What does a great Insight library cost, and do you really need one?

This page is for owners of financial planning, advice, and coaching firms of all sizes.

The NEW content service outlined here could:

1. Save you tens of thousands of pounds over the next few years.
2. Remove a huge workload from your shoulders—or from those of your key people.

This is a 10 to 20-minute read, depending on your speed.

What does it *really* cost to create a great Insight library?

I know it’s shocking, but this chart is an honest assessment of your (create, buy, or rent) cost options for acquiring a great library of consumer-facing money Insights.

Why would you want such a library?

In short, because they’ve been proven to help firms attract, engage, and retain more clients.

I was told by one of my clients that they secured ‘TESCO’ and other FTSE 100 firms as clients to their service because of the quality of the educational program I helped them create.

Yes, their core proposition was (and is) superb – but it was the educational program that made the difference. 

And a great Insight library will deliver great results for you, too.

For a more complete answer, including a list of the 25 benefits of Education-First marketing, click here

Please – if you have any doubts about the immense value of Education-First Marketing, read this Insight first

Here, I’ll assume you’re familiar with all the benefits.

So, I’ll focus on helping you explore your cost options.

Do (great) content libraries really cost £100,000?

Yes, absolutely.

That cost is real where you’re building a brilliant library from scratch, on your own or with qualified financial planners from inside your firm.

And I’ll explain the numbers below.

Of course, if you already have a good-sized library, your costs to enhance it will be lower.

If you have half the library you need now, halve the costs in the bar chart above.

What is the ideal size of a library to engage people?

I’ll cover that below as well.

How do I get to £100,000+ in costs?

To properly estimate the cost to create a great Insights library, you must do two things.

First, account for all of your time, or that of your (financial planning qualified) in-house writer, at a sensible rate.

Some business owners assume their content creation time costs them nothing. And if you love writing and can afford all the time in the world for it, don’t let me stop you.

Just be aware that the intense time you dedicate to content creation really is time lost to other, possibly more profitable, work.

Second, you need to be realistic about the time it takes to create great content.

In the bar chart, I assume:

• An (effective) fee-earning rate for an average IFA of £200 per hour (Source: VouchedFor)
• That you (or your in-house writer) create Insights (with high-impact visuals) at the same pace as me*.

* The pace is based on my experience of creating more than  500,000 words of content over many years.

Yes, I keep detailed records!

And yes, I’ve allowed for AI-enhanced productivity.

AI-based tools can help, but not nearly as much as some claim.

I assume you want ‘accurate, balanced and compelling’ Insights – and that you still want to sound like a human!

In this case, you’ll need a heavy human hand on the tiller of your content creation ship.

And you’ll need a considerable amount of time to navigate all these steps in the process.

How hard could it be to create a great library?

Well, that’s a great question – so let’s take a look.

First, there is the high-level planning work, where you must:

1. Plan your approach to building your library. (And I’ve got a 25-point planning document to help you with that)
2. Generate lots of Insight ideas across a range of Insight categories – a subject I’ll come back to another time.
3. Arrange your Insight ideas into a sensible order for rolling out your library over time.

I suggest you start with some foundational Insights to avoid a ton of duplicated work for yourself (and confusion for your audiences) down the line.

At this planning stage, you will likely decide to reject or defer many of your initial ideas, which it’s wise to log for future use.

Then for each Insight, you’ll need to:

1. Develop a compelling title, which you may revise multiple times as you develop the content.
2. Conduct thorough research to verify your claims and the facts. You cannot rely on ChatGPT or other AI tools to warn you of errors.
3. Develop and unpack the Insight into a series of sections, like short chapters.
4. Draft and restructure the content, possibly multiple times, for longer works, which are best for engagement.
5. Select or create images that bring your key messages to life. (Notice a mix on this page?)
6. Edit again to remove waffle. (Never pay a writer by the word; you want clarity, not padding)
7. Edit again after your ‘nearly complete’ draft has been honestly and harshly reviewed (for understandability and interest) by people like those you’re writing for.
8. Finish the insight with a copy edit. You could use an AI App like Grammarly to suggest improvements, but be selective about the changes you accept. These editing tools can make you sound dull if you’re not careful.

You’ll then want to draft 5 to 10 short (attention-grabbing) posts for each longer-form Insight.

Why?

