The Wisdom Council

What a year it’s been! 🎉 As we wave goodbye to 2024 (with a mix of nostalgia and relief 😅), I wanted to take a moment to reflect on an incredible year for The Wisdom Council. 🚀 We launched CitizeniQ, our fintech baby, featuring a Propensity to Vulnerability Scale that helps firms predict and prevent financial risks. 🥹 Being selected for the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab in partnership with FinTech Scotland was a proud moment for the team. 📊 Our Illusion of Knowledge report was a wake-up call 😱 : while 52% of people thought they understood financial concepts, only 10% actually did. This inspired us to develop our Consumer Understanding Barometer—helping firms bridge the gap between what people THINK they know and what they truly DO. 🗣️ We amplified consumer voices through our retail investor community - The Wise Society, updates. They told us optimism is growing, but economic uncertainty and affordability barriers remain stubborn obstacles. Beyond the stats, we embraced our B Corp mission: 🤝 Volunteering with Food Bank Aid and The Conservation Volunteers. 📢 Representing the consumer on Financial Conduct Authority and The Investment Association working groups. 🏆 Judging industry awards. Personal highlights include being invited to join the Bank of England’s CEO Decision Maker Panel, and continuing to lead Women in Banking and Finance - UK as CEO. A heartfelt thank you 💖 to everyone who’s been part of this journey—our clients, partners, and the incredible The Wisdom Council team. None of this would be possible without your trust and collaboration. Here’s to a joyful holiday season 🎄✨ and a prosperous 2025! 🥂 Anna Lane Founder & CEO

Delighted to be presenting our fintech platform, #CitizeniQ, at the 2024 Market Research Society (MRS) Financial Services Research conference. Among many really great discussions on the empathy required to design for vulnerable customers and on the role of AI in research, our Head of Data, Michael Fisher and CEO, Anna Lane, shared how we are embracing the best of both. The Wisdom Council's innovative model combines behavioural insights with robust data science methodologies to develop a predictive model of vulnerability characteristics. Thanks also to Clair Banning from St. James’s Place for sharing her thoughts. Interested in learning more? Get in touch! #marketresearchsociety #fintech #vulnerability #financialservicesresearch

🚀 Are women thriving, or just surviving financially? We’re combining 20 years of Scottish Widows insights with The Wisdom Council's groundbreaking Yes She Can pension engagement nudges— borrowing smart ideas from consumer brands and purchase psychology. Add in our fintech CitizeniQ's predictive tech, Starcount's advanced analytics and the The Female Lead's incredible community of 9 million women and together we’re rethinking EVERYTHING about financial engagement. get ready to turn insights into action 💥 👇 Scan to join or click on the link below: https://lnkd.in/egyedZ4A

SO proud - CitizeniQ, The Wisdom Council's fintech, has been selected for the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab’s third Innovation Call! 🚀 ❤️ Financial well-being isn’t a luxury—it’s essential. Yet, financial services remain the only UK sector where customers still struggle to understand what they pay for. Consider this: • 70% of fees and charges documents aren't fit for purpose. • The average UK reading age is between 9 and 11 • 49% of working-age adults have numeracy skills expected of a primary school child. Financial education alone won’t fix this. Most people don’t retain complex financial concepts, and they shouldn’t have to. What people need are timely, empathetic reminders at crucial moments. That's why we built CitizeniQ: combining our deep consumer insights, behavioral science, and AI to deliver better outcomes—at scale. Congrats to all FinTechs, Thank you FinTech Scotland and SuperTech WM!

Big moment for our fintech, CitizeniQ: We’ve been selected as one of the 20 fintechs advancing in the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab’s third Innovation Call! 🚀 Honoured to be in this elite cohort, tackling the Consumer Duty challenge with some of the smartest minds in the industry. Shoutout to our Founder and CEO, Anna Lane, for leading the charge on stage alongside our brilliant Data Scientist, Michael Fisher CitizeniQ has been four years in the making, harnessing AI, behavioral science, and real-time data to delivering better customer outcomes. We're here to disrupt the status quo and make financial services actually work for people. Congrats to all the teams moving forward and thank you FinTech Scotland, SuperTech WM ! #ConsumerDuty #FinancialInclusion #CitizeniQ

