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Insights from the Experts - Sustainable Financial Planning · Financial Planner Life Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hi guys, welcome back to this week's episode of Financial Planner Life, and this one's a little bit different.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to compile some of the key takeaways I've had from guests on the podcast talking everything sustainability.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: This week we came to what's known as Earth Overshoot Day, which means we have used all of the natural resources Earth gives us, and everything else for the rest of the year will be on borrowed time.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let's put it into perspective.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Why does it matter that we need to bring this conversation to the forefront?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you've looked at the news in the last couple of weeks, it is overwhelming what is going on in the world.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Not only is Greece experiencing more wildfires, but you're having floods in Italy, people losing their lives.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: You look at Pakistan last year, a third of their country was underwater.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And when you consider the people displaced from that, it's having a profound impact on people's lives worldwide.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if you recall the heat wave last summer in London, it was the busiest day for firefighters since the blitz.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: We aren't prepared as a country for climate change.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And when you look at what politicians are doing and you look at the policies they're putting in place, it's not measuring up to the action we need.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why it's so important we recognize that as a collaborative community, as a business, as a profession, there is so much positive impact we can have.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why this is so crucial to listen to, because we have the power individually and collectively to have a real positive change.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: So the first person we're going to be hearing from is Tom Jaffery.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Tom works at Blackfinch Asset Management, and he's going to be talking about how the conversation is changing intergenerationally when it comes to financial planning.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And this is something which will really relate to you when speaking with clients.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because as much as the future generation are very passionate about saving the planet, helping the environmental crisis, you'll be pleased to know that even the older generations are just as passionate.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And bridging that gap of knowledge and conversation is so critical moving forward.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think renewable energy and the venture capital is, you know, you've got people who are, I love the word disrupt there.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: I love an industry disruptor, people coming in and really changing the way things are done.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what needs to happen.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think 10 years ago the conversation was nowhere near as loud as it is now.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I think from an industry perspective, the momentum is picking up and people are becoming a lot more aware.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that as people coming through generationally, the people who want to invest their money, would you say that there's like a generational split of who wants to step into having you know an ESG-focused portfolio?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Or would you say you're seeing a lot more of your sort of older clients coming through?
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they might actually know I want to step into this side of the industry as well.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: I want to incorporate this in my portfolio.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_04: It's interesting.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_04: I think definitely the younger generation are more switched on when it comes to the impact of their portfolio, their investments, and what their investments are doing.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_04: I tend to see that the older generation, some of some of them are switched on, but generally speaking, most of them care about their returns, uh, care about their returns first.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_04: But where I find that quite interesting is I think when you're looking into the future and you're looking into generating return into the future.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_04: My my view is that investments that have a strong grasp of ESG fundamentals will actually help you generate a return into the future, which I think that connection and I think that understanding with the slightly older generation who tend to have a bit more money is missing slightly because I don't think that's been the case historically.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_04: And actually, you've seen over the last six months with the current market correction that we're going through, um, that it's actually been the dirtiest stocks or the dirtier investments from an ESG point of view that have performed quite well.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um thinking of like your oil stocks or your your kind of financial companies that tend to have not as good ESG ratings as some of your other investments, but actually, I think when you're looking five years or 10 years into the future, it will actually be those ESG high scorers that will actually generate your returns into the future.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um I do think that the younger generation have a have a much better grasp on it and it means much more to them because I think it's become much more of a um a talked-about topic, and you're just much more switched on.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_04: You've you've been born with it, about the with the conversation, as opposed to trying to develop or um change your understanding from what you knew from the 70s or the 80s.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna next hear from Rebecca Kowalski.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Rebecca's somebody who, since the podcast, she's continued to beat the drum of championing climate change and sustainability in financial planning.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: She's gonna be talking about how the conversation's changed with clients over her career.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it's gone from people who have the values and the ethics they have just in their day-to-day life to now current clients who come in and say, I want to talk about what I can do with my money that's going to help the environment.