf tools. Alan argues the industry is still in "Blockbuster got an app" territory and challenges firms to think about what AI-native looks like from first principles. Philippa pushes back on short-term hype cycles and makes the case that people, not technology, remain the real driver of business performance.
On growth, the discussion gets uncomfortable. The data says most adviser firms aren't growing in any meaningful way once market returns are stripped out. The panel explores why, what a scientific approach to referrals actually looks like, and why organic growth is a skill that has to be deliberately built.
The conversation closes on talent and culture: how to attract the next generation, why weekly one-to-ones beat most management interventions, and what a genuinely high-performance firm looks and feels like in practice.

A career built without a degree, a partnership earned without shortcuts, and a profession that risks losing its soul to consolidation.
In this episode of Adviser 3.0, Kate Phillips is joined by Tara Maynard, Partner and Chartered Financial Adviser at PM+M, for an honest conversation about doing it your way in financial planning.
Tara shares how financial circumstances steered her away from university and into an accountancy apprenticeship at 18, and how a chance secondment to the financial planning team changed everything. She opens up about studying for her qualifications in half-hour windows around two young children, navigating imposter syndrome on the road to partnership, and what it really means to belong somewhere you love.
They also get into the bigger picture: why independent ownership matters for clients and advisers alike, what gets lost when firms are bought and sold, and Tara's passion for grassroots community work through PM+M's Positive Impact programme.
Topics covered:
The apprenticeship path and why it worked
Studying for exams with two young children
Imposter syndrome and building quiet confidence
The culture that made partnership possible
Independent ownership vs consolidation
Community, charity and the Positive Impact programme
Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or watch on YouTube.

The triple lock is costing us 7% of GDP by 2070. Advisers are overpaid, or are they? And your money personality was probably set before you turned 10.
In this episode of SoapBox, Matt Pitcher and Abraham Okusanya are joined by Sarah Roughsedge, founder of Eva Wealth and author of Smart Money, Strong Women, for a wide-ranging conversation that pulls no punches.
They dig into the Tony Blair Institute's radical proposal to scrap the state pension as we know it, replacing it with a flexible Lifespan Fund, and whether that is bold policy or political fantasy. Then the debate turns closer to home: are financial advisers actually overpaid? Matt and Abraham put themselves in the dock, and the answer is more nuanced than you might expect. From Ferrari-driving advisers to the growing wave of breakaway firms leaving the big consolidators, this one gets spicy.
Sarah then walks us through the ideas behind her book, five money archetypes that shape how we think, feel, and act around money, and why understanding yours might be the most important financial move you ever make.
We close with a bright note from Abraham: UK investors are finally coming back to the equity markets after the longest selling streak Calastone has ever recorded.
Topics covered:
The triple lock, the Lifespan Fund and the fairness problem with state pension
Are advisers worth £100k a year?
Breakaway firms and the entrepreneurial case for going independent
Smart Money, Strong Women: the 5 money archetypes and why they matter
UK investors return to equities
Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or watch on YouTube.

Ed Dymott, CEO of Benchmark Capital, joins Abraham Okusanya to challenge the logic behind a decade of advice firm consolidation.

The old playbook of buying IFA practices cheap and selling the whole thing at a premium was never as clever as it looked, and the cracks are showing. Ed and Abraham dig into the breakaway adviser trend, why planners are leaving consolidators and private banks alike to build their own businesses, the role of AI as a copilot rather than a replacement, and what the profession looks like when it finally grows up and sits alongside law and accountancy. A candid, wide-ranging conversation with one of the most influential operators in UK financial planning infrastructure.

What does it mean to own "the whole market" when parts of it make you uncomfortable? Dominic Thomas, founder and principal of Solomon's IFA, joins Abraham to challenge some of the orthodoxies of financial planning. A fee-based adviser since 1999 -- more than a decade before RDR made it fashionable -- Dominic has built a tight, intentional family firm in Cobham with ethics and relationships at its core.
In this conversation, Dominic and Abraham go head to head on index investing and capital concentration, the discomfort of owning companies you disagree with, wealth inequality and whether capitalism is working, US political dominance and what it means for portfolio allocation, the role of AI in advice, and how to help clients define "enough."
Honest, wide-ranging and genuinely provocative.