As we head into the weekend, we wanted to remind people that this week's (9-13 September) been Pension Awareness Week, which looks to offer practical help to the people (and their employees) about saving and investing for their retirement so they can achieve the lifestyle they want. And while many firms are working hard to get this message out to people, we still need more people - beyond the financial services industry - to realise how incredibly important a topic retirement planning is. Our own CEO, Anna Lane, joined the team at abrdn to flag that it’s even more important for women to understand what’s happening with their finances and to start engaging. In this clip, Anna talks about the ‘motherhood penalty’ related to pensions and that it could mean a gap of about £100,000. You can catch up on the whole episode here: https://bit.ly/3ZnGi6F. At The Wisdom Council, we believe everyone deserves a secure financial future and, for that to happen, people need to start to engage and understand what’s happening with their savings and investments. Why not start by listening to this podcast? #PensionAwarenessWeek #PAW24

The FCA's "Consumer Duty – 1 Year On" webinar brought to the forefront many of the challenges and opportunities we're addressing in our own 20 August webinar — "From Static to Dynamic: Advanced Approaches to Predicting Financial Vulnerability" — with the regulator emphasising the ongoing need for innovation, data-driven strategies and a deep understanding of consumer needs. Firms have made progress in their eyes, but there's still much more to do, particularly in support of vulnerable customers.   Our webinar will dive into critical themes and offer practical strategies to: 1. Deepen Consumer Understanding through a holistic view of your customers, integrating data from multiple sources 2. Innovate for Better Outcomes, especially enhancing outcomes for vulnerable customers 3. Align with Consumer Duty practices and the latest FCA regulations to stay compliant and competitive. 🗓 Tuesday 20 August 2024, 12-1pm 🖥 Register now: https://lnkd.in/e2bvdEps

A healthy firm culture and a holistic approach to Consumer Duty are the foundations of good practice for the FCA, which last week set out the key themes they're likely to focus on in their supervisory role over the next year or so. And, for us at The Wisdom Council, 3 topics came through loud and clear: 1. Knowing your customers is not optional – alongside products that really deliver on expected customer outcomes, you need to ensure your target market and distribution strategy is coherent and meets the nuanced needs of all your customers  2. The value conversation is not going away – 5 factors need to be balanced when demonstrating that you're delivering value to end consumers. Do you understand these and have them all of those evidenced? 3. Effective communication and support are fundamental to Consumer Duty – many firms have stepped up their customer communications strategy, but some haven't and poor communication – according to the Financial Ombudsman Service – is a big reason behind a lot of the complaints they deal with We all know that effective, open, authentic communication is critical to unlocking trust. Our recent Consumer Duty research, for example, highlighted that 6 out of 10 documents on fees and charges were not fit for purpose. Not only does a substantive review of these – within the context of your customer journey – ensure you're setting out how you'll deliver customer value, but you'll also ensure that your customers really understand what they're buying from you, set up the right level of expectations and make sure that everything is clear, relevant, accessible and complete. It’s all about the outcomes and we can help you achieve those – just get in touch. Read our latest post explaining more: https://lnkd.in/efYmMHWt

Traditional models of financial vulnerability are outdated, focusing too much on static life events and not enough on evolving consumer behaviours and needs. Join our game-changing webinar as we unveil our unique approach, challenging conventional perspectives and setting new standards for support strategies in the industry. 🗓 20 August 2024, 12-1pm Our expert panel will explore the complexities of vulnerability through a multifaceted lens, incorporating consumer insights, data science and behavioural studies. Whether you focus on marketing, product development, risk management, or customer outcomes, this webinar offers fresh thinking to enhance your existing approach – leading to better consumer outcomes. 🖥 Register here: https://lnkd.in/e9f9sFq5

We are delighted that the team at The Wisdom Council took home the prize last night for Consumer Duty Leadership in Consumer Investments.   We would like to thank the judges – an impressive independent panel of experts and academics – for selecting our entry from a great list of firms. We are also delighted that this award celebrates the work we do for our clients without whom we could not have entered, and in particular David Blackburn from Rathbones Group Plc and Olubunmi Stuber from M&G plc.   The inaugural Consumer Duty Leadership Awards were organised by an Innovate UK-supported consortium and aim to drive positive change in financial services. This approach is one that clearly resonates with us given our own clear social purpose and certified B Corp status.    We are so glad that our hard work on all aspects of consumer duty testing has been shown to be market leading and we look forward to being able to continue to showcase the outstanding capabilities of The Wisdom Council.