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Through your career of financial planning, how has the conversation changed?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, 20 years ago, were people was it even on people's lips?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, were people actually discussing, you know, the planets got really warm and the ice caps might melt?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_05: No, I mean from from memory, I think the first you got the occasional client who was ethical, you know, so you'd have religious clients who wanted to exclude things, and you know, it was kind of clear from everything about their lifestyles that they would want to kind of match their investments to that, but they were yeah, very, very few and far between, and and the options available to them were were very, very limited, you know.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_05: So the industry has developed so much.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, it's still developing, but even you know, I would say only in the last two years really that you can really properly across all aspects of your portfolio, properly diversify it and have different strategies and different asset classes that are thinking about sustainability as a factor.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, that that that gives us great opportunity because you know, one of the things that ever since with my former employer we introduced a sustainable option was that we wanted to make sure that the clients who chose that were not in any way disadvantaged over clients who didn't, you know, so they they didn't have to accept more risk or pay higher costs or move to a different product, you know, that that that they had that choice and that it was a level playing field apart from the fact that they wanted to choose um to kind of aim towards a different kind of future with their portfolio, I suppose, you know, because I mean everything that we invest in is is long-term and is is for the future, but it's just kind of imagining what that future is going to be like, basically, you know, which which vision of a future do you want to invest in, you know?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_05: So um so yeah, um but I still think that as much as you know there are all these surveys coming out saying, you know, 70% of clients want to invest sustainably, you know, the numbers differ, but the general message is the same.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, there's a new survey every week.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_05: But I still think that the majority of clients don't yet have the confidence to come into a room and see a financial advisor and say, I want this, you know, they're still waiting to be told what they can have.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_05: And and I think that's you know, that's where the advisors who really want to take this seriously can kind of scale up in that area.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_05: It's not gonna be that hard, you know.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_05: You just have to be honest with your clients, tell them that you that this is a new area for you, that it's changing all the time, that none of us can be experts in all aspects of it, but just kind of have an engaged conversation, find out what they know, you know, because increasingly I think a lot of clients are gonna be uh coming across sustainability in other walks of their life.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, they might be able to educate you on one aspect of it, you know, they might be experts on uh, I don't know, renewable energy or fast fashion or something like that, and they can teach you more than you know on that aspect of the portfolio, but your your role is still to tell them how that fits into their overall investment framework and their risk and their financial planning and things like that.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_05: So I think it it can create a more equal conversation between advisors and clients, which I think is a great thing.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_05: I think um one of the things that sustainable investing kind of sheds a light on really is the whole dynamic between advisors and clients and financial services really as a whole, you know, like the terrible habits we have of speaking in a language that our clients don't understand, you know, and the the more that we can try and address that across the board as a part of the sustainable investment exercise, the better.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_05: Um, which you know it fits in very well with the the consumer duty paper that the FCA's have brought out.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_05: I think, you know, if you if you read that, you can really apply some of the the kind of expectations that that's placing on advisors that the kind of doing sustainable sustainable investing well will really kind of uh fulfill the consumer duty expectations, you know.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_05: So I think you know, hopefully it's a sign.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_05: Um you know, the SCA actually seems really on board with climate change, which is which is quite refreshing.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_05: You know, people see the FCA as an organization that makes things more difficult, you know.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_05: Sometimes it it's necessary that it does that, but I do actually think it is really trying to enable sustainable investment, you know.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_05: So maybe taking a little bit longer, but that's just the nature of a complex situation.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: The next person we're going to be listening to is Jay Street.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: So Jay is a financial advisor who set up his own business, mindful wealth, when opportunities in the profession didn't offer him the ethical values he was seeking.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to talk about the mindset you need to implement these values into your business.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I really think you're going to take away something from what Jay has to say.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think sustainability is a word.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: It is the word that at the moment I always try and encompass it within it's it's everything you can be sustainable in whatever you do.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: And even when I was interviewing for recruitment, it was the one question I asked every single company: what are you doing about sustainability?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I didn't specify because you can be sustainable in how you hire and how you train and how you look after your employees.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: There is a social sustainability as well as the environmental.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I think in terms of putting your money where your heart is, you must have some great conversations with your clients.