The CISI welcomed leaders of the financial planning community to its first Financial Planning Conference, held at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales on 3–5 October
The three-day conference, themed ‘Stand tall together’, was attended by over 450 delegates, speakers, exhibitors and sponsors, who enjoyed excellent networking opportunities within a five star setting. High profile speakers delivered keynote sessions, motivational talks and technical presentations, providing insights into the evolving financial planning and wealth management landscape.
Day one
The conference began with two exclusive meetings for Accredited Financial Planning FirmsTM and Chartered Fellows respectively. This was followed by a welcome from the CISI’s Head of Financial Planning, Campbell Edgar CFPTM Chartered FCSI; and Alan Dick CFPTM Chartered MCSI, Chair of the CISI’s IFP Forum Committee. Alan announced that he was standing down as Chair, saying that he saw the financial planning community as his second home, but he now needed to concentrate on his family. He handed the ceremonial chairman’s gong to the new Chair, Ian Howe CFPTM Chartered MCSI.
Keynote: The emerging pensions regulatory landscape
Steve Webb, Former Minister of State for Pensions, spoke to a packed room about the changes made to pension regulation and the budget over the past few years, describing them as “almost permanent revolution”. “How is anyone meant to plan for the long term if the rules change every year?” he asked.
He shared his thoughts on where he thinks the pension reforms will take us, warning that the six million people automatically enrolled in pensions are saving ‘diddly squat’. He suggested that the UK follow the example of the US, which encourages people to save more through schemes such as ‘Save More Tomorrow’, “where you pre-commit, so that when you get a pay rise, part of that rise goes into your pension … There is very clear evidence that works”. He suggested backing up a UK version of the scheme by law, allowing people an option to opt out. “If we can do that, billions of pounds will be added to pensions savings, but if we don’t, there will be an awful lot of people who simply cannot afford to retire.”
Sessions
Of the 12 sessions held on the first day, two of the most popular were also about pensions. Michael Hague CFPTM Chartered FCSI, owner and director of Investment for Life, talked about ‘Retirement planning beyond pensions’ – helping clients achieve what they see as being important. And Bob Gordon, Pensions Consultancy Manager at Standard Life, spoke about ‘Making pensions work for your clients’, focusing on the value of pension tax incentives, the impact of annual and lifetime allowances, and what actions can help clients use the tax rules to achieve the best retirement outcomes.
Another popular session was ‘The improbability principle – why coincidences, miracles and rare events happen every day’, by Professor David Hand OBE, Chief Scientific Adviser to Winton Capital Management. Rebecca Doodson, CISI Manager, Ethics and Integrity, summed it up: “His session was really entertaining and sought to convince the audience that ‘extremely improbably events are commonplace’. He certainly convinced me! But he also said that the human mind is conditioned to see patterns in random data, so maybe we want to believe. One audience member asked him at the end if he plays the lottery, and he said yes – but only when it's a rollover. It was a good way to sum up what he had been talking about.” (Read our preview interview with the professor, in which he talks about the ‘five natural laws’ leading to improbable events.)
Before attending the professor’s session, Rebecca had led an ‘Integrity at work’ interactive workshop about trust and ethics in the workplace. She presented delegates with a couple of dilemmas and asked them what they would choose out of several given options. The first, about sensitive documents left on a train, elicited a more ‘hands-on’ response than the same dilemma presented to delegates at the Paraplanner Conference in May. The other dilemma involved dealing with demanding clients, with the consensus being that it’s not worth compromising values for the sake of keeping a client.
Day two
Keynotes
Day two was crammed with seven keynote speeches, starting with an update from the CISI’s heads of financial planning, Campbell Edgar CFPTM Chartered FCSI and Jacqueline Lockie CFPTM Chartered FCSI, who spoke of the Institute’s plans for the year ahead.
Financial planning within the CISI
Jacqueline signposted key events to look out for next year, such as Financial Planning Week 2017 (8 May–12 May; the Paraplanner Conference 2017; the Accredited Financial Planning Firms Conference 2017; the Scottish Conference 2017; and of course, the Financial Planning Conference 2017.
She highlighted the progress that the CISI has made in advancing financial planning since the merger, and encouraged members to get involved in branch meetings and to speak at conferences.
An update from the Financial Planning Standards Board
Noel Maye, CEO of the FPSB, detailed the FPSB’s brand new social media campaigns to communicate and share best practice from around the world, called #CFPexcellence, and a consumer campaign called #Lifesbetter.
Other keynotes included ‘Putting ethics at the centre of the advice process’ by Philippa Foster Back OBE, Director, Institute of Business Ethics; ‘Dealing with risk and uncertainty’ by Caspar Berry, former professional poker player (read our preview interview); ‘Influencing with impact’ by Andy Bounds, award winning motivational speaker and author; and ‘Crowdfunding opportunities for you and your clients’ by Nicola Horlick, CEO, Money&Co and Chairman and Chief Investment Officer at Glentham Capital.
Stand tall together
The last keynote of the day was a Q&A session with Richard Wastcoat, Board Director, CISI, and Non-Executive Director, First State Investments and Duncan Lawrie Private Bank; Campbell Edgar CFPTM Chartered FCSI; Rebecca Taylor CFPTM Chartered FCSI, Board Director, CISI and Managing Director, Aurea Financial Planning, and CISI CEO Simon Culhane, Chartered FCSI.
Sessions
Apart from his keynote session on ‘Influencing with impact’, Andy Bounds also held a packed session called ‘Innovative approaches to winning more business’ (read our preview interview).