Because there’s no point in creating valuable content unless you have plenty of short posts to draw people into it.

More on that below.

See where the time goes?

Of course, if your effective fee-earning rate is £100 per hour, you can halve those bar chart cost estimates above…

…or double them if your effective fee-earning rate is £400 per hour.

I suspect the effective hourly earnings rate (on intense work time) for leading planners is higher than the £200 I’ve assumed.

Finally, on your initial cost assumptions, be aware that experienced content creators may create (great quality) content relatively quickly.

So, unless you’re experienced, increase your cost estimates by say 30% for a period while you build your content creation skills.

This might take years, assuming these are the skills you want to develop.

The same applies to becoming a great financial planner.

You don’t learn all those skills on day one, right?

What about content maintenance costs?

Indeed, what about the costs of content maintenance?

We can’t forget those.

So, take your initial (library build) cost estimate – and double it* to get an idea of your total costs over, say, ten years.

* Double it?

Yes, this assumes 10% of your library will need updating each year.

If you focus on ‘topical’ content (like stock market updates), your maintenance costs will be significantly higher than this.

So doubling (taking the cost up to £230,000) might be a conservative estimate!

Can I help you avoid content maintenance costs?

Yes, absolutely.

For my licensed content (options 4 and 5 in the bar chart above), the content is maintained at no additional charge.

I will advise you when it’s updated or enhanced.

You then log into your account on my website and download the update, where the changes are clearly marked.

With my licensed content service, maintaining your content could not be easier, whether you update your website yourself or outsource that work.

Got any gaps in your library?

I don’t want to ‘oversell’ the benefits of education-first marketing or bore you about my record of creating acclaimed programs of Insights for leading Financial Service Firms.

So, if you’re familiar with the quality, depth, and range of my work, and you’ve reviewed my testimonials, you’ll know that I can help you build a great content library—or enhance one you already have.

The bar chart at the top of this page should help you decide whether to subscribe to my NEW All Insights pass.

This new pass (which is option 5 in the chart above) will launch this summer.

What will the NEW All Insights Pass offer?

As the name suggests, the All Insights Pass provides immediate digital access and the right to use my library of Insights in your business, in exchange for a low monthly payment.

It’s like you’re renting my library to use in your business.

So, while you continue making the low payment, you can continue to use the content.

Would you prefer to pay only once?

OK, well, I already offer ‘one-off’ payment licenses on individual Insights, which last for the lifetime of your business.

However, my new All Insights Pass will save you a lot of money compared to lifetime licenses, as shown in the chart at the top of this page.

In any event, if you start on the All Insights Pass, you can cancel that later if you ever reach a point where you feel you have enough content from me.

At that point, you’ll know which Insights work best with your audiences.

And you can buy lifetime licenses on those Insights at that time.

What’s more, if you’ve used the All Insights Pass for two years, I’ll give you a discount of 40% (on a sliding scale up to 2 years) on any lifetime licenses you then buy.

And that discount would offset a large part of the cost of the All Insights Pass up to that time!

The All Insights Pass also gives you immediate rights to use all of my current and future Insights. With one-off payment licenses, you don’t get the rights to use any other Insights.

So, if you’re thinking of trying my content services, start with the All Insights Pass.

It’s the best place to start.

Register your interest in this NEW All Insights Pass – now.

This NEW All Insights Pass is the best value service I’ve offered – by a long shot.

It will be offered at just £80 per month from the launch date (July or August) until 50 firms have subscribed or until the end of December – whichever comes first.

50 firms?

Yes, that’s just 1 in 100 of all UK-regulated advice firms.

So the offer may close before the end of December.

Want to register your interest?

Just e-mail me at hello@paulclaireaux.com with the subject line ‘All Insights Pass Offer’

I can then tell you when the offer is live.

Will the All Insight Pass price go up in the future?

Yes, by quite a lot  – but only for new subscribers.

Future NEW subscribers will pay the rate applicable at the time of sign-up.

Once you’re subscribed, your monthly costs will never increase in real terms.

And I guarantee no price increases for any existing subscribers before January 1 2031.

Indeed, the subscription price may remain flat after that – but I must reserve the right to increase prices by up to the CPI from January 2031, in case inflation takes off again.

What will be the ‘normal’ price for this All Insights Pass?

