The strive for excellence is real and a standard that many set for themselves and for others.

Michelle will share her extensive experiences to help you to realise that, in order to achieve your true potential, both personally and professionally, you need to turn your attention to the most important thing of all – your business.

Without a solid and scalable structure, growth and success will be limited, almost to the point of strangulation. She will enlighten the audience with an insight into several tried, tested and successfully proven concepts.

Michelle will take you on a journey through the key elements that will help you achieve your truest potential.

Cogs and wheels, engines and thought processes, they interact and affect each other. In the recent update publication from the Regulator on Price and Value (September 2024) it was stated

“ It is important not to consider the price and value outcome in isolation. It should be considered alongside the other outcomes and cross-cutting obligations under the Consumer Duty”

How can a firm connect up charging structures, CIPs, CRPs, platform delivery, investments strategies, and PROD in an easy way and be able to use this productively within their business?

These interactions can be complex, there’s a lot of moving parts, for instance how does your choice of investment selection affect aggregate charging, and does this charge therefore represent fair value, if it does how do you consider the most appropriate financial instruments to use with your selected target market and what tools do you used to make that choice and are they fully researched with adequate due diligence?

Then there are the new innovated solutions that address issues such as the advice gap and intergenerational wealth. How do you build that into a proposition?

How do you align acquisitions into your business to ensure unity?

And how can you easily and effectively convey that to interested third parties, such as the regulator?

But that’s only one aspect, more importantly how can you harness it, so it becomes a valuable business tool and not just a regulatory exercise. This is The Everything Model.

In this session we will explore the issues in such as complex area and what the Model could look like, you’re all individual so each Model will be unique to you. The session will provide you with useful pointers and a basic framework to get you building your Model if you choose to do so.

Attend 35 minute boardroom sessions over the two days of the conference with leading players including Albemarle Street Partners, Benchmark, Morningstar Wealth Solutions, Orbis, Premier Miton Investors and Quilter.

Albemarle Street Partners - Mindful markets

Social media is creating a generation of hyper-risk frenetic investors whose fear of missing out (FOMO) dominates all else. But could this dangerous force be harnessed for good by advisers to get more people investing sooner and with more conviction?

Speaker: Charlie Parker, Managing Director, Albemarle Street Partners

Benchmark - Leveraging regulations to strengthen client trust and business outcomes

With Consumer Duty regulations now in effect, firms are shifting their focus from understanding compliance to delivering measurable benefits for clients. This session will examine how financial advisers can refine their approach, ensure adherence, and assess the progress of Consumer Duty implementation across the industry.

• How firms can turn regulatory obligations into a competitive advantage by enhancing service quality and trust
• Demonstrate how to address some of the required outcomes based on practical examples
• Identify key performance indicators to measure the effectiveness of Consumer Duty initiatives and their impact on client satisfaction and loyalty.
  

Speaker: Gillian Hepburn, Commercial Director, Benchmark Capital

Morningstar Wealth Solutions - Investing in uncertainty: Portfolios that can handle the unknown

When the only certainty is uncertainty, how do you approach portfolio construction? Chris Bishun dives into how our 400+ strong research and investment teams navigate the unpredictable investing landscape, identify opportunities, and cut through the noise to build resilient portfolios.

• When considering how to construct investment portfolios, understand what’s changed and changing in investment markets and economies
• Understand what data points you can rely on when managing investment portfolios
• Understand where today’s investment opportunities are.

Speaker: Chris Bishun, Head of Wealth Solutions, Morningstar Wealth Solutions

Orbis -  Dependence On Great Expectations

In markets, great expectations have a tight relationship with great returns--if it's past returns you care about. If you're focused on the future, the reverse is true. When expectations are high, so is risk. As we look across markets today, we see all sorts of things that only make sense with great expectations: valuations in the US, crowding in stockmarkets, faith in low inflation, and concentrations in adviser portfolios, to name just a few. Looking at individual assets provides a different perspective. While expectations are high in some areas, they are depressed in others. For independent-minded investors, the neglected parts of markets provide opportunities to improve diversification, reduce risk, and enhance long-term returns.

