2026 Programme
Information and timings below are currently provisional and subject to change
Browse the exhibition with a coffee and pastry in hand.
A warm welcome and look at the day ahead.
The pensions and tax environment has rarely felt more unsettled and IFAs face the challenge of guiding clients through a landscape that is both technically complex and politically fluid.
With an eye on both the political backdrop and the real-world decisions clients are facing, this session provides a grounding framework for the conversations, debates and insights that will follow throughout PA360 North - equipping attendees with the context they need to make sense of an evolving policy environment.
In this opening session, we set the scene to take stock of where we are - and where we may be heading next.
Many advisers can sense that the world is changing rapidly. Yet most portfolios still reflect old assumptions. Clients expect confidence, but few advisers feel comfortable predicting what comes next.
This talk explores those conflicts.
Rather than offering forecasts, it challenges advisers to reframe the problem and focus instead on the hallmarks of durability in investing. By examining proven tools for organisational survival (design, incentives alignment and mindset), it offers a more robust way to guide clients through the current environment of exceptional change and uncertainty.
By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:
- Explain the most common psychological factors relevant to investors and how they are potentially impacting investors in today’s market.
- Explain how valuation, diversification and mindset are vital frameworks for long-term investment success.
- Describe how financial advice is helpfully considered within a long-term stewardship framework in order to rise above the short-term market noise and the psychological biases it creates.
Refresh and re-caffeinate whilst you meet and catch up on the latest news and updates from our exhibitors.
In 2026, markets and geopolitics have shifted at remarkable speed. Equity markets have seen record highs, gold surged and retreated, and questions continue to surface around the durability of the so called “AI bubble”. Against this backdrop, investors are navigating a world that feels very different from the last decade. In this session, Marcus Brookes, Chief Investment Officer at Quilter, will examine the forces reshaping the global landscape and what they mean for investment decision making. He will explore whether traditional investment principles remain fit for purpose, and outline how to maintain a disciplined, long term approach when unpredictability becomes the norm.
Whether it is an entire firm or an adviser’s book of business, there are clear strategies to maximise value.
This session will explore the key elements that contribute to a valuable advice business with a focus on driving organic revenue growth. We will examine how advisers and advice businesses can refocus to generate sustainable organic growth, identify common barriers from business models to mindset, and share practical insights and technology solutions to overcome them.
Learning objectives:
- Identify the key elements that contribute to building a valuable advice business.
- Analyse common barriers to organic growth, including business model and mindset challenges.
- Evaluate practical strategies and technology solutions that support sustainable organic revenue growth.
Evelyn Partners examine Robotics & Automation as one of the key long-term investment megatrends shaping the global economy over the coming decades, placing robotics within a broader framework of structural changes affecting demographics, geopolitics, energy, and technology.
Structural forces including ageing populations, labour shortages, urbanisation, and advances in artificial intelligence provide an appealing investment case. With businesses increasingly turning to automation to improve productivity, efficiency, and resilience, Robotics should be viewed not as a replacement for human workers, but as a way of making scarce labour more effective.
The investment opportunities extend beyond robot manufacturers themselves into the ‘picks and shovels’ that are components, sensors, actuators, software, and service contracts, where much of the long-term value is created. Adoption is accelerating as AI enables robots to operate more flexibly in real-world environments, while global robot installations continue to grow and the robotics market is forecast to expand significantly over the next decade.
New World / Same Brain explores why modern financial markets can be so difficult for human investors to navigate. Delivered by George Cliff, Co-CIO & Director of Research at CleverIM, the session examines how ancient behavioural instincts — such as loss aversion, herding, anchoring, overconfidence and action bias — can become costly in a world of instant news, frictionless trading and always-on investment technology. The session considers how these biases show up in real client and adviser behaviour, including panic selling, performance chasing, holding losing investments too long, and staying loyal to funds that were once strong but are now no longer fit for purpose. It then positions systematic, rules-based and data-driven portfolio management as a practical way to reduce emotional decision-making, improve consistency and support better client outcomes. The central message is simple: clients are not irrational; they are human. The adviser’s opportunity is to combine empathy, communication and disciplined investment process to help clients cut through the noise, focus on the data and avoid costly mistakes — consistent with CleverIM’s rules-based, data-driven approach.
By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:
- Identify the key behavioural biases that influence investor and adviser decision-making in modern markets.
- Explain how technology, instant access and market noise can amplify emotional investment decisions.
