We are the professional body for the financial planning profession in the UK. Our remit is to lead the financial planning community towards higher levels of professionalism exhibited through technical knowledge, client service and ethical practice.

We are part of the Chartered Insurance Institute group and aligned with its Royal Charter that requires we secure and justify the confidence of the public.

The FCA’s final rules on pension transfer advice give some very specific guidance on the expectations for firms involved in this area. However, the principles also point towards the general standards for retirement advice. Coupled with the forthcoming ‘Suitability Review 2’, it is clear that whatever the origins of the retirement fund, a robust process needs to be in place. This should include how the benefits foregone should be replaced, including an element of secure income where appropriate. It should also follow a process to deal with changing circumstances and the ‘what if’ scenarios that may come into play. In this session, we’ll consider the key stages in the advice process that should be documented and draw on specific examples where funding has originated from defined benefits.

By attending this session, delegates will be able to:

- Understand the key principles from the latest guidance on DB transfers

- Understand which principles apply to all retirement advice

- Recognise the key steps in the initial and ongoing advice process

- Discuss the role of secure income and how this might be balanced with the potential for ‘pensions freedom’

DB or not DB – that is the question…

Whilst UK equities remain unloved by many, long-term investors are beginning to take advantage of the opportunities within the domestic market. There are many UK companies with strong growth prospects, corporate activity is picking up and many individual companies, as well as the market as a whole, are trading on attractive valuations, particularly compared to other developed markets.

Join our session to:

- Find out why we believe it is time to consider the UK

- Hear about opportunities which can be found through active stock picking

- Learn how long-term trends have been accelerated by the pandemic

2021 – a year to re-discover the UK

New research from Octopus reveals a large opportunity to grow through referral business from accountants and solicitors. Yet some misconceptions are preventing many advisers from making the most of the opportunity.

How can you build an effective strategy to develop referral relationships with other professionals? Join Charlotte Fairhurst, Strategic Partnerships Manager to find out.

By the end of the session, you will be able to:

- Understand the opportunity to grow through referral relationships. -

- Articulate practical steps you can take to building relationships with accountants and solicitors.

- Explain the benefits of collaborating with other professionals.

Following this session, there will be an option to further your learning by joining two additional workshops on the 1 and 8 February. Details will be provided after the event.

Growing Your Business Through Referrals

Join us for the first of twelve PFS Power Webinars supported by Dimensional Fund Advisers. Each month, Dimensional will introduce essential practice management and personal development subjects to guide advisers as they evolve their practices and position themselves for future growth. We will also feature interviews with practitioners who will offer their own unique perspectives on how to succeed in the current and future business environment. 

To introduce the series David Jones, Head of Dimensional’s UK and Ireland Advisor Group will be discussing why there has never been a more important time to be a financial adviser and what, specifically, advisers can do to build strong client relationships and successful businesses focussing on the value of advice.  David will cover findings from Dimensional’s global advisor benchmarking survey as well as tools that planners can use to evaluate their own businesses and introduce a proven framework for developing a transformational advice business and the components of a successful client experience.

This workshop is designed to deliver the following learning outcomes:

- It will introduce a proven framework for understanding the evolution and development of a transformed advice business and the components of a successful client experience.

- Present the evidence for The Value of Advice and how this is best delivered through comprehensive financial planning by an experienced adviser. 

- Understand the barriers for a broader acceptance of the value of advice and how to overcome them.

- Demonstrate a simple way to communicate the value of advice  and the key components of a financial plan in an initial conversation with a prospective client

Financial Planning and the Value of Advice

Anthony Villis, Managing Partner, First Wealth and Damien Rylett, CEO, Brunel Capital Partners talk about the importance of making sure their teams are well and energised to deal with their own and client needs.
 
During this webinar you will learn about:

-The challenges First Wealth and Brunel Capital Partners faced in 2020
-The issues they will face and anticipate facing in 2021
-The six steps each firm has taken to help with the current challenges 
-The six each firm will take as it prepares for the new year.

Looking After Your Team Through COVID and Beyond

When creating a portfolio, the choice of tax wrapper can directly impact the net returns for an investor. The choice between wrapped and unwrapped investments can generate a variety of tax liabilities and the uncertainty over future tax changes can generate questions. 
It is important for advisers to understand the differences between the different tax regimes and how these can impact the net returns for clients.

