When Keith Richards left the Personal Finance Society in 2021 he thought he would be retiring.
He had accumulated enough wealth to allow him to stop working and settle down riding his motorbike. But duty soon came calling in different ways than he would have anticipated.
Richards, who has been part of the financial services industry for longer than financial services regulation has, has served on several industry boards and says he has always had a hankering for getting involved and giving back to the profession he worked for.
Working pro bono gives him the freedom he craves, and as it stands he would never go back to paid employment, he says emphatically.
By the time he left the PFS he had represented the sector on trade associations; the Association of British Insurers; the Association of Independent Financial Advisers; the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries; and the European Financial Planning Association, among others.
He also chaired the Vulnerability Taskforce – a two-days-a-month job he thought would be pleasant enough to continue after full-time employment.
This 4,000-member strong organisation eventually evolved into the Consumer Duty Alliance, and the rest of Richards' retirement plans were history.
"The big challenge for me was when we first looked at converting or evolving into the CDA...what we hadn't expected was the reaction from the market and the level of engagement and demand," he says.
"So to some extent...I wasn't entirely sure how many days a week this was going to be. Based on past experience it might have just been a couple of days a month.
"Since March it has just been non-stop. There are some weeks where I am almost five days where I'm speaking at engagements, writing articles, reviewing good practice guides."
And he does it all for free.
No more conflict
After leaving the PFS, Richards' decided whatever opportunity presented itself, he didn't want another paid full-time role.
"When you are being paid by a company, whether or not the conflict is real or seen, you're working for the company.
"The great thing when you're pro bono, and particularly when you can afford to do it on a full time basis, is there is no conflict of interest," says Richards.
"For the first time ever I can positively promote what everyone else is doing, there is no bias."
He says he's been approached by companies offering him paid positions and non-executive director roles but decided to decline.
"I had to think long and hard but I realised the moment I take it that I can't do the pro bono work; I can't put the same energy, the same commitment in because, whether the conflict is real, the risk is it will be perceived [as such].
