Frequently Asked Questions

Financial coaching is a blend of generic advice, mentoring and pure coaching.

Being good with money is just another form of fitness. Just as with losing weight or getting physically fit, it takes the same sort of commitment to get on top of your finances and remain motivated so that you reach your goals and overcome the obstacles in the way.

Financial coaches use proven coaching techniques and technical expertise to help clients identify and understand their financial goals, and put in place realistic and measurable strategies to meet them.

People seek financial coaching for many different reasons. Some require information and only minimal guidance. For instance, to discuss whether the plans a client has in place are sufficient to meet their future goals.

Others may want considerable support facing up to financial difficulties, which often involves examining the emotions surrounding their relationship with money. For example, tackling a long-term issue, such as out-of-control spending habits, or working through money worries and anxieties. 

Simonne defines Financial Coaching as:

"A non-judgemental, calm and supportive partnership that allows clients to navigate the emotional and practical aspects of their financial lives. It empowers clients to set financial goals, align their behaviours with their aspirations, and build a healthier relationship with money, enabling confident control over their finances.”

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Financial coaching and financial advice serve very different purposes.

Financial advice is primarily about making recommendations - typically around products, investments or financial planning - and sits within a regulated framework. The adviser usually takes responsibility for analysing information and proposing solutions.

Financial coaching is focused on the person rather than the product. The emphasis is on helping clients build awareness, insight and ownership of their financial decisions. Clients leave sessions with greater clarity, a deeper understanding of their habits and behaviours, and clear actions they have chosen for themselves.

Rather than telling clients what to do, financial coaching supports them to understand why they do what they do with money and how to change patterns that no longer serve them.

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No. While financial coaching can feel therapeutic, it is not therapy.

Therapy often involves diagnosis, clinical frameworks and extended focus on the past. Financial coaching does not diagnose or treat mental health conditions, and coaches are not trained therapists.

In Financial Coaching, experiences from the past may emerge because money is such a powerful lens on life. These insights are used to inform present-day choices and future action, rather than being an end in themselves. The focus remains on awareness, learning and practical change.

Clear professional boundaries are an essential part of the work, and coaches are trained to recognise when a client would be better supported by a therapist or other specialist.

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Less than 10% of the population ever seek financial advice.

Most people don’t fit the traditional financial advice model. They may not have investable assets, but they do need support navigating the practical and emotional realities of their financial lives. This can include understanding the financial implications of major life decisions or divorce, getting out of cycles of debt, managing money more effectively, building better habits, improving financial literacy, or aligning their finances with what truly matters to them.

At the same time, people today are carrying far more responsibility for their financial lives than previous generations. There are fewer jobs for life, fewer employer-provided safety nets, and more people navigating self-employment, portfolio careers and complex financial decisions. Access to information has increased, yet many people still struggle to act on what they know.

For many, money worries sit beneath the surface. Some experience anxiety or shame that bears little relation to the reality of their finances, but still keeps them awake at night. Others avoid opening bills, feel unable to talk to their partner about debt, or feel deeply uncomfortable about receiving an inheritance. Money remains a taboo subject, and many people feel isolated and alone with their concerns.

It’s also common for money to be used as a way of regulating emotions. Shopping, spending or avoidance can temporarily ease discomfort, while reinforcing longer-term patterns that are hard to shift without support.

Meanwhile, most financial advisers focus primarily on investments and long-term planning, often requiring clients to have £200k or more in assets. For many people, however, the urgent work is not product selection or estate planning, but understanding how they manage their own money day-to-day, and why they behave the way they do.

Financial coaching meets this gap. Money becomes the context, not the content. Coaching assumes the client is the expert in their own life and supports them to articulate what’s really going on, make their own connections, and take ownership of change. Many people aren’t looking to buy anything or be told what to do - they want space to think, reflect and make clearer decisions.

Financial coaching can provide both emotional and practical support. On the emotional side, it looks beyond immediate problems to the habits, behaviours, beliefs and experiences that shape how someone relates to money. Practically, while financial coaches don’t recommend specific products, they may work with cashflow modelling or “what if” scenarios to explore questions such as “can we afford private education?”, “could I retire in five years?”, or “how do I come to terms with an inheritance I feel conflicted about?”.

Financial advice continues to play an important role, but financial coaching is often a powerful precursor for those who aren’t ready to see an adviser yet, or a complementary support for people who already have one and want dedicated space to explore and transform their relationship with money.