• Understand the types of expectations embedded in stockmarket prices
• Articulate the link between those expectations and future returns
• Explain the relationships between debt, inflation, and bond returns
• Distinguish between name diversification and fundamental diversification

Speakers: Rob Perrone, Investment Counsellor, Orbis 

Premier Miton Investors - Natural income - A traditional strategy reimagined

One of the most significant financial decisions of our adult lives is when and how to retire. For many this decision is fraught with uncertainty.

Clients will normally have a rough idea of wanting to retire in the next 3-5 years and so careful consideration is required for their investments and how they move successfully into retirement. Good financial planning at this stage is invaluable and a key opportunity for advisers to add real value to their existing and as well prospective clients’ lives.

Whilst the phrase “life-styling” is familiar to most it is predicated on the incorrect assumption that growth strategies will be sufficient to transition into retirement. In most client cases the idea is to try and de risk their investments the closer they get to retirement, usually using traditional low risk assets. This brings with it all the known risks of uncertain growth outcomes but within a significantly reduced timeframe, thus exaggerating any sensitivities to downside/negative performance. Sequencing is also highly consequential during this period whereby the incorrect order of market returns could have devastating consequences on a client’s ability to retire or even to properly fund their entire retirement.

If we consider using natural income during this pre-retirement phase, we can address two key client concerns: downside performance and sequencing risk. By producing an income and reinvesting that income to buy further units you greatly increase the size of the asset base and therefore increase the income. If you do this monthly you have a client experiencing growing income every month leading into retirement. Furthermore, you invert what negative volatility means for the client as any market fall creates an opportunity to buy more units (from income) and actually bring forward their retirement date.

Finally, by producing a regular income before the client needs it, they get a chance “to try before they buy”, as they can review the income statement to establish whether the income being generated matches their lifestyle requirements. This also has a secondary benefit of informing some clients that they can actually retire when they may have delayed the decision for a variety of reasons, but most common stems from a worry of not believing they can.

• Outline basics of how natural income works.
• Explain how natural income can be optimised to overcome some of its common myths.
• Demonstrate the benefits of natural income in pre-retirement, as well as post-retirement.
  

Speaker: David Jane, Fund Manager, Premier Miton Investors

Quilter - MPS under the microscope

In our session we will be putting the managed portfolio service market under the microscope. We will discuss how it has grown rapidly in recent years with many advice firms adopting MPS as a core part of their investment proposition. We will also look at how regulation differs on an MPS relative to unitised funds and discuss what the regulator may look at when they review this area later in the year. Considering this increased regulatory focus, we will examine what firms should be asking of an MPS provider. Finally, we will use WealthSelect, one of the largest MPS on the market, as an example of how we believe an MPS should be managed and overseen.

• Understand the key drivers of the growth in MPS
• Understand & explain the regulatory differences in MPS vs unitised funds
• Overview of the upcoming FCA review of MPS

Speaker: Andrew Miller, Lead Investment Director, Quilter

Attend 35 minute boardroom sessions over the two days of the conference with leading players including Albemarle Street Partners, Benchmark, Morningstar Wealth Solutions, Orbis, Premier Miton Investors and Quilter .

Join our business leaders as we explore the complexities of equipping and future-proofing a thriving financial advice practice.

• Attracting and retaining talent: Exploring strategies to attract the best talent and retain them in a competitive market.
• Engaging with the next generation of clients: Learn how to connect with and meet the expectations of younger clients.
• Selecting, integrating, and keeping up with technological advancements: Discover how to choose and implement the right technologies to stay ahead.
• Ensuring compliance in an ever-changing regulatory landscape: Understand how to remain compliant and thrive amidst evolving regulations.

Social Media is an ever growing business hygiene, regardless of your business discipline or tenure, clients are migrating towards these platforms to seek validity of experience and gain knowledge.

This session is designed to help understand the business case for social media, identify key elements of an effective social media strategy, understanding of compliance and regulatory considerations for content and provide real life examples of what is and can be used. 

Attend 35 minute boardroom sessions over the two days of the conference with leading players including Albemarle Street Partners, Benchmark, Morningstar Wealth Solutions, Orbis, Premier Miton Investors and Quilter.