- Apply a systematic, data-led investment process to help reduce behavioural drag and improve client outcomes
Discuss highlights and lessons from the morning sessions and connect with exhibitors to discover how they can support you, your business, and your clients.
With the countdown for when ‘unused pensions’ become subject to inheritance tax (IHT) very much on, through a series of planned bulletins HMRC has been clarifying important technical features of the tax itself and the administrative process involved. Enter Notional Pension Property (NPP), the new HMRC label describing how a deceased person's unused pension funds and death benefits are valued as part of their estate for Inheritance Tax (IHT).
As well as providing a run-through of NPP, we will consider:
• What’s in and what’s out from 6/4/27 - NPP Day
• HMRC’s May 2026 technical note and subsequent updates outlining the government’s indicative timetable right up to spring, including the significant impacts on estate administration
• Emerging strategies for those newly affected, including bypass trusts, exempt gifts and decumulation strategies.
By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:
- Understand which clients will be impacted and the monetary cost
- Consider the new link between the work of financial advisers and private client solicitors
- Appreciate the new administrative burdens and how to minimise them • Summarise what decisions on pensions will be needed, and when.
Retirement isn’t a one off decision anymore — it’s an ongoing journey. This session explores how changing client behaviour, market volatility and upcoming pension IHT reforms are reshaping decumulation strategies. As the UK enters one of the largest intergenerational wealth transfers in history, it asks a critical question: are we helping clients use their wealth, or simply pass the problem on? Discover why annuities are re emerging as a powerful tool — not just for income, but for tax efficiency, gifting strategies and long term financial resilience.
By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:
- Reframe the role of annuities in modern retirement planning By the end of this session, advisers will understand why annuities are experiencing a resurgence, using the “subscription model” analogy to better articulate the value of certainty, predictability, and guaranteed lifetime income to clients.
- Assess the impact of the 2027 pension IHT changes on retirement and estate planning strategies Advisers will be able to explain how the inclusion of pensions in estates for IHT purposes fundamentally changes decumulation decisions, and identify when traditional drawdown approaches may become less tax-efficient.
- Apply annuities within intergenerational wealth and gifting strategies
Advisers will gain practical insight into how annuities can be used beyond income provision — specifically to enable surplus income gifting, reduce estate value, and support more effective intergenerational wealth transfer.
In this session, we’ll explore how changing client expectations and an evolving regulatory environment are reshaping retirement and estate planning - and what this means for advice. We’ll look at the key concerns clients face when planning for retirement, alongside the effective transfer of wealth to family and friends. Using insight into the changing landscape, we’ll highlight the opportunities these shifts create - showing how these will help meet favourable client outcomes, strengthen long term relationships, and clearly demonstrate the value of advice.
By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:
- Describe how regulatory change and evolving client expectations are shaping retirement and estate planning, and the impact on advice.
- Identify the key retirement and wealth transfer concerns clients face, including later life income and passing wealth to beneficiaries.
- Use insight from the changing landscape to improve client outcomes, strengthen long term relationships and demonstrate the value of advice.
Our survey says: advisers who start estate planning conversations earlier unlock more strategies, build deeper relationships and deliver better client outcomes.
In a rapidly evolving estate planning landscape following the Autumn 2024 Budget, starting sooner has never mattered more. Join this session to reveal the top answers on where advisers are getting stuck - plus, we'll discover how the right estate planning strategies and intergenerational engagement can move clients into action.
We will examine the role of Investment Bonds and Trusts in the new tax world taking account of the material changes to the taxation of pensions, investment income, capital gains, and wealth transfer. This will incorporate a focussed review of the challenges and opportunities that these present for Advisers and their Clients.
By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:
- To understand the main tax and pension changes to factor into investment wrapper choice.
- To be able to make and justify wrapper choice including, where appropriate, onshore investment bonds.
- To be confident in designing tax effective wealth transfer strategies using investment bonds and trusts.
With the £2.5 million cap on 100% Business Property Relief (BPR) now active, and the landmark inclusion of unused pension pots into the taxable estate just months away (April 2027), ‘winter is coming’ for treating a pension as an untouchable, multi-generational tax wrapper.
This panel brings together industry-leading experts to explore how financial planners are handling the early realities of the BPR cap, implementing new strategies for redirecting pension contributions, and selecting new asset-backed wrappers that deliver security and capital preservation for their clients.
By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:
- Understand how the 2026–2027 reforms are reshaping core estate planning.
- Implement practical, client ready strategies to mitigate emerging IHT risks.
- Support clients to make informed decisions on intergenerational planning.