Who’s been IFA Talk-ing this month? A roundup of our January episodes

After a busy podcast schedule for us in 2025, the first month of the New Year has been no different, reports Matt Williams, Content Editor at IFA Magazine.  January saw Sue, Jenny Meg and I welcome a host of great guests into the IFA Talk studio to discuss a range of key topics all of relevance to financial advisers and their teams.

IFA Magazine’s flagship podcast, IFA Talk, continues to be an essential resource for financial professionals. Whether you want to just get a different perspective on a key topic or explore innovative solutions, IFA Talk offers short, snappy episodes perfect for on-the-go learning and professional development. We really love recording them, and we hope you find them just as useful.

Along with our regular weekly podcasts, which go live every Wednesday, we also brought you a full house of our special editions of IFA Talk. Our Tax-Efficient Investment (TEI), New Insurance & Protection (NI&P) and Mortgage and Property Investment (M&PI) specials, along with our special Wealth DFM Talk series on sister-site Wealth DFM, allow us to provide listeners with an even wider range of content and themes.

Below, I’ve tried to summarise the gist of conversations we brought you in January, along with a sneak preview of who’s talking to us in February here in the IFA Talk studio. But there’s no substitute for just tuning in and hearing them for yourself of course.

Closing the advice gap

We kicked off our IFA Talk 2026 series with Alex Sumner from Thrive, Blackfinch Group’s dedicated workplace pensions and benefits platform. Alex joined us to discuss strategies for growing a financial advice business and addressing the persistent advice gap, especially for those unable to afford full professional advice.

He explained how Thrive’s workplace pensions and financial wellbeing platform helps employers support their employees, while also creating opportunities for advisers to strengthen client engagement, generate leads, and enhance service offerings.

Valuing adviser independence

Next up was Martin Lockyer of Westminster Wealth Management, who so eloquently shared his many years of experience as an adviser and running an advice business. On our agenda were succession planning as well as the importance of maintaining adviser independence, in a landscape marked by consolidation and regulatory pressure.

Martin discussed the challenges advice firms face and emphasised that effective succession planning is not one-size-fits-all. The conversations we have with advisers are amongst our most popular – as well as being so enjoyable for us as hosts.

Focus on targeted support

Chet Velani EV joined us to chat through the FCA’s forthcoming Targeted Support framework. He provided practical insights into how Targeted Support might work in practice, clarifying that the aim is to complement rather than undermine traditional advice by using technology and scalable pathways to improve consumer outcomes.

Sustaining momentum

Our final regular series episode of IFA Talk in January saw Sue and I welcoming Patrick Murphy, a man with over 50 years of experience as a Financial Planner and business owner. Although he’s now stepped back from an advice role, Patrick leads Sustain Momentum and remains incredibly passionate about the profession – and using all his experience to support its future development. Hearing his reflections, plus his thinking around targeted support was fascinating. Guaranteed to get you thinking!

Special editions

Our New Insurance & Protection (NI&P) editions are proving super-popular too. In last month’s episode we explored the often mis-understood topic of economic abuse. To unpack this, we welcomed a familiar face into the studio, Royal London’s Senior Technical Manager Shelley Read.

Shelley explained what this means, outlining how it differs from financial abuse and how it impacts an individuals’ financial wellbeing and access to services like mortgages. The discussion highlighted the various forms economic abuse can take and who is most at risk, along with the important role advisers have in spotting warning signs and supporting vulnerable clients through protection conversations.

Also returning to the podcast, Jonathan Stinton from Coventry Building Society joined Sue and Meg for this month’s Mortgage & Property Investment (M&PI) edition to share his outlook for the 2026 mortgage market.

He offered insights into what brokers need most from lenders, how affordability is shaping client advice conversations, and where niche areas like limited company Buy-to-Let could offer growth opportunities.

The first Tax-Efficient Investment (TEI) special of 2026 featured not one, but two great guests from Octopus. Toyin Oyeneyin and Tim Dickens teamed up to share their insights on the 2025 Budget, in particular how it will affect VCTs given the changes coming up this year.

They unpacked what the VCT changes mean for financial advisers and clients, exploring key takeaways from the Budget, and revealed why private markets are gaining traction as part of long-term investment strategies.

We also brought you the latest instalment of Wealth DFM Talk, the sister podcast of IFA Talk. This month, Morningstar Wealth’s Mike Coop came to chat with Sue and I about what a weakening US dollar means for investors, and how advisers can think about diversification within investment portfolios – something that’s particularly relevant given all the market uncertainties just now.

Next Month

Looking ahead to February, we’ve got another great schedule for you here on IFA Talk. Be sure to tune in as we welcome back the Lang Cat’s Steve Nelson talking to us on one of our favourite subjects – the role of the paraplanner. Check out Jenny and Sue’s conversation with Foresight’s Lucy Clarke in February’s TEI special – really interesting insights into finding sustainable competitive advantage in today’s VCT market. Another corker will be Jenny and Meg’s chat with Ad Lucem’s Philip Wickenden for M&PI about the key asset of the home in the financial planning process (hear from Philip in our Mortgage section later in this edition of IFA Magazine). By joining us on the podcast, Philip is following in the path of his dad Tony, who we spoke to for an episode with Will Hale at the end of December. Do check that one out too if you’ve not already done so.

And last but definitely not least, John Lamb Hill Oldridge’s Ken Maxwell returns to speak to Jenny and Meg for NI&P, about celebrating 65 years as the UK’s leading protection broker and also why, in protection terms, whole of life isn’t the only solution for long-term IHT planning.  

Our podcasts are available on all major platforms, Spotify, Apple Podcasts etc and, even if we do say it ourselves, they’re very easy to listen to, even whilst you’re busy doing other things. If you’re a regular listener – thank you- we really appreciate it. If not, why not give IFA Talk a listen? We’re so pleased to get really good feedback from listeners and we’re pretty sure you’ll find them useful too.

Check out our IFA Talk podcasts here https://ifamagazine.com/podcasts/