PIMFA
The PIMFA leading lights forum
The PIMFA Leading Lights Forum (LLF), formerly known as Under 40 Leadership Committee, is an exciting initiative that brings together your talented young people from across our member firms. These future leaders work together in a dedicated community to learn and collaborate with their peers, and also to conduct primary research focusing on current hot topics impacting us all across our industry.
The LLF contributes to the strategic thinking of PIMFA and has been operating in one form or another for over 9 years – creating a plethora of useful insights and research, alongside a network of alumni they can rely on in their future careers.
In 2025/26 the forum investigated four fascinating topics:
- Unlocking Financial Futures: The Advice Benefit
- Do You Trust Us?
- AI: Evolution, Revolution or Devastation?
- Company Culture – Who Even Cares?
KEY INSIGHTS from the 2026/26 report
- When it comes to culture, what you do matters just as much as what you don’t do. A firm’s culture matters even more when things are not going well, or when people are not performing, rather than when everything appears to be working perfectly - it will impact individual’s actions, attitudes and choices
- Human Intervention – Demand for human interaction remains, especially at ‘moments that matter’. People value accuracy, quality of advice and trust above all which AI cannot deliver on its own. AI is a tool to augment rather than replace the adviser.
- Consumer demand is shifting towards one-off, eventdriven advice. Between 2023 and 2025, our data showed a 10% increase in those accessing ‘ad hoc’ advisory services. Demand exists across all wealth brackets, but cost transparency and accessibility remain a barrier.
- Primary and secondary research shows that trust declines after age 45, just as individuals begin to approach the life stages where advice becomes most valuable.