Learning objectives:
•	How income tax and capital gains tax apply to different tax wrappers.
•	When chargeable gains will arise under onshore and offshore investment bonds.
•	When income tax and capital gains tax can arise on investment assets. 
•	Different ways to release money from an investment and the tax consequences.
•	A look at some of the opportunities under the current tax regimes.
•	Compare the advantages and disadvantages of different tax wrappers.

Tax planning for investment portfolios

Many of you will be wealth advisers with clients who have seen their assets grow significantly, but what lies ahead?  No one really knows what’s going to happen to the markets and what if your clients had to stop or encash their investments because of ill-health or death?  What would be the impact on their families and your income?

It’s often said that protection is at the heart of sound financial advice, because it can help to de-risk client’s assets by underpinning the risks on death for clients looking to preserve their wealth or create a legacy.

So, this session will look at the use of protection as an alternative and complementary asset class (adding diversification from the stock markets) to generate wealth in various client circumstances or to protect assets on death to pass on intact to the next generation.

Ultimately this is about providing your clients with reassurance and peace of mind, whilst highlighting the planning opportunities for you to help protect your adviser income.

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:
•	Consider how protection could be used as an alternative and complimentary asset class.
•	Understand how protection can be used to protect investments on early death and various later life scenarios.
•	Consider the planning points and opportunities to use protection for wealth clients.

Why protection should be a keystone of your wealth clients plans

After suffering its worst quarter’s contraction in growth on record, and an unprecedented level of government and Bank of England policy response, the UK economy has started to recover as lockdown restrictions have eased. With the outlook uncertain we will examine the challenges still facing the UK economy, with a particular focus on its main drivers, the consumer and corporate sectors. 

What will be the implications of the virus and policy support for both economic growth and inflation? What has been the monetary and fiscal policy response and has it been sufficient? Is there room to do more?

Against this backdrop we will look at how UK financial markets have fared and what their prospects are from here.


Learning objectives:
•	Describe the effect of the coronavirus on the UK economy and the policy response that it has engendered.
•	Understand the key drivers impacting the outlook for inflation and growth in the UK economy.
•	Outline the key fundamental factors likely to determine asset class performance

The UK economy: A challenging and uncertain outlook

Take a look at how the mindset can change the way we work and think, when it comes to protection. Are we missing opportunities due to an ingrained way of working and what benefits could we gain from looking at our process within.

Learning Objectives:
1.	Understand the need for a protection
2.	Changing the view on protection.
3.	Debunking some of the common miss conceptions.

Challenging Your Protection Mindset

Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees You Know:  Practical Tips for Navigating your Clients’ Beliefs, Fears and Behaviours around Money

In this session, Hayley Tink will draw on her experiences as a money coach and financial planner to provide practical tips for navigating common client mindset blocks and fears in relation to money.  Including a section on Financial Anxiety in the time of Covid-19, Hayley brings her experiences right up to date with a look at how our ‘COVID survival mentality’ can potentially damage our decision making processes at this unusual time.

Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees You Know!

In a world where a relatively small cluster of investment themes have driven the bulk of portfolio returns in recent years it is understandable that many advisers have questioned the benefits of ongoing portfolio diversification.

In this presentation will we revisit diversification to explore what it means and some of the reasons it hasn’t worked as well for investors in recent years. We will also explore what investment risks currently exist that may need to be diversified and how this might be done.

Finally we will challenge advisers to consider how truly diversified their current portfolios are and also to consider asking their multi asset providers to help them better understand the underlying drivers to portfolio performance and, crucially, what they might expect in the event that market conditions change.

Don’t look back in anger – Investment diversification for world ahead.

Andrew Thorp, speaker and coach in the field of verbal business storytelling, introduces us to ‘story-selling’ and how it can improve our communication and influencing skills with prospects and clients. Andrew will be joined by Tamsin Caine, Chartered Financial Planner, Smart Financial and Smart Divorce.

During this webinar you will learn:

-What storytelling is in a business context and how to apply it to your advantage
-How to distil your message into one word and a 12-second pitch
-How to paint pictures and use your voice effectively
-Why story-listening and conversational collaboration is as important as framing your own story.

How to Win Clients Through Verbal Storytelling

In this webinar, we’ll cover the significant impact automatic enrolment has had on UK workplace pensions and discuss the current opportunities within the market, not only in cyclical re-enrolment but also advising on wider business protection needs. 

Learning outcomes:
• Describe the features of different workplace pension arrangements 
• Demonstrate the benefit of salary exchange in workplace pensions
• Identify ways to add value to workplace pension schemes 
• Identify client segments and once these clients are identified, know how to start the business protection conversation.