My current launch plan is to increase the price (for NEW subscribers) in stages every six months, perhaps up to £120 per month from Summer 2027.

Prices (for future subscribers) might rise more quickly if I grow the library faster than I currently plan.

But all things equal, I’d expect the prices for new subscribers to rise as shown below.

So, by Summer 2027, the price for new joiners might be 50% more than the launch price.

However, by that point, the library should be twice the size.

So, those future new subscribers will also enjoy an extraordinarily good deal.

You’ll just get a ridiculously good deal – if you’re an early adopter of this new service!

Here’s how prices might rise for future NEW subscribers over the next couple of years.

Just remember:

You don’t need to worry about price increases if you get in early at the launch offer price of £80 per month.

Your payment will not increase at all before January 2031.

And will never increase by more than the rise in the CPI from that point.

It costs nothing to register your interest

All small business owners need to keep a firm lid on their marketing costs.

So, I urge you to register your interest in my NEW ‘All Insights Pass’ offer now.

E-mail me at hello@paulclaireaux.com with the subject line ‘All Insights Pass’

You’re not committing to anything by registering.

You’ll simply be offered this NEW (top quality) content service at the lowest price possible.

You’ll be able to cancel your subscription easily and without charge if the service doesn’t meet all your expectations.

 I don’t think you’ll want to cancel given the content available at launch and what’s planned for the coming years, to help you engage more clients.

But you’ll be free to cancel at any time.

I do not apply exit penalties on contracts of any kind.

Do you tend to avoid licensed (standard) content?

OK, well, I offer both licensed and custom-made content services.

So, I have no axe to grind on this question, and I agree that it makes sense to create many of your marketing assets in-house.

The question is whether you have the time, skills or desire to write and maintain a whole library of (top-quality) financial education content?

Or whether it makes sense to use (proven) content creators, who can provide you with valuable content for 98% less cost?

It’s your choice – but this is not an all-or-nothing decision.

You can mix and match externally created content with your own or that of other suppliers you use.

£80 per month won’t break the bank.

It’s 20 minutes fee-earning time for one average adviser per month!

You need to use the best content creators.

Those who’ll help you engage more clients with a conversational style.

Those who create content that:

• Talks to people of all knowledge levels.
• Genuinely helps with Consumer Understanding.
• Could sit easily alongside your other sound money insights.

Thousands of firms (in all professional services) use licensed (ready-made) content to attract, engage and retain their clients.

The cost savings are clear.

And you’ll be amazed by the range and quality of content from some content providers today.

Do you want to sound different to other advisers?

Some advisers avoid licensed content for fear that a client or prospect might see another firm posting similar messages.

And while I (kinda) get the concern, I’m not aware that clients see this as an issue.

I mean, if I visited a GP in Manchester, I might be given a (high-quality) guide on any health challenges I faced.

And I’d expect to be given a similar guide if I visited a GP in Bristol, right?

So, I’d say that ‘content uniqueness’ is an idea that’s overblown by some marketers.

It’s clearly not essential on all topics, and it’s not crucial on educational topics.

What matters here is that we offer accurate and balanced ideas.

Fair?

That said, the chance of being seen to share similar ideas to another firm is minimal if you use my content in your library.

How so?

Well, while I’ve written acclaimed works for leading financial firms for years, my licensed content services are relatively new.

So, there’s little chance of someone finding similar content on other sites today.

And, however fast my business grows over the coming years, I plan to limit the sales of this NEW All Insights Pass to fewer than 1 in 10 advisers across the UK.

So, your prospective clients will struggle to find other firms sharing these exclusive Insights.

90% of firms won’t have access to them, and currently that number is near 100% because this service is brand NEW!

Yes, there’s a slim chance that a potential client might find something similar, but with my new service, this is highly unlikely—and I’ll aim to keep it that way.

Additionally, if you want your content to have your firm’s branded look, you can always replace the images in the content you license from me.

And talking of looks…

How could you make your Insights stand out?

That’s a big question!

So, I’ll dive deep into the evidence of making content compelling at another time.

In short, there are no golden rules, but you must avoid content that drops you into the grey sea of financial services!

So, you need imagery and a writing style that boosts your engagement numbers, rather than damaging them!

And you will waste a ton of money on a library if you bore people with financial planning ideas!

