Gosling's Grouse: What have we learnt in decade since Dynamic Planner launch?

The year 2005 seems like a lifetime ago instead of ten years. We were in the aftermath of the dotcom crisis and had lost a generation of investors who had been sucked in by the supposedly high returns with little risk offered from investing in technology funds.

It also marked the launch of Distribution Technology, which recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Dynamic Planner risk profiling system, which is used by over 9,000 financial planners in the UK. At a reception to mark this milestone, the company's chief executive, Ben Goss, recalled the initial reaction from both the regulator and some advisers when he explained the idea. The head of one adviser firm said to him: "Why do I need a system? I have a pen and the back of an envelope to advise my clients." A decade on, it would be interesting to know what that particular firm is d...