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It tends to attract people who feel out of control when it comes to their finances. Not so much the financially disadvantaged, more about people mismanaging money - perhaps earning well, but nothing to show for it or in debt. Some may be low earners wanting help to shift their mindset to attract more money in their lives. Or people who have an emotional block when it comes to money and want help to transform their relationship with money.

Clients may also seek out financial coaching as a stepping stone to the world of personal finance. Perhaps newly in a position of having wealth to invest, and wanting to explore options before seeking advice or considering a DIY approach. Or it could be a client who wants to start making financial plans and is seeking some help with this and someone to hold them to account on their goals. 

Or they could be considering a decision which has financial implications and be seeking a sounding board or financial expert to help with the figures. Such as: "Can I afford to retire?"; "Can I afford to leave my partner?'; 'Can I afford to take voluntary redundancy and write that book?'.

Take a look at Simonne's Wise Monkey site for further information on the different ways she helps her clients.

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Our Financial Coach Practitioner Certificate Training is suited to people who are interested in the human side of money and want to support others in making meaningful, lasting change.

People come onto the training from a wide range of backgrounds and at different stages of their working lives. Around 25-30% have worked as financial advisers or planners and are looking to integrate stronger coaching skills into their practice. This often includes advisers who feel constrained by a purely technical or regulatory focus and want to work more holistically with clients around behaviour, decision-making and confidence, either alongside advice or as a distinct offering.

The training also attracts coaches and therapists who want to specialise in money and feel more confident working with financial topics while staying within clear ethical boundaries. Many have experience supporting clients with life transitions, identity, work or wellbeing and recognise that money is often the missing piece in those conversations.

Others come from adjacent professional roles such as law, accountancy, bookkeeping, HR, education or roles within the finance industry. We regularly see people who have spent years working close to money - for example in compliance, marketing, pensions, wealth management or fintech - and now want to work more directly with individuals rather than systems or products.

Some participants join without formal financial qualifications, but with a strong personal interest in personal finance and lived experience. This might include people who have navigated debt, divorce, inheritance, self-employment or major career change themselves, or who are the “go-to” person among friends and family when money questions arise.

The training is also well suited to career-changers, portfolio professionals and those thinking longer-term about how they want to work. Some people are exploring a complete shift in direction, while others are looking to build a second income stream or gradually develop a financial coaching practice alongside other work.

Some graduates go on to establish dedicated financial coaching practices. Others integrate financial coaching skills into existing advisory, coaching or professional services, or use the skills to enhance how they work with clients more broadly.

What matters most is not your job title or qualifications, but a genuine interest in working more deeply with clients around habits, behaviours, mindset and decision-making. The training attracts people who want to go beyond surface-level conversations about money and develop the skills to help clients understand why they do what they do, and how to make changes that last.

Some participants use these skills within a purely coaching context, while others integrate them alongside advice, planning or other professional services. In all cases, the emphasis is on supporting clients to think more clearly, engage more fully, and take greater ownership of their financial choices, while working ethically and within appropriate professional boundaries.

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No. A background in financial advice isn't required to become a financial coach.

While some people come to the training from financial services and find that experience gives them confidence with financial topics, many don't. People come to the training from a wide range of backgrounds - project management, law, HR, therapy, accountancy, and many others - and go on to build strong, effective coaching practices. What they share isn't a particular professional history; it's a genuine interest in the human side of money and a desire to help people make lasting change.

The training is designed to develop coaching skills first and foremost. That means learning how to listen deeply, ask questions that unlock thinking, and support clients to align their finances with what truly matters to them - whether that's overcoming habits that have held them back, taking action on things they've been putting off, or building a healthier relationship with money. 

In practice, the people who find our core training the most challenging are often those with strong technical opinions, because the coaching modality requires stepping back and trusting the client to do their own thinking.

If you don't come from a financial background, your coaching practice is likely to lean more strongly into that pure coaching space - working with habits, behaviours, beliefs and emotions around money - rather than blending in a wide range of technical expertise. Many clients are looking for exactly that: someone to help them think more clearly and act more confidently - not someone telling them what to do with their money.

That said, having a working knowledge of the personal finance topics that commonly arise in client sessions is recommended. If you'd like to build that foundation, our Personal Finance Seminar Series is the natural place to start - a live online course delivered over three 90-minute sessions in the weeks leading up to the main training, led by Professor George Callaghan, an economist at the Open University specialising in personal finance. It covers the core topics most relevant to coaching work and is also available as a standalone course for anyone who wants to build their financial knowledge independently or ahead of a future training.