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: You, you know, you must have that such synergy when they come in and they talk about what they want to do.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: It sort of elevates because it's so linked to your own values as well, that you must get some beautiful synergy there.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I think how how how long has mindful wealth been open for now?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: How long have you been running?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: So um, just to pick up on your comment, by the way, about sustainability, that's exactly why I picked one of the main reasons why I picked the ide uh the name mindful wealth is because um when you ask people about sustainability, they all have a different version of what that means to them.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_03: So I wanted a really um inclusive uh cast a very wide net as to um I didn't want to use the buzzwords of ethical or sustainable.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_03: So that's how I come up with the word mindful wealth, it's just about being more uh conscious and mindful about what you're doing.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_03: And there's no right or wrong answer, so we try and be really inclusive.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_03: But mindful wealth is in year three now.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_03: So we're still, I guess, uh counter as a startup, um, which is great because I think um the more established you get as a business, the the harder things are to actually make changes.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_03: And whilst we uh so all of our um recommendations are FCA regulated, so there's some restriction there, but I like to be able to make changes very quickly and adapt.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that's great.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_03: And also everything I'm doing is usually the first time in terms of um, I've done a few podcasts now, but when I'm speaking to new people, that's that's what I love.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_03: So um, yeah, it's really exciting to be on this journey.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: And you mentioned as well that you went on the journey of looking at your own ethics and your own values and stepping into the world of veganism.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I was 11 when I went vegetarian.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I've been on a very on and off journey.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm currently eating meat, I'm eating fish, but I think it's been a long journey.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm now 26, almost 27.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: So more than half my life I've been dipping in and out of veganism.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: And how would you say that?
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Has it like elevated yourself and how you service?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel like you have people coming to you who are like, you've got vegan clients who are looking for stuff?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think when you're a vegan, you'd like you said, it's a lifestyle choice.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've got a client, I know when I was vegan, I would Google like vegan hairdresser, I would Google vegan everything to try and find a resource or a service.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: So do you have like a lot of vegan clients coming to you?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_03: I do, and there are a couple of I do a lot of work within the vegan community, and uh there's now uh vegan-only um networking groups, and um so we're vegan-founded, for example, we're part of vegan business tribe, so there's all these things that are not niche anymore, and really um it's it is still a little bit of a stigma to to say the word vegan and to hear that word, but really if you just think of it as a as a as a set of values, um and just like any other decision we're making, uh whatever we're buying or whatever services and things we're doing, I think you're completely right.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_03: People are now much more in tune with actually looking for those things.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_03: I certainly look within my business and personally at everything I buy, whether it's stationary or marketing or any freelancers that help uh mindful wealth, I always look for that same set of values.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_03: So it doesn't necessarily have to be vegan, but um certainly on the sustainable side, because I think another thing which we may touch upon, um to put it in a positive light, I think uh greenwashing is is all over.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_03: So you're getting a lot of the bigger corporate companies that are saying things but not necessarily backing them up with their actions or the things in the background.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm always um to use the word, always very mindful of that within my company.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_03: So everything I do, I try my hardest to make sure that I really look into it and be very conscious with the decisions I'm making.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing information from Jay.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the next guest is a CEO of a business influencing people of how to put their pensions into purpose.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: So when looking at future generations, so your children, your grandchildren, your clients' children, and their grandchildren, how can you put a financial plan into place when we don't know what the plan it's going to look like in 50 to 100 years?
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: So Charlotte's going to talk to us about how investing for future generations should be at the forefront of your mind.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Take it away, Charlotte.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's such a convoluted topic, isn't it, when you start looking at the impact that you can have?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, some people, financial advisors, their clients might not, like you said, believe in climate change.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: It might not be on the forefront of their mind.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: They might be 10 years to retirement and they want their return.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it is about bringing that into a conversation in an organic but also very matter-of-fact way that, you know, yes, you want a return on your investment, but actually think about they might have children, they might have grandchildren, the return on their investments is going to be heavily impacted by what we're already seeing in the world around us.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I think with that said as well, how have you noticed the conversation in the industry change?
