There have been plenty of unsettling headlines about Artificial Intelligence lately. Some focus on how quickly it’s developing; some ask what jobs it might replace, others cover incidents of it going ‘rogue’. But when I think about it from a financial planning perspective, I find myself looking at a different question: what might it change about the life we’re planning for?

I'm having more conversations about inheritance tax and gifting money to loved ones at the moment, partly because of the changes coming in April 2027. From then, pensions will count as part of your estate, which could pull more of your wealth into the scope of inheritance tax - and it's got a lot of people thinking about gifting while they're still alive as a way to reduce that bill.

When someone comes to see me, they often open with a version of the same question: "Is my pension ok?"

The truth is, it’s not really about if your pension's ok. What matters is whether you're ok.

And this is where I think it’s helpful to think about retirement as two doors.

When you first meet with a financial adviser, one of the topics that you will end up discussing is investment risk.

One of the most common comments I hear during review meetings is:

"Ok, tell me the bad news."

What's interesting is that this often comes from clients whose investments have actually performed very well.