Workplace pensions and business protection

Alongside Just’s series on a New Era, this program looks at how product development can help with the key elements of retirement income advice. The use of platform technology has had a huge impact over recent years and many firms are using this technology to manage client assets. 

In this webinar we revisit some of the key elements and look at how to overcome the regulatory, risk and advice challenges using platform technology. We look at the addition of a secure lifetime income alongside flexible assets. It’s an opportunity to draw on many of the principles from the other sessions and discuss the added flexibility that a combination approach brings.

Learning objectives:
•	Understand the features and benefits of Secure Lifetime Income (SLI) and how it can improve outcomes for retirees
•	Learn how SLI can improve the probability of success for the overall drawdown portfolio
•	Understand the types of client for whom SLI would be suitable

A New Era for Retirement Income Advice: Secure Lifetime Income

The changes to death benefits have had a fundamental impact on advisers, their clients and also the beneficiaries of clients. However, there has also been an impact on their professional connections especially solicitors who are involved in estate planning.

This seminar will briefly mention the law and some of the areas which are causing problems for advisers but it will also consider where advisers can add value to their professional connections by explaining areas where pension legislation may interact with other areas of the law.

The session will focus on four main areas:
•	The difference between the law and schemes
•	Taxation of defined contribution scheme death benefits
•	IHT , the potential impact and the Staveley case
•	 Public sector death benefits

This session will consider the facts but also the planning that needs to be considered if your client wants to pass on their death benefits.

Learning Outcomes:
•	Identify what death benefit choices are available. 
•	Explain the taxation of death benefits.
•	Understand the impact of IHT on death benefits.

The changing face of pension death benefits - the facts & planning opportunities

Abhimanyu Chatterjee, Chief Investment Strategist at Dynamic Planner, discusses the subject of stress testing investment portfolios, in the context of cash flow planning for clients. He debates the dangers of a deterministic approach, alongside the value of risk-based, stochastic forecasting.

Learning objectives:
1.	Awareness of limitations of deterministic stress testing of investment portfolios
2.	Awareness of benefits of stochastic forecasting for cash flow planning
3.	How to clearly link the risk profile of an investment portfolio to a cash flow plan

Stress testing a client’s investment portfolio

The word of 2020 has been “unprecedented” – unprecedented lockdowns; unprecedented falls in economic growth; unprecedented drops in consumer confidence; and unprecedented spikes in household saving. 2021 looks set to be no less dramatic. Aviva will share its latest views on the economic impacts of Covid-19. Aviva will also outline what this could mean for personal finances, economic recovery and government policy in the year ahead. Hold on for the ride!

Learning Objectives;
•	The impact of Covid on the economy and personal finances
•	The likely outlook for the economy and personal finances, in the light of Covid
•	The role and opportunities for the personal finance sector, in the light of Covid

Covid and personal finance – what will 2021 bring?

Communicating the value of financial advice isn’t easy, but it’s necessary if you want to retain clients and attract prospects. 

Faith Liversedge will show you how to:

•Write the perfect story
•Decide what you should include on your website
•Produce email content and how often to send one
•Generate ideas for a blog
•Improve your SEO
•Create social media content

How to write your story and attract the right audience

Whilst divorce rates have fallen over the last 25 years, the proportion of divorcees over age 60 has followed an upward trend. Within these older age groups it’s not unusual to find that the majority of the pension assets are held mainly by one party (usually the husband), and at the same time retirement planning is likely to be higher up in their financial priorities. 

In July 2019 the Pension Advisory Group published “A Guide to the Treatment of Pensions on Divorce” with input from judges, solicitors, barristers and financial experts. It’s expected this guide will become the “go to” document for professionals working in this area, so throughout the presentation we explore the content to uncover best practice.

Consideration is given to the new term PODE (Pension on Divorce Expert), what they do, skills required to be a PODE and the role an adviser who is not a PODE can still play in the process. Given the Resolution body has previously estimated the Divorce & Separation market to be worth £500m p.a., it’s likely to be an area some advisers will wish to investigate further.

We identify the main options in financial remedies, offsetting, attachment & pension sharing, and common issues that arise when trying to value pension assets for these purposes.

Learning objectives:

By the end of this session you’ll be able to:
•	Understand how pensions fit within the divorce process
•	Explain the role of financial advisers and PODE’s in the divorce process.
•	Understand the factors influencing the valuation of pension assets on divorce.
•	An understanding of the options available for pensions in a divorce settlement, and their advantages and disadvantages.

Pensions & Divorce

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