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: At what point did it click with you?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is really going to change now.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: I want to get, I want to go with this ball that's running.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think we've obviously seen a lot um going around um in the press and media about um you know ESG and greenwashing.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I think there's there's always the risk of that.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: When you start looking into a new area, um, there are always going to be those that say they're ahead of the curve and aren't.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: There are always going to be those that are, you know, not pulling the wall over your eyes, but but maybe don't have all of the data.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: There are going to be gaps, you know, and we have to accept that to a certain extent.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: But I think the difficulty was that with ESG, yes, we were trying to understand risk, um, but we weren't really trying to understand the impact of the company on the world.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: We were trying, we were trying to understand the risk of the world on the company.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: And these are two very different things.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: And people talk about double materiality, and double materiality are exactly those two things.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: So the only way you really make sense of ESG, you know, those different risks, whether it's um climate risks or whether it's social risks, um, is if you actually have impact objectives.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: So, what is the impact you're trying to have?
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: And what is the impact you're trying to mitigate?
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you know, do you want, do you do you want um, you know, to be investing in companies that are producing products that limit people's lifespan, you know, and and contribute to huge NHS bills, or you know, um I mean how you know, and what and also what is the long-term sustainability of a company with that with those sorts of products?
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and those are the sorts of questions that you need to ask yourself, and then you know what the investment case is, because the thing is, it's all well and good looking at eBITDA, you know, price earnings ratios, but largely these are short-term um views of finances.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas when we're thinking about impact, this is much longer term, and when we think about things like climate change, much longer term, although you know it's starting to become um shorter term um with what we're seeing in the UK currently.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I think so.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: We've needed to embed these factors in a different way, which doesn't fit with the typical one-year, three-year, five-year um sort of returns that people tend to look at at on funds.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we need to be looking at you know 10-year time horizons and really understanding um how we're investing, but also we need to be investing in private investments that have longer lockup periods, you know, um, because those are going to provide the technologies of the future.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and typically everyone, particularly from a pension fund perspective, but institutional perspective, has has tried to go for risk mitigation.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: So we don't want to get into you know risky areas where there could be the potential to lose money.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, if you don't build up those industries, you don't have anything to challenge the big public companies and the practices that they employ.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I think there is a big, there's a big difference now.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: One of the biggest differences is regulation.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: So we've got the mandation of um uh climate-related financial disclosures.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: That that's massive, you know.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: So that's actually written in trustees for pension funds and institutional investors um need to be looking at climate change scenario analysis.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, how how does their return profile, fiscal return profile, look in the context of you know, a 1.5 degree, two degree, four-degree world, and what do they need to be doing within their portfolio and outside of that in order to try and mitigate it?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but what's good about net you know, net zero targets is it's not just focusing on mitigation, it is also focused on investing in positive solutions, and there hasn't been enough of a focus on that.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, you know, we we can do all of the challenge, all of the engagement with the big um companies in the FTSE or MSEI World Index, but that doesn't necessarily provide us with all of the answers that we need because they are in industries that have contributed to the climate change that we have seen.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: So we do need um other up-and-coming and innovative companies to come along that potentially provide new technologies to those businesses, for example, in order to allow them to transform.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so it again it comes back down to a mindset.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, yes, the regulation which I mentioned, and we've now got the task force for nature-related financial disclosures, we've got um uh a government-backed um group looking at social factors as well for occupational pension schemes, which is great that we're going down that that track, but we do have to commit to something there to make that tangible.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you found that as inspiring as I did when I initially spoke to Charlotte.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of those podcast conversations that really stuck with me, as did all of these guests, but in particular the next guest as well.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, Seb Elwell will be sharing how it is everybody's responsibility.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember when I first spoke to Seb about climate change, about the climate crisis, I mentioned, okay, let's talk about people wanting to join the profession.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: What can they do?
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: What qualifications can they take?
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: What route can they go down to really make a difference?
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: And his response was this isn't just their responsibility.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: When you look at the marketing and you look at the message out there, you look at educating children around the climate crisis, but should this really sit on their shoulders when they've been born into this world and they don't know anything different?
