Catch them young and everyone benefits

Hence guidance is offered on pensions when the money is being drawn. Likewise, people seek financial advice when they feel they have accumulated enough money to be able to afford it, rather than when they want to accumulate it.

Surely advice and guidance are needed most when youngsters first begin to earn and spend money on their own account.

This was brought home to me recently by my elder stepson and his wife – usually a sensible pair when it comes to money.

They saved hard to build a deposit for their first home, which has more than doubled in value in six years. They both have pensions and cash Isas, and are overpaying their mortgage.

Then they told me they were saving into one investment Isa with their bank because it was more convenient.

They told me they were saving into one investment Isa with their bank because it was more convenient.

My arguments about performance and charges were roundly dismissed.

They need to be told the facts of life by an independent person whose views they may respect a bit more than a stepdad who has only written on money for 30 years or so.

Guidance and advice for the young is an issue that has been raised by pensions minster Baroness Ros Altmann and Royal London.

Royal London expressed concerns that the Lifetime Isa could undermine pension auto-enrolment.

Business development manager Jamie Clark pointed out that young people usually do not have a lot of money to spare, so they are likely to have to choose between one or the other.

On a wider point, many youngsters begin what could be a lifetime battle with borrowing on the day they enter university.

Banks lure them with credit cards and overdrafts, which must be serviced on top of student loans.

Solid financial advice could prove very valuable at this time – but who believes they can afford to pay for it?

Financial education may be recognised as part of the school curriculum, but it remains far too small a part.

What is really needed is an early introduction to the value of rounded financial guidance and advice – and by early I mean when youngsters are still at school and before they have had an opportunity to make any bad decisions.

Then again at university, and when they start to earn.

Ahh, but who will pay for it, I hear you ask?

I have no idea. But the benefits could be enormous So surely it is worth at least debating.

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Rich want a wealth of technology

Many high net-worth investors have at best a tenuous relationship with their financial adviser.

This suggestion comes from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which claims that only 39 per cent of high net-worth individuals out of the more than 1,000 it surveyed would recommend their current wealth manager.

PwC branded advice “one of the least tech-literate sectors in the financial services industry”.

And it warned that 47 per cent of those it surveyed who do not currently use robo-advice services would consider using them in the future.

It pointed out that 69 per cent use mobile or online banking yet only 25 per cent of wealth managers offer digital channels beyond email.

Now this is global research, and we must bear in mind that PwC does have its own wealth management operation.

But the survey does carry a warning that investors want access to technology beyond a simple marketing website or the occasional email.

Increasingly, people want to delve into their investments online so they can see for themselves what is happening.

They expect to operate through technology other than the phone and post.

Firms that do not respond could be swamped by those that do offer these 21st-century investment essentials

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ABI has finally found the light

Many years ago, when I was a younger scribbler, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) was not my favourite industry body.

It appeared little more than an apologist for a moribund industry steeped in pension and endowment mis-selling, as well as marketing dire with-profits bonds by dubious means.

Aviva UK Life’s chief executive Andy Briggs will step up as chairman of a rather different body.

The ABI today is a constructive contributor to debates about the future of family finance. Its output often appears far more tuned to the modernisers than the dinosaurs.

As a consumer journalist, I am never going to see eye-to-eye with an industry body on every issue. But to paraphrase Margaret Thatcher’s views on former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, today’s ABI is a trade body with which we can do business.