Gill Cardy, Insight Consultant, Defaqto and former member of the Financial Advice Market Review (FAMR) Advisory Panel, spoke about the ‘Practical implications of FAMR’. She warned against the “commercial risk” of businesses focusing solely on high-net-worth clients, making the point that new firms may “find a way to crack” the mass market.
Julie Lord CFPTM Chartered FCSI and Chartered Wealth Manager at Magenta Financial Planning, spoke about the first two steps of the financial planning process, ‘Establishing and defining the client-planner relationship and gathering data/goals. Later that afternoon, the next step, ‘Analysing and evaluating financial alternatives and setting assumptions’, was presented by Robert Lockie CFPTM Chartered FCSI, Investment Manager and Branch Principal, Bloomsbury Wealth Management; and Charles Wood CFPTM MCSI, Wealth Planning Manager, Bloomsbury Wealth Management.
Another popular session was about ‘Leadership precepts for teams that work’ by Christopher Jones-Warner, Chartered FCSI, a leadership expert and former Captain in the British Army.
Other sessions dealt with robo-advice; selling your business; and risk.
The Financial Planning Gala Awards 2016 Dinner
The awards ceremony, in recognition of the outstanding achievement of individuals and firms across the UK financial planning profession, was held in the Caernarfon Suite and hosted by Charlotte Hawkins, presenter of Good Morning Britain.
Congratulations to all the winners, who are:
Paul Etheridge MBE CFPTM Chartered FCSI: Lifetime Achievement Award
Acumen Financial Planning: Recognising Excellence – Accredited Financial Planning FirmTM of the Year
Jenny Ryan, Paraplanner at Baigrie Davies: Paraplanner of the Year
Jane Wheeler, Chartered FCSI: The Tony Sellon Memorial Prize ‘Good Egg’ Award
Antolijs Babanovs: Financial Planning Student of the Year
James Lee CFPTM MCSI, Financial Planning Consultant at RiverFall Financial: Jonathon Timms Memorial Award
Paul gave a short speech after collecting his award, saying that we all need to get together and help make the CISI/IFP merger work.
Attendees at the dinner donated more than £3,700 to this year’s charity, Enough Abuse UK.
Read more about the awards
Day three
Sessions
A panel discussion in the morning, ‘Developing common standards of paraplanning’, generated lively debate amongst leading paraplanners, who expressed their views on how the future of paraplanning should be developed. They discussed the development of a paraplanning standard within the profession. Joanna Hague CFPTM Chartered MCSI, paraplanner at Investment for Life, said: “This is seen as something that would serve to improve the service that our clients get and some paraplanners are keen to see a plan for this be implemented.”
Questions raised to the panel included suggestions of how a pay scale could work for paraplanners in the future and whether or not there is already a standard in place that could be used, such as the CISI’s accreditation and the job role described for paraplanning under the apprenticeship scheme.
Marlene Outrim CFPTM Chartered FCSI continued the series of the six steps of financial planning by elaborating on step 4: ‘Presenting recommendations’. Later that afternoon, steps 5 and 6 were covered by John Fachiri CFPTM Chartered MCSI, Managing Director, John Fachiri.
Paul Wilson, Gunner and Co, presented ‘Selling your business part 2 – one year out’, which was packed with practical tips to ensure a smooth transition. This followed on from Tuesday’s presentation, ‘Selling your business part 1 – 3 years out’ by Rob Stevenson, Director, Kingmakers. Paul warned that “uncontrolled exits are bad exits”, advising delegates to bear in mind that they are heading towards an exit on the day they start in business. He laid out a step-by-step process to follow over 12 months, which begins with appointing a broker and establishing exactly what you want, and ends with a Share Purchase Agreement/Asset Purchase Agreement. He outlined what information needs to be prepared and how to go about preparing due diligence, handover and transition, and how to qualify for Entrepreneurs Relief at sale. Delegates were queuing up afterwards to ask Paul questions.
Other sessions were: ‘To build your business, forget about job titles’, by Christopher Hirsch, partner at Holland Hahn & Wills; ‘Latest developments in enterprise investment schemes’ by Mark Brownridge CFPTM Chartered MCSI, Director General at Enterprise Investment Scheme Association; ‘Due diligence of platforms’, by Eric Armstrong, Product Marketing, Synaptic Software; ‘Leading and developing your paraplanning team’ by John Abraham CFPTM Chartered MCSI, Director at HC Wealth Management; and ‘How well do your clients understand the financial plans that you create for them?’ by Heather Tracey, freelance report writing expert.
Keynote: Harnessing the power of collective optimism
Guy Browning, Managing Director of specialist agency Smokehouse and bestselling author, delivered the last keynote of the conference with his characteristic humour. His presentation, said Alex Xavier, CISI’s Assistant Director, Member Services, was “pure entertainment, a fitting way to round off a CPD-heavy conference”. Guy’s main message was to not be afraid of change, saying that you can achieve great things by being optimistic. He recounted his own experience with getting a movie, Tortoise in love, crowdfunded, saying: “I wrote the film and directed it. I’m not saying it was brilliant but creativity wasn’t the problem.” Resources were. But Guy managed to get the community behind him, and the movie premiered at Leicester Square.
Lastly, Campbell delivered some ‘Closing remarks from the CISI’, summing up feedback from delegates and wishing everyone a safe journey home.
View Conference materials and Conference gallery
Further information
The Financial Planning Conference 2017 will be held 25–27 September.
View Steve Webb's full speech on CISITV – 'The emerging pensions regulatory landscape'
View Rebecca Doodson's Integrity at Work presentation on CISITV – 'Integrity at work in financial services'