🌱 Welcome — start here
If you’ve found your way here, you may be feeling one of three things:
- You want to plan your life and finances more intentionally
- You’re in the middle of a transition and things feel uncertain
- Something has gone wrong, and you’re trying to regain clarity or control
This space exists to help you think calmly and clearly, whatever stage you’re at.
No products.
No sales pressure.
No jargon.
Just practical frameworks that help you organise what matters and decide your next step.
What this site is about
I’m Steve Conley, founder of the Academy of Life Planning.
My work focuses on a simple idea:
Most financial harm isn’t caused by bad people —
it’s caused by systems designed without human agency at the centre.
Everything here is about restoring that agency.
That means:
- planning life before money
- putting purpose, income, and wellbeing in the right order
- helping people move forward calmly — even after harm
Where to begin
You don’t need to understand everything at once.
Most people don’t.
Start with the path that matches where you are now:
🔹 I want to plan well
→ Explore the Academy of Life Planning
Life-first planning for individuals and professionals.
🔹 I’m in transition or rethinking my direction
→ Financial Life Coach
Support and mentoring without product bias.
🔹 Something has gone wrong
→ Get SAFE
Free, trauma-informed support for people affected by financial exploitation.
(You can always move between these later.)
About me
My background is in senior financial services roles.
I now focus on where harm tends to arise in practice — system design, incentives, opacity, and loss of agency.
My approach is deliberately non-adversarial.
I help people replace noise with structure, and overwhelm with clear next steps.
If you’d like to talk
Sometimes a short conversation is the quickest way to get unstuck.
📅 A 20-minute call to help you decide what not to do next
👉 https://www.aolp.info/book-online
About the Academy of Life Planning
The Academy of Life Planning exists to help people plan their lives before planning their money.
Traditional financial planning often starts with products, projections, or optimisation. This work starts somewhere else: with purpose, agency, and how you want your life to function in practice.
The Academy supports individuals and professionals to move away from extractive, sales-led models and toward approaches that prioritise clarity, autonomy, wellbeing, and long-term coherence.
Planning here is not about transactions.
It’s about design.
The GAME Plan™ – Planning Life Before Money
At the centre of this work is the GAME Plan™ — a practical planning framework built around four stages:
Goals → Actions → Means → Execution
The sequence matters.
Most systems start with execution or products and work backwards. The GAME Plan starts with life goals, then aligns decisions, resources, and action to support them.
You don’t need to understand the whole framework upfront.
It’s designed to unfold as you use it — whether you’re planning for yourself or supporting others.
Ways People Work With Us
People usually arrive here in different situations. These are the main ways we help.
Planning My Life (PML)
Self-directed planning for people who want clarity, confidence, and control.
No products.
No sales pressure.
Just practical tools to organise life and money on your terms.
Financial Life Coach (FLC)
Mentoring and guidance for people and professionals in transition.
This is for situations that feel complex, uncertain, or stuck — where a calm, experienced perspective helps you move forward without product bias.
👉 Learn about Financial Life Coach
Get SAFE
Free, trauma-informed support for people affected by financial exploitation or serious financial harm.
Get SAFE helps individuals organise evidence, regain clarity, and take constructive next steps — without legal advice or sales agendas.
About Steve Conley
My background is in senior financial services roles, working within large institutions.
Over time, I became increasingly focused on where harm tends to arise in practice — not from individuals, but from system design, incentives, opacity, and loss of human agency.
My work now centres on helping people replace overwhelm with structure, and noise with clear next steps. The approach is deliberately non-adversarial, grounded, and practical.
Vision & Mission
Vision
A world where financial planning supports human dignity, autonomy, and wellbeing — not extraction or dependency.
Mission
To make life-first, ethical planning accessible to everyone, and to equip individuals and professionals with frameworks that support sustainable livelihoods built on trust, not sales.
Guiding principle:
“We don’t sell products. We co-create futures.”
Our Principles & Impact
The Academy stands for:
- Human agency before institutional convenience
- Transparency over complexity
- Structure instead of pressure
- Calm truth rather than noise
This work supports people to reclaim clarity and confidence — whether they are planning ahead, navigating change, or rebuilding after harm.
Books & Writing
Your Money or Your Life explores how modern financial systems extract value — and how individuals can reclaim wealth across every area of life.
👉 Available on Amazon
👉 Learn more at http://www.steveconley.co.uk
Regulatory & Consumer Information
The Academy of Life Planning provides education, coaching, consulting, mentorship, and community support.
We do not provide regulated financial advice, legal advice, or tax advice.
We are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) because we do not:
- arrange or bring about investment transactions
- advise on specific financial products
- manage investments or assets
Our services fall under UK consumer law and are governed by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
We sell plans, not products. You are free to implement independently or seek regulated advice if required.
Company details:
Academy of Life Planning Limited (Company No. 8016568)
Registered office: 9 Franklin Way, Spilsby, Lincolnshire, PE23 5GG
ICO Reference: ZA502687
AI Use & Ethics
This site uses AI-assisted tools to improve clarity, accessibility, and efficiency.
What that means:
- All content is reviewed by a human before publication
- We do not use AI to generate legal advice or legal citations
- Users are encouraged to verify facts through trusted sources
AI is used here as a support tool — not an authority.
Get SAFE – Free Support After Financial Exploitation
Get SAFE exists for people whose lives have been disrupted by financial exploitation, fraud, or institutional failure.
Support includes:
- Help organising information and evidence
- Emotional and practical recovery pathways
- Clear, structured next steps
Services are free to victims and always non-commercial.
👉 Register for free support
👉 Train to help others
👉 Partner or fund Get SAFE
Next Steps
If you’re unsure where to begin, a short conversation can help you decide what not to do next.
📅 Book a 20-minute call
👉 https://www.aolp.info/book-online
🌐 Learn more: https://www.aolp.info
📧 Contact: steve.conley@aolp.co.uk
You don’t need to understand everything here.
This work is designed to meet you where you are — and unfold as you go.
Academy of Life Planning 