It's not a technical qualification; it's designed to give you the confidence and awareness you need to work effectively with clients. If you're considering a regulated qualification because you want the badge, or because you think it might open doors, that's a separate conversation worth having. But for the purposes of this training, it isn't a prerequisite - and in most cases, the Personal Finance Seminar Series will serve you as a good starting point.

We also provide a competency checklist during the training, setting out the key knowledge, skills and experience areas that may arise in client work. This helps you assess your strengths and identify any additional learning you may want to undertake, either before or alongside your coaching practice.

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Yes, though the path looks different for everyone. Many of our alumni set up their own financial coaching practices, while others weave the skills into existing work, such as financial planning, therapy, accounting or business coaching.

Some hit the ground running if they already have an audience or client base, while others take longer to build. To support you, we offer a business development programme, ongoing community conversations, and peer support to help with everything from finding your first clients to shaping your offer.

What we can say with confidence is that there’s a huge and growing demand. Millions of people don’t access financial advice, yet still need support with everyday money decisions, tangled finances, or the emotions and behaviours that sit behind them.

We see this in the steady flow of client enquiries we can’t meet ourselves, and in the success stories from our alumni who’ve built thriving practices. To help you take those steps, we offer a business development programme, ongoing community conversations and peer support with everything from finding your first clients to shaping your offer.

Here’s a sample of websites from some of the people who’ve trained with us:

• http://www.arrowcoach.ie/financial-coaching
• https://www.callfc.co.uk
• https://calmyourfinancialstorm.co.uk
• http://www.cubiccoaching.co.uk
• https://www.emotionalfinance.co.uk
• https://thefemalemoneydoctor.com
• https://www.figureoutmoney.co.uk
• https://www.financialmindsetcoaching.com
• https://financiallyhappy.ltd
• https://flourishfinancialcoaching.co.uk
  
• https://futurebalance.co.uk
  
• https://growiser.coach
• https://healthymoneymind.co.uk 
• https://www.katiesaves.com
• https://lollywise.com
• https://www.makingsenseofmoney.co.uk
• https://www.marthalawton.com
• https://www.masteryourmoney.co.uk
• https://www.mint-coaching.com
• https://www.moneyflowmastery.co.uk
• https://www.moneymattersfinancialcoaching.co.uk
• http://www.moneymindsetcoaching.co.uk
• https://moneywithpurpose.co.uk
• https://www.mrsmummypenny.co.uk
• www.myfinancialcoach.co.uk
• https://www.oneconstant.co.uk
• https://oliviarockingcoaching.com
• https://www.pantheralife.co.uk
• https://www.paulclaireaux.com
• https://peakretirement.co.uk
• https://www.philmarke.co.uk
• https://www.positivemoneyhabits.co.uk
• http://www.projectm-mindmoney.com 
• https://resourcefulplanner.co.uk
• https://rosebudfinancialwellbeing.com
• https://www.sashaspeed.com
• https://seethroughmoney.co.uk
• https://separationoptions.co.uk
• http://serenitylifestyle.co.uk
• https://www.talialoderick.co.uk
• https://thegoslingfactor.com
• http://www.themoneypanel.co.uk
• https://www.thesavvycorner.com
• https://thisgirltalksmoney.com
• https://www.tidymymoney.com
• https://true-worth.co.uk 
• http://www.wealth-coach.co.uk
  
• https://www.yourmoneysorted.co.uk
• https://www.wiseowl.money
• https://www.youronelife.co.uk

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Yes - many financial planners and advisers come to the training because they want to have deeper, richer conversations with their clients. Some are drawn to it because they notice familiar patterns: clients who could afford to enjoy their money but can't bring themselves to spend it, couples who see money very differently, or a tendency (which most advisers recognise in themselves) to move to solutions before the real issue has been fully explored.

It helps to be clear about what coaching really means, as the word is used in many different ways. True coaching recognises that the client is the expert in their own life. Rather than offering answers, the coach holds the space for the client to do their own thinking - asking open questions, reflecting back what they hear, and helping the client challenge their own assumptions without judgement. Instead of "have you thought about this?", it's "tell me more about that" or "what does financial security mean to you?" When ideas and actions come from the client, they are far more likely to follow through.

Coaching can also go beyond habits and behaviours into the emotions, values and life experiences that shape how we relate to money. That's often where the most meaningful shifts happen.

It's worth saying that lasting behaviour change takes time. In a dedicated coaching relationship, clients typically meet regularly over several months or longer. That doesn't mean the skills only work in that setting, though. Within an annual review, a well-placed question or a moment of space can help a client say something out loud for the first time - and that can change everything.