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: And Seb's going to talk about where the responsibility lies.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it lies with all of us.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm sure there's lots of young people listening who are entering into the profession who are going, oh my gosh, that's so inspiring.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's definitely something I want to go into.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I know when we spoke last time, I actually got a bit teary when we spoke last time about this because in a good way, in a good way.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because I was saying, you know, I'm sure it'd be really inspiring.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: I speak to people on the daily who want to get qualifications which are geared up for, you know, climate and investments and everything sustainable that they can do.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: But to hear somebody in the profession now saying this is just going to be really inspiring.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you were like, Yeah, but it doesn't sit on their shoulders.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like it doesn't just sit on these young people's shoulders to come into the profession, get these qualifications, and solve everything.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, dive into that because I know we had a great convo around that.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: So I I sit on the advisory board of Solo, which is Society of Later Life Advisors.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, my my first expertise be beyond sustainability was was later life advice, care planning, and um, but but everything post-retirement, you know, how how to do a sustainable income.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's and that sustainable income is probably where you hear the word sustainable used most in financial planning, which has got nothing to do with sustainability in terms of climate science.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: They just mean your income keeps coming in.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but climate change is often portrayed as an issue for the young.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know, this is this is a this is for young people to solve.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_02: Young people are going to have to solve the world.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, well, young people haven't yet messed the world up.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_02: They might go on to do that, but but right now it's not really fair to lay the responsibility on young people to change the world.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: The older you are, the more likely you are to have assets.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the more likely you are to vote.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe that's not true anymore.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe it shouldn't be true.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but older people have the money, they have the assets, they have the political power, they're in positions of leadership in their businesses right now.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and it's for people that have power right now, that have the responsibility to make the change right now, not put that burden on the next generation.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's it's my generation and older that have emitted the carbon, it's our job to sort it out.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: I was really moved by uh it was Carl Sagan who talks about the cosmos from the 70s.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: He was he was a an American um science journalist.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um he gave evidence to the Senate Select Committee describing in detail uh the greenhouse gas effect and what the consequences would be.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and there was a young senator there uh called Al Gore, who went on to make a bit of a name for himself.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_02: And he he gave the sort of scientific speech that you would get from any climate scientist today, but he did it in 1985 when I was four.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's not like people didn't know, it's not like they weren't told, but they've chosen to ignore it.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_02: Now I didn't have any power as a four-year-old when I was young into the profession.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know what I learned about the greenhouse gas effect when I was in secondary school?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_02: I think it was year nine science.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's not like I didn't know, but I was a teenage parent with no money, lived in a caravan for a period of time on first training contracts because we didn't just couldn't afford to have a proper house.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I was just concentrating on other things and doing exams.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: So it was when I was in a position where I actually know I can start my own business, it really started to dawn on me that it's my responsibility to change this now so that my kids have got a chance you know to wait for my children to grow up is just morally bankrupt.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um you know, so if you're in a position of power or influence in whatever shape, however small or big, then it's your duty to act now.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the experts.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to share this with you because it's a continuous conversation.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: I genuinely believe, and I think we have to genuinely believe that we do have the power to change.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Humans have overcome so much adversity, and I think rediscovering our connection with nature and the planet will really link into financial planning.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to go away and think about what you can do.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: When you're looking at your career and your family, the things that matter to you, it's all so dependent on the planet that we live in.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: And when considering sustainability and financial planning, I genuinely think financial planners have so much influence and so much credibility in playing their part in this.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: When you think about you can build these amazing sustainable investment funds, but if you don't have a financial advisor who's going to point people in the right direction, what is the point?
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is bridging the gap between sustainability and financial planning.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're genuinely about to embrace a movement.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: And as I always quote my dad in these episodes, he's always said, if you want to make change, you go where the money is.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: And as a financial planner, you are in that position to really influence that.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: Please reach out to myself, anyone else at Financial Planner Life.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely reach out to these guests if you want to know how you can make a difference in your business.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're a business owner, you're a financial planner, a power planner, or somebody wanting to join the profession.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.