Summer is upon us! At least that’s what the calendar says. British weather, of course, remains unconvinced. But whether you’re basking in actual sunshine or just dreaming of it between client meetings, there’s no better time to dive into a good book.
This year’s list is packed with energy — books that ask big questions, stretch your thinking, and speak to the real work of our profession: helping people navigate the messy middle where money meets meaning!
Whether you're poolside or perched with a coffee between Zoom calls, I hope something here lands with you.
Wealth 3.0: The Future of Family Wealth Advising
James Grubman, Dennis Jaffe & Kristin Keffeler
Wealth 3.0 challenges the age-old “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” myth — the idea that families inevitably squander wealth within three generations. Compelling? Yes. True? Not really. The authors show this narrative has little empirical backing and no predictive power. In fact, it's a great example of the fear-based storytelling that too often dominates financial services.
This book offers a strength-based alternative. It draws on positive psychology and reframes wealth as a tool for learning, adaptation, and long-term flourishing — even if the money itself doesn’t last.
“If a family chooses to use its resources to develop new ventures, help the world, support its community, educate its children, or invest in its future, and it does so successfully, then the family will have achieved its goals even if the wealth is dissipated in the process.”
This is the evolution of legacy planning — from protecting the pot to nurturing the people. If you work with family wealth (or aspire to), this is your intellectual upgrade.
The Longevity Imperative: Building a Better Society for Healthier, Longer Lives
Andrew J. Scott
Scott reframes longevity not just as a demographic trend, but as an existential shift — one that demands a fundamental rethink of how we plan, age, work, and live.
What I love is how he balances personal responsibility with systemic change. Yes, society, medicine, and policy need to evolve, but individuals need to manage their own health and ageing!
“Ageing is a recursive process. What you do today impacts where you are in the future. If you want to age well in your sixties, it’s better to reach sixty with a good level of health.”
Scott also points out that medicine is still largely focused on disease, not health. As W.H. Auden quipped, health is the state about which medicine has nothing to say.
For financial planners, this shift has massive implications. Retirement at 65 made sense when most people were dead by 85. Now? Clients are looking at 30, even 40 post-work years. That changes everything about wealth, work, purpose, and relationships.
This book helps you frame those conversations with clarity and confidence.
The Supernova Advisor: Crossing the Invisible Bridge to Exceptional Client Service and Consistent Growth
Rob Knapp
Those of you who joined us for the Growth Series earlier this year will remember this one. I recommended it then — and I’m doubling down now.
The Supernova model is a masterclass in applying the 80/20 rule to client service. Focus on your top clients. Serve them like royalty. Build your practice around exceptional, proactive engagement — and, yes, let go of the clients for whom you can’t deliver that standard. Then watch referrals roll in like clockwork.
If your business feels stuck, this might just be the reset you need.
The Soul of Wealth: 50 Reflections on Money and Meaning
Dr. Daniel Crosby
If you were at Adviser 3.0, you might’ve walked away with a copy — maybe even signed by the good doctor himself. If not, it’s time to put that right.
Part psychology, part behavioural science, part quiet therapy for the money professional, this book helps us explore not just what we do for clients, but why it matters.
Why do clients sabotage their own goals? Why does money so often mess with identity? Why do values matter more than spreadsheets?
Read it for insight — but also read it for yourself.
Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life
Bill Perkins
I read this a while back, but it’s more relevant now than ever. And just to warn you, it will challenge your thinking. And since my magical wife read it, let’s just say our net worth has taken a bit of a dent…
Perkins argues — powerfully and uncomfortably — that the purpose of money isn’t to hoard it, but to convert it into life: experiences, memories, joy.
One of his most haunting ideas is the idea of peak utility of money;
“If the peak utility of money occurs at age 30, then at age 30, every dollar buys you one dollar’s worth of enjoyment. By age 50, the utility of money has declined considerably: Either you would get a lot less enjoyment out of that same dollar, or you would need more money (say, $1.50) to obtain the same amount of enjoyment.”
Perkins has a particularly poignant message for those of us in the business of retirement planning:“
"…. you retire on your memories. When you’re too frail to do much of anything else, you can still look back on the life you’ve lived and experience immense pride, joy, and the bittersweet feeling of nostalgia. The idea that you retire on your memories runs completely counter to most of what we normally hear about retirement.”
In our bid to help people plan and invest for later life, we mustn’t lose sight of life itself. The goal isn’t just to preserve wealth, but to convert it, intentionally and joyfully, into a life rich with meaning, stories, and moments worth remembering.
It’s a wake-up call for us and our clients: don’t defer joy forever.
Man’s Search for Meaning
Viktor E. Frankl
This one runs deep, but it’s never been more relevant to our profession.
As I said in my keynote at Adviser 3.0, as AI rips through the profession and the wider financial industry, automating everything numerical and much of the intellectual aspect of financial planning, what remains? Helping people navigate the messy middle between money and a meaningful life.
Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist, believed meaning comes from three sources: work, love, and courage during difficult times.
Think about retirement. People leave work, often a major source of identity, and come to us not just to ask, “Can I afford to stop?” but “What comes next?”
Many clients are no longer wrestling with daily money worries per se. They’re asking deeper questions about purpose. And financial planners are uniquely placed to help them explore those questions, not because we have the answers, but because we ask the right ones.
‘We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.’
If you’ve read this before, read it again. It will light a fire in your soul!
Gimson’s Prime Ministers
Andrew Gimson
Yes, this one’s from left field. But hear me out.
I am a sucker for a good business biography — but political bios? They usually put me to sleep faster than a gilt yield curve. To be fair, I did make it halfway through Hamilton, which captures the rise of America through the life of one man. It sparked something. If you want to understand a country’s economy, you need to understand its leaders.
This book is a collection of short, punchy portraits of every UK Prime Minister from Walpole to Johnson — packed with wit, irreverence, and insight. Each PM gets about 3–4 pages, making it ideal for snatched moments between meetings.
This book is a delightfully breezy crash course in the people and personalities who’ve shaped modern Britain.
Final Thought
None of these books are about technical mastery. They’re about human mastery — how to connect, how to listen, how to ask better questions and help clients live more meaningful lives.
This is the direction of travel for the profession. Better to walk into it fully awake than be dragged there reluctantly.
Happy reading. Happy summer.
— Abraham