Financial planners who've trained with us apply what they learn in different ways. Some, like Jo Wall and Shane Hyland, have woven coaching into how they build plans and hold client conversations, while others have gone on to set up a separate coaching service alongside their planning work. You can read their reflections in our blog, Beyond Numbers: What Financial Planners and others are saying about our Financial Coach Training. Sam Sloma of Engage Financial Services also wrote in Money Marketing about why he and two colleagues trained with us, and the crossover he sees between advising and coaching.

The training builds these skills through lots of practical work: listening, questioning, coaching models, and learning the value of pausing. You'll practise in small groups, with trainers playing the client and giving you feedback, so the skills become your own.

Some topics, such as money management and debt, may be less directly relevant to your role, but the coaching foundation - and our work on the emotional side of money - will enrich your client conversations whether or not you go on to offer coaching as a service in its own right.

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Yes!

The course is designed for you to attend live. But if for any reason you can't make any of the sessions, recordings of each session - plus any documents created during that session - will always be posted right away on our online platform.

You can also ask questions or participate in discussion before or after the session via the online platform (in our 'Members Area' of the platform) which you'll have access to throughout the training.

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Live sessions take place on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings (UK time). Many trainees manage this alongside work by adjusting their hours or using flexible working arrangements. If you’re able to attend the majority of sessions live, you’ll get the full experience.

We strongly recommend attending live wherever possible, as the training is highly skills-based and includes breakout activities that aren’t always captured on recordings. Recordings are provided for catch-up, so missing the odd session is fine, but consistently relying on recordings means you’ll miss out on valuable practice and peer interaction.

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You'll receive a training manual by post packed full of information, as well as our online platform which runs alongside the live training sessions. 

During the course, you’ll be able to download and save all materials on the platform.

At the end of the course, we’ll keep your access to the online platform open for at least 12 months, though most resources will continue to be available once you join our Membership. We'll also provide you with a link that has access to all the recordings. Plus you'll receive access to a dropbox folder with a wide range of resources, tools and exercises, for you to use with your clients in the future. 

As an alumni, you'll be eligible to join our thriving Membership to receive ongoing live support from business skills to Continuing Professional Development, and networking with our collaborative community.

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The core training is designed to build your coaching skills and develop frameworks you can use to structure sessions, navigate between coaching and mentoring, and support clients in creating lasting behavioural change.

Because this is a highly skills-based programme, the focus throughout the 11 weeks is firmly on practising and refining those coaching skills. Inevitably, questions about building a practice come up during the course, and we’re happy to briefly touch on them as they arise, but we keep the main emphasis on developing you as a coach. The more in-depth business development support is provided after the training.

Post training, there are a number of ways we can support you:

• Post-training session - a 90-minute live business development workshop covering your questions and addressing things like pricing, finding clients, terms of business and setting up your practice.

• Wise Monkey Community membership - as a graduate, you’ll be able to join our community, which includes:

  • A free 17-module self-study business development course that takes you through all the key steps to growing your coaching practice.

  • Twice-monthly live sessions where we regularly focus on business development topics, often with external experts covering areas like marketing, social media, business systems and lead generation.

  • Access to a library of past sessions to revisit at your own pace.

  • Peer support, including the chance to be paired with a “buddy” from our wider community to share ideas and accountability.

• Group mentoring programme - small, focused groups designed to help you apply business development strategies, share ideas and stay accountable as you grow your practice.
•  1:1 business development support - for tailored guidance if you’d like more individualised support with areas such as client acquisition, pricing or shaping your offer.

In addition, as a Wise Monkey trained coach, you’ll be eligible to be listed on consumer-facing directories such as VouchedFor and Boring Money. These listings can help raise your profile and connect you with potential clients.

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The course has been accredited by the Institute of Financial Wellbeing.

Financial Coaching isn't yet a recognised profession in the UK, so there is no external qualification body to align with. We provide certification upon successful completion of the course.

Our desire has always been to find a way to enable our alumni to obtain a nationally recognised qualification that builds on the training they  already have. Our aim was to enhance their skills and provide external validation that their coaching skills are of a high standard.  

In 2023 we partnered with a coach training company who have designed a bespoke training programme for our alumni to earn an Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) Level 5 Coaching and Mentoring qualification. 

This is a fast-tracked training programme, which takes full account of the skills taught and practised within the Financial Coach Practitioner Certificate Training. Plus, it provides extensive support post training to help them complete the qualification and ensure that their coaching satisfies the high standard required to pass. 

