Delving into the key trends and factors shaping the investment landscape today and providing valuable insights to help you guide your clients effectively. Joachim will cover everything from economic conditions, including the long-term outlook for inflation and growth, geopolitical challenges and structural market problems impacting current investment opportunities.

As the financial advisory landscape continues to evolve, the implementation of the Consumer Duty regulation has ushered in a new era of client-centricity and transparency. This conference session offers financial advisers an in-depth exploration of the implications of Consumer Duty one year into its enforcement, equipping them with the knowledge and strategies needed to navigate regulatory requirements and meet evolving client expectations effectively.

Attend 35 minute boardroom sessions over the two days of the conference with leading players including Atlantic House, Baillie Gifford, Benchmark Capital, Orbis Investments, TIME Investments and Quilter Investors.

Atlantic House

Speaker: Charlie Parker, Managing Director, Atlantic House Group

Workshop title: Mindful markets: Having calmer, better conversations about markets with anxious clients.

Discretionary fund manager Albemarle Street Partners will share some of the techniques and evidence we use alongside the financial advisers in our community to help clients cope with a rapidly-changing world and volatile markets. 

By the end of this session, you will be able to explain/state/describe:

• Explain how the Atlantic House Balanced Return Fund is constructed and the three allocations within the fund

• State how the three allocations within the fund work together to create a differentiated multi-asset solution in comparison to traditional 60/40 funds

• Describe how Atlantic House uses derivatives to improve predictability within portfolios

• State where the Atlantic House Balanced Return Fund can sit amongst other investments in your portfolio

Baillie Gifford

Speaker: Ross Mathison, Investment Manager, Baillie Gifford

Workshop title: Investing like Aesop

There are plenty of ways to make a quick buck but in the pursuit of long-term wealth creation, Ross Mathison thinks we should be more Tortoise than Hare. Investing is an endurance sport after all. In his presentation, he’ll consider the company and behavioural characteristics required to stay the course and why dividend growth is an underrated approach if you want to steadily compound wealth over long periods.

Learning objectives:

• Developing an understanding of a steady growth approach

• Understanding the behavioural characteristics required to invest for the long-term

• Learn where there are opportunities for steady growth and dividend growth investments in the coming years

Benchmark Capital

Speaker: Lisa Jones, Head of Business Development, Benchmark

Workshop title: Human-first advice and the perception of value; measuring and evidencing what really matters to clients.

Our profession is evolving at an unprecedented pace; increasing demand, growing cost of regulation, and evolving fee models: how can an advice business grow and thrive?

Achieving the balance between providing a great client experience, ensuring efficiency for advisers, and meeting regulatory expectations is challenging. But what are the potential rewards for getting this right, and the risks of getting it wrong?

We’ll explore the dynamics of a shifting landscape, reveal insights from new client research and share a framework for measuring the value of advice. We’ll also explore the role technology can play in enhancing both the adviser and client journey to help you stay ahead of the curve and future-proof your business in the years ahead. 

Orbis Investments

Speaker: Rob Perrone, Investment Counsellor, Orbis Investments

Workshop title: The Risks You’re Paid to Take

Investing involves taking risks—but not blindly. In financial markets, prices move daily, and higher prices both increase risk and raise the bar for further returns. In the real world, some risks are costly to protect against, and some offer little compensation for sticking your neck out. But others are underappreciated, providing opportunities to generate attractive returns and mitigate risk at the same time.

As we look at the world, we see four risks that offer both pitfalls and potential returns for investors: the energy transition, deglobalisation, chip scarcity, and ongoing government deficits. Against a backdrop of high stockmarket valuations and high apparent faith in central banks, these risks point to a cautious outlook for broad markets, particularly if inflation proves sticky. But for a bottom-up investor, these same risks offer attractive pockets of opportunity.

Quilter

Speaker: Andrew Miller, Lead Investment Director, Quilter

Workshop title: The future of MPS

Managed Portfolio Services (MPS) have grown significantly in popularity over the last decade, as many advisory firms have recognised the benefits they can offer to their clients and business models. In this session, Quilter will discuss the key benefits of MPS, how their WealthSelect proposition has evolved over the last decade, as well as considering what the future may hold for MPS over the next 10 years.

Learning objectives:

• Understand the key benefits of a Managed Portfolio Service (MPS) as an investment solution.

• Explore the current investment landscape and be able to recognise the influence of regulation on investment propositions.

• Review key industry trends and the possible evolution of the Managed Portfolio Service (MPS) approach.

TIME Investments

Speaker: Andrew Gill, Fund Manager, TIME Investments

Workshop title: Hybrid real estate, a new approach to investing in property

Accessing the desirable income streams of real estate has its challenges. Investors continue to search for higher levels of liquidity but with reduced volatility compared with pure equity strategies. Hybrid property could provide the best of both worlds, combining the defensive qualities of direct property ownership with the liquidity profile and flexibility of listed real estate.

Learning objectives:

- Understand the current regulatory landscape and how hybrid property could navigate this backdrop.

- Recognise how the structure of hybrid property could add value to client portfolios.

- Discuss the outlook for real estate and how a hybrid property fund could perform through various market cycles.

- Identify how TIME Investments could help you gain access to this hybrid structure.

Attend 35 minute boardroom sessions over the two days of the conference with leading players including Atlantic House, Baillie Gifford, Benchmark Capital, Orbis Investments, TIME Investments and Quilter Investors.

Understanding human behaviour is key when providing effective personalised guidance to clients. This conference session explores the principles of Behavioural Science and how financial advisers can leverage them to better understand client behaviours with a view to improving financial decision-making and achieving positive outcomes.

Guiding you through the approaches to operational excellence in your financial planning business and exploring what best practice looks like to supercharge your people, processes and policies. 

• A review of the latest Spring Budget proposals that relate directly or indirectly to financial planning together with a review of the current and potential future tax context for investment of capital.
• How the current tax context impacts on investment wrapper choice
• The increased role of the UK investment bond in tax effective planning for Accumulation , Decumulation and Wealth transfer.

By the end of the session you will be able to

• Describe the changes announced in the Spring Budget
• Incorporate knowledge of the current tax context into all phases of intergenerational financial planning
• Explain how the frozen tax thresholds and reduced dividend allowance and CGT exemption affect investment wrapper choice
• Understand when an onshore Bond can play an effective part in tax efficient accumulation , decumulation and generational transfer
  

Attend 35 minute boardroom sessions over the two days of the conference with Atlantic House, Baillie Gifford, Benchmark Capital, Orbis Investments, TIME Investments and Quilter Investors.