Your Insights must be Accurate, Balanced, and Compelling.

People today are hugely sceptical about ‘dull and complicated’ content.

That’s why I focus on making all this ‘Dull Money Stuff’ interesting.

How much is enough to make your marketing easy?

‘How much is enough?’ is the classic financial planning question.

What surprises many business owners, however, is how this question applies to your Insights library.

How much content do you need before you start to impress and engage your audiences?

How much hard work is required before that marketing ball starts rolling on its own?

Short answer?

Size isn’t everything – but it matters!

Of course, your first focus must be on quality – and there are no shortcuts here.

If you fail on either Accuracy or Balance, your firm will lose trust.

You’ll lose trust with your clients or, more likely with their close family members.

There’s plenty of evidence of this problem from Schroders UK and Cerulli in the US who have found that up to 70% of spouses and adult inheritors plan to leave the current adviser when the wealth holder dies.

It’s also essential to build and maintain trust with your clients’ other professional advisers, whom many wealthy people have.

We all know that building trust is the perennial challenge for our sector.

Financial Services was only lifted from the bottom of the Edelman league table in 2023 when they added a new category of Social Media!

More recently, in the 2025 Advice Gap Report from LangCat, we learn the following most worrying statistics from their consumer research.

When asking why consumers might not take regulated advice:

• 25% cite  ‘lack of trust in advisers’.
• 20% cite ‘lack of trust in the process’.

And both reasons are growing in importance!

So, this is not optional. We must get on top of this trust issue.

Of course, most (advice) firms are capable of sourcing or creating accurate and balanced Insights.

You just need a lot of time to review all the facts and charts, esp. as so many suppliers provide misleading content.

For most advice, planning and coaching firms, however, the real challenge is less about content quality and more about being heard at all.

And to be heard, you need two things:

• Highly compelling content.
• Lots of ‘outreach’ messages to grab people’s attention – more on those below.

If your Insights are not compelling, no one will read them, and your efforts to be accurate and balanced are wasted.

Therefore, the ABC tests are crucial for ensuring quality.

However, you still need enough Insights to keep people coming back for more.

You won’t get traction with a few ad hoc insights each year.

And that leads us nicely back to this question:

How much educational (helpful) content is enough?

Do you follow the business growth guru Daniel Priestley?

If so, you’ll have heard him talk about his (4-7-11) idea for content volume.

Daniel suggests that to become a ‘go-to’ place for answers, in most service businesses, you may need to:

1. Be visible regularly in 4 different online locations.
2. Have 11 interactions with your ideal clients.
3. Offer 7 or more hours’ worth of high-quality Insights.

Seven hours’ worth of content?

Is he serious?

Yes, and you need a lot to educate, inform and entertain people for that length of time.

At a modest (learning) reading pace, that’s 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is enough for a good-sized non-fiction book.

Could you set aside a year of your time?

If so, you could start your content library by writing a book, and then draw all consumer-facing Insights from that.

Indeed, there’s no better way to establish yourself as a thought leader, as Priestley often reminds us.

And I’m happy to help you explore the work involved in writing and publishing books – I’ve published two of those myself.

In the meantime, I urge you to acquire a good deal of the content you need for a ‘great’ library of Money Insights – from trustworthy content suppliers.

Could a better library help your Social Media team?

Yes, absolutely.

The wonderful thing is that once you’ve got a great library of Insights, you’ll have enough short ideas to post on social media every day of the year.

And if the Insights are foundational (and up to date), you’ll have enough short posts for every day of every year after that.

Let’s think about this.

Does your Social Media marketing person struggle to create great (financial planning educational) Insights?

Does this add to YOUR workload when they keep asking for more ideas?

Rhetorical Questions!

So, how about equipping them with a great library of content from which they can draw all the outreach posts you need – and more besides?

A great library gives you an unending stream of ready-made short posts.

You draw them from each section of your longer-form Insights.

How many short posts will I get from this page?

What’s more, if you work with a leading content supplier, they’ll supply several short outreach posts with every Insight – for FREE!

Could this make your Social Media Marketing person more effective?

How big is the library I’m offering?

It’s big, and will get a lot bigger.

Thinking about subscribing at launch (in July) to my All Insights Pass?

If so, you’ll immediately get the rights to use my current library of eight full lessons on the basics of financial planning.