The written part of the ILM assignment has been specially adapted to acknowledge the work we do as financial coaches. But the ILM qualification will still be recognised as a standard ILM Level 5 coaching and mentoring qualification, enabling people to coach clients on non-financial topics too. 

Further details can be found here.

Both Simonne Gnessen and George Callaghan have undertaken and earned their own Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) Level 7 coaching and mentoring qualification to help prepare for this move towards enabling trainees to earn a nationally recognised qualification.

Read more on our latest developments in two recent blogs:

• New Chapter for Wise Monkey 
• Our Wise Monkey Love Your Coaching partnership sees its first graduates 

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Wise Monkey's Financial Coach Practitioner Certificate Training is an intensive 11-12 week course, with 54 hours of live online training sessions, at least 30 hours of self study and access to an online training platform, which offers an unrivalled blended learning experience. The platform offers access to a wealth of valuable additional resources, recorded sessions, demo coaching videos and exercises which everyone can access for at least 12 months following the training. Plus you’ll get online access to a Dropbox folder containing all the resources developed by Wise Monkey and a broad and wide range of additional resources, and spreadsheets which will help you get going with your own Financial Coaching practice.

The course teaches you a broad and comprehensive range of skills for coaching clients both in relation to behavioural change as well as the practical aspects of money. You're taught a number of coaching models and through interactive role plays are able to consolidate your learning process. You're taught about the practical aspects of money management including budgeting, debt management, the differences between coaching, mentoring and advice, and how to gather the information required to coach clients effectively. You also spend time learning about money and emotion, common money behaviours and challenges and are then shown a number of methods and techniques for promoting successful behaviour change. At the end of the course you have everything you need to coach clients on both the behavioural and practical aspects of money. 

The Certified Money coach course is a distance learning programme taught remotely via zoom. It provides a certification after completing case studies based around the course content. The course teaches a very specific 4 stage process designed by the Money Coaching Institute in helping clients to identify their behaviours and patterns around money, and provides a structure for working through these patterns and behaviours to promote change where behaviours are challenging. You learn about brain function and chemistry and the history of money as an introduction to the theory. You're also taught how to use the Institute’s money archetypes (as detailed in Deborah Price’s book ‘Money Magic’) as both a theory and tool for working with clients to promote behavioural change. The course therefore gives you a specific and focused method to follow with clients on creating money behaviour changes. 

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Octopus Money has helped bring financial coaching into the mainstream, and that's good for everyone in this field. But the models are quite different.

Octopus Money is primarily an employer-benefit service. Coaches work within a set framework, using in-house software, and operate within a business that also offers regulated financial advice and products. For some people who've worked with Octopus coaches, the experience has felt more like financial planning than coaching - and the product and advice dimension means there's an inherent tension between the client's interests and the commercial model.

Our approach is completely neutral. We're not linked to any products, advice firms or commission structures, and we don't steer clients in any predetermined direction. Instead, we train you in the skills and processes that help clients get beneath the surface of their relationship with money - their habits, emotions, and behaviours - as well as the practical steps. That means you can respond to whatever a client brings - whether it's to help them take better control and responsibility with their money or something much deeper, like fear, shame or inherited beliefs about money.

Every coach in our community develops a slightly different style, shaped by their background, experience, and the people they want to serve. Some focus on business owners, some on couples, some on people navigating debt, others on big life transitions. That individuality is something we celebrate.

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Yes, you're more that welcome to come along to the 3 evening seminar series, which teach some of the financial content you may need in a future role as a Financial Coach. It provides plenty of opportunity for participation and to answer questions in a very small and safe group. George is a brilliant trainer and as an economist too, talks through the economic landscape explaining why Financial Coaching is gaining so much traction right now, and provides lots of business ideas along the way.

Many people attend this training before the main training, so it's fine if you want to do it as a stand alone for now.

You'll be invited to an online platform to go alongside the live training sessions and this will host resources that George will refer to, plus slides and recordings of each of the training sessions. You'll be able to access these for at least 12 months after the training and be able to download the slides via the platform for future reference. You can also gain access to the recordings to watch at any point in the future outside of the online platform.

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If you don't come from a financial services background, we'd suggest attending our Personal Finance Seminar Series.

Recommended Books: Pinterest board on Books.

Books which could specifically help with the training include: Sheconomics; The Solutions Focus; The Chimp Paradox; Money on Your Mind; Seven Stages of Money Maturity; Coaching Skills: A Handbook; Co-Active Coaching & Financial Therapy

Recommended TED Talks: Pinterest board on TED Talks

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