A Day of Learning from Elite Financial Planners

The CISI’s Accredited Financial Planning Firms Annual Conference is a gathering of members of firms that have achieved the coveted AFPF designation by demonstrating a proven financial planning process, a high level of qualifications among its advisers, and a commitment to client-centred service. It’s always an enjoyable and stimulating event, and having just returned from this year’s Conference I can tell you that it was well up to the usual standard.

Overlooking St Paul’s

Held in the City offices of Quilter Cheviot overlooking St Paul’s cathedral, it was an early start for me travelling from Loughborough by train. I arrived in good time and met up with friends old and new who had come along to gain insights into how they can deliver better service, more efficiently, with better outcomes for our clients. One of the things that has always impressed me about this group of highly-qualified and experienced planners is their dedication to client service, and that came across in each of the day’s presentations.

We were welcomed by John Long on behalf of Quilter Cheviot before diving into our first session with Keith Mackie, MD of multi-award winning advisers Acumen Financial Planning based in Aberdeen. Keith began by telling us about his daughter’s wedding, and how it prompted him into a journey to get fitter so that he would not only look good on the wedding photos, but would make sure he would be around for his family in future years. He likened the process of engaging with a personal trainer to the financial planning process, from initial ‘fact-find’ to a discussion about ‘why?’ before moving on to a personalised schedule and an exercise and diet routine. Keith’s before and after photos showed the effects of this plan, and what a difference it had made to his life. It was a great analogy to make the point about the value of the work that we do in transforming people’s lives through our financial planning work.

Innovations

Keith went on to discuss some of the innovations that his firm has introduced in recent years, and the emphasis that his firm puts on acting as ambassadors for financial planning, with a strong culture of professional study and working with universities and further education bodies to promote the attractions of a career in financial planning. He mentioned some of the challenges the firm faces and how they have responded to them, and explained the detailed attention that is given to improving their clients’ experience with the firm and the relationships that they have them.

Many of the points that Keith mentioned have been addressed in our own business, but there are always new things to learn and implement and I came away with a list of ideas to discuss with our team.

Our next speakers was Dom Spalding and Jonathan Hunt of Expert Wealth Management. Dom explained how they deliver their service to clients using the ‘Diamond Teams’ concept, and went through the process that they follow in preparing and delivering their regular client reviews. Again, there were lots of similarities with our own processes but also some interesting differences that we should consider. More food for thought.

Bringing Technology to Life

The next two sessions focused on the ‘back office’ functions that make our service work, and which are often taken for granted. First on was Glen Sweet of Transact, which our own clients will know is the primary platform that we use to hold and manage our clients’ portfolios. Glen talked about some of the work going on behind the scenes to integrate the various different tech services into a single point of delivery. This is no mean challenge as he pointed out, and the day when we can install one system which can do everything we want is as far away as ever, but there is clear progress being made in getting different bits of tech to talk to each other to make life easier. Glen also talked about the work that Transact have been doing to facilitate ‘family wealth transfers’, a subject we would return to later. For clients who are in a position to transfer some of their assets to the next generation, say by funding Junior ISAs or pensions for their family, this is all good news.

James Friday of P1 Platform took the tech discussion even further by demonstrating some of the work that his firm have been involved in to bring systems together and improve functionality. He mentioned that he had repeatedly made the mistake of buying a shiny new bit of tech without properly thinking through what he was trying to achieve and the ramifications. I’m with him on that one.

Running the Back Office

After a coffee break we had two presentations from leading back office system providers in the form of Nick Barnes from Intelliflo (the system we use at Chesterton House) and Colin Sloss from IRESS. These were helpful updates about some of the innovations coming down the line, and we’ll be talking to them further to make sure we are making full use of the capabilities of our software.

My Turn to Speak!

The next speaker was myself! I was pleased to have been invited to talk to such a distinguished group, and in my short ten minute slot I took the audience into the future to consider what might be possible in a few years time, and reminded the practitioners present that it would be a long time before AI and technology could replace the value that is delivered by a competent financial planner working in a long term relationship with their client. The qualities of empathy, listening and questioning skills, coaching and educating, and designing bespoke tailored solutions to complex financial problems are ones that will only be delivered by a real person for quite a while yet.

Round the Table

After an enjoyable lunch we reconvened to a series of round table discussions on a range of questions, facilitated by members of the CISI team. It was fascinating to hear the views, ideas and experiences of the diverse range of financial professionals represented on our table, and we had some really informative discussions about quick wins we had implemented that had improved our businesses in the last year, experiences of AI and how we are using it, and the biggest challenges that we face and what we are doing about them. One of the benefits of this type of discussion is that it makes you realise that many of the issues we grapple with – implementing technology, helping clients through the emotional roller coaster of volatile world events, and developing our teams as we continue to grow , for example – are shared by many of those present. It was great to hear some of the ideas presented which were really helpful in planning for the future and putting these issues into context.

Insights Into ‘The Great Wealth Transfer’

For our next session, Marie-Laure Humbert (ML to her friends), Head of Business Strategy at Goldman Sachs, opened up a discussion about ‘the great wealth transfer’ that is happening now, as over £5.5 trillion of assets is projected to pass down to the next generation in the next 5 years in the UK alone. Marie-Laure revealed the results of research by Goldman Sachs into people’s attitudes to passing wealth on to their family, and she talked about some of the issues that can get in the way of this happening smoothly. For example, 56% of people questioned had real concerns about the ability of their families to deal with inherited wealth, and whether they would treat it responsibly. This discussion was particularly pertinent to many of the discussions that we have been having with clients of Chesterton House, and whilst every client has different views, goals and needs, we have encouraged them to bring younger generations into the wealth discussion at an early stage so that inheritance of a large sum in the future doesn’t come as a huge shock for which the receiving family have not been adequately prepared. It’s not always an easy conversation to start. As one of the delegates commented; “You’re asking this generation to consider their death, and asking the next generation to grow up.” It’s this fear that, in our experience, means that often these conversations aren’t had until it’s too late.

Role Play With A Difference

The final session took a very different path. The ‘Two Macs’ is shorthand for Macnaughton McGregor a training company with a unique approach. Firstly Harry Gallagher helped everyone to achieve something that no-one thought was possible – to learn in two minutes how to memorise a list of 20 unconnected objects and repeat them back in correct order. This was a striking (and enjoyable!) demonstration of how animation and the power of story can be put together to do amazing things.

They went on to focus on how communication between individuals can go badly wrong and what to do about it, using drama to illustrate their message. Each of them took the role of members of a financial planning firm and after running through a scenario they invited audience members to consider how the interaction could be improved. Their highly entertaining performance really did help to understand the power of listening, questioning and framing conversations to achieve smooth and effective communication. It was certainly an improvement on the traditional dry-as-dust training manual!

Lots of Ideas

The Conference came to a close with delegates in high spirits and pleased to have come along. This was a very full day with lots of ideas and knowledge shared between the delegates. If you are a financial practitioner, want to remain at the cutting edge of good practice, and have the opportunity to attend next year, I thoroughly recommend it.

Andy Jervis

Chartered FCSI (Financial Planning), Certified Financial Planner