Most of these lessons are broken down into two or three Insights.

So, you’ll start with a wealth of content assets – and enjoy many more in the years to come.

Remember:

You’ll save up to 98% compared to in-house content creation costs for the great quality library you can use with my ‘All Insights Pass’.

Your content is all updated and upgraded as necessary under my service.

And, once subscribed, your real-terms costs will never rise.

Does content quality matter to you?

Of course, quality matters to you.

You know it’s essential to offer the highest-quality of consumer-facing Insights around financial planning.

And that’s why I work extremely hard to create it.

At least two leading financial planners review all my Insights, and one of them used to mark exam papers for the Institute of Financial Planning.

Additionally, my Money Psychology work is reviewed by an award-winning Doctor of Psychology, who has 20 years of clinical experience.

So, you can completely rely on the quality of the consumer-facing content you’ll find here.

Of course, I’m always open to ideas to make the content more compelling.

So, please feel free to share your feedback.

Are my consumer-facing Insights right for your business?

These Insights could be perfect for you if:

• You want to attract, engage or retain more clients.
• You don’t have the time, desire or skills to create all the educational content you need.
• You want content that passes the ABC tests. (It’s Accurate, Balanced and Compelling)
• You want to build a ‘go-to’ program of Insights or add proven content to a program you’ve started.
• You like the idea of getting FREE updates on the content supplied.
• You love the idea of saving up to 98% on some of your in-house content creation work.

What issues will you face with compliance?

Leading financial planners tell me you should face no compliance hurdles with my Insights.

They are not financial promotions.

Nowhere do they recommend any financial transactions.

They offer generic financial education. They explain concepts—that’s all.

That said, I recognise that the views of compliance managers vary!

So, feel free to review samples of my Insights with your compliance manager if needed.

I’d love to hear their views.

The consumer-facing Insights I supply are informational stepping stones.

They provide existing and potential clients with a clearer understanding of the value of sound guidance or advice.

And in all the insights I provide, readers are encouraged to seek professional guidance or advice, where it makes sense to do so, which is often the case for many people.

Please do not  miss this offer

You know what clients (and prospective clients) value most.

Yes, they want to see great testimonials from clients on your website and in other places, such as VouchedFor.

But beyond the Social Proof, people today expect their advisers to offer sound money Insights.

Research from Psychologists (like Albert Bandura) prove that we engage more with ideas where we feel capable.

What’s more, your educational Insights clearly demonstrate your warmth and competence.

And those things are what matter for building trust.

The research is in on this.

You need a lot of valuable Insights on your website.

Insights that can work like brilliant (unpaid!) salespeople – to draw enquiries to your services, while you get on with other work.

And if my style of consumer-facing content is right for your business, I want you to access it at the best price possible.

That’s why I’m offering my new ‘All Insights Pass’ for just £80 per month to the early adopters of this new service.

That price will be offered to the first 25 (small*) firms that subscribe or until the end of September 2025, whichever comes first.

Please email me at hello@paulclaireaux.com to register your interest, and I’ll tell you when this offer goes live in July.

*What terms can I offer other firms?

The All Insights Pass is priced to be easily affordable for all small advisory firms—employing seven or fewer client-facing advisers, planners, or coaches.

This covers approximately 95% of all firms offering financial advice, planning, or coaching in the UK.

If you run a larger firm, please ask me for price quotes at hello@paulclaireaux.com

Yes, the All Insight Pass price is slightly higher for larger firms, but the cost per adviser is lower than for smaller firms, whatever your size.

That said, if you run a large advisory firm (or you offer Fund Management, Employee Benefits, Education, or Training services, etc.), you may prefer to have custom-made content.

And if that’s of interest, let’s explore working together on that.

What’s the next step to having a great insight library?

Sign up for my Educators Newsletter here to be kept up to date with this new service as it launches and expands over the coming months and years.

However, if you’re interested in my NEW ‘All Insights Pass’, please email me at hello@paulclaireaux.com to register your interest.

That way, I can advise you as soon as the (£80/m) launch offer goes live.

Please note that the price for new subscribers will be 50% higher at some point in the future.

So, if my content is right for you, grab a place for the low (and fixed) offer price while it’s available.

If you’d like to discuss any of my services, you can book a meeting directly in my calendar here.

Thanks for dropping in.