A unique forum that provides the opportunity to share ideas and vision between suppliers & delegates.
Henry Shires
Rensburg Sheppard Plc
More Testimonials
|
|
"An invaluable 3 days of relevant and focussed CPD."
Mark Rogers, Clay Rogers & Partners
This is just one of the many quotes taken from the financial intermediaries that attended the various sessions on board Arcadia this year. Topics covered included: Alternative Investments, IHT Planning, Portfolio Construction and Selling Your Business.
|
Opening Keynote Address 2010
|
| Where next for Great Britain economically and politically? |
| Daniel Hannan, MEP for South East England & Justin Urquhart Stewart, Seven Investment Management |
By June 2010 we will have a newly elected Government but what will be the state of the economy and the environment for British Business?
Justin Urquhart Stewart of Seven Investment Management will set the economic scene on this issue before introducing Daniel Hannan MEP who will put the economic future into the context of both UK and European Political reality.
Questions Daniel will tackle are; what options the new Government has, what the British public will find acceptable, just how much power Europe really possess over us and what can, and might be done to rebalance this issue.
Daniel will also talk about the role of the digital arena (so successful in Barrack Obama’s campaign) in the British Election, and the new digital communications environment that we live in, both for Business and for Politics.
Dan Hannan, during an address to the European Parliament, advised Gordon Brown to stop talking nonsense and wasting the country’s money, attracting over 2 million hits on YouTube. Dan understands the EU and tells it as he sees it.
|
|
|
|
Thursday Keynote Address 2010
|
| The Rise & Fall and Rise Again of Gerald Ratner |
| Gerald Ratner |
Gerald Ratner was the millionaire chief executive of the British jewellery chain Ratners Jewellery, which he built into the world’s largest jewellery retailer business consisting of 2500 shops, making £125m, with a turnover £2billion. After some uncomplimentary remarks Gerald made at the Institute of Directors regarding product quality, the company suffered financial losses, and was renamed Signet Group in 1993.
Gerald has now gone on to re-launch his career in the jewellery sector with an online company. Come and hear his story about how he rose and fell and has now managed to rise again, a true tale of succeeding against the odds.
|
|
|
|
Post-Election Pensions
|
| Industry Seminar |
| Steve Bee, Managing Pensions Partner, Paradigm Pensions |
A session looking at how:
• The state basic pension is being reformed
• The state second pension is being reformed
• A million new private sector funded workplace pension schemes are about to be formed
• This is the start of the most important five-year period in UK pensions history in over half a century
• The industry must ensure that as many of the one million new workplace pension schemes as possible are constructed to provide good levels of pension benefit above the minimum that the legislation requires
• The next five years will determine the shape of UK pensions provision for generations of 21st Century retirees
|
|
|
|
The Legal Services Act and the opportunity for IFAs
|
| Industry Seminar |
| David Seager, Development Director, SIFA Limited |
The Legal Services Act of 2007 is predicted to trigger a revolution in the provision of professional services. For the first time ever, non-lawyers will be able to provide legal services, thus opening the door to multi-disciplinary practices, “Tesco Law” and public ownership of law firms.
Solicitors are badly placed to withstand the competition which will be unleashed. For the most part they are too dependent on transactions and the partnership structure under which most of them operate militates against efficient business management. Little wonder, therefore, that solicitors are receptive to an extent never previously experienced, to developing relations with IFAs.
However, the basis of the relationship has changed, because solicitors are no longer permitted to retain commissions and the solicitors’ regulator has reinforced the rule which prohibits relations with multi-tied and tied advisers. Consequently, a perfect marriage is set to take place between solicitors and post-RDR professional financial advisers.
The Act will come fully into force in mid-2011, but already firms are jockeying for position. There will be many suitors and the trick for the IFA will be position themselves so that the service they offer becomes integral to the solicitor’s own client offering.
|
|
|
|
The Importance of Asset Allocation
|
| Industry Seminar |
| Peng Chen, Ph.D., CFA, President, Ibbotson Associates, A Morningstar Company & Tom Sheridan, Chief Executive, Seven Investment Management |
| The portfolio return variations explained by asset allocation policy have been hotly debated for more than 20 years. The session will look at new research that explains the high attributions found in previous studies and corrects for the impact of market movement that drove those high results. After removing the market movement, research shows that asset allocation policy and investment strategy both have about the same order of explanatory power. The session will also clarify previously misinterpreted cross-sectional results |
|
|
|
Financial planning for high net worth clients in a world of increasing taxes
|
| Industry Seminar |
| John Woolley, Director, Technical Connection |
In light of the serious economic challenges that they face, the Government have been forced to increase taxation and restrict the tax reliefs available. They have also introduced measures to protect tax revenues from people investing offshore. This provides financial advisers with a golden opportunity to give their clients financial planning advice. This presentation looks at how these measures affect the high net worth client and what action such people can take using financial products to improve tax efficiency.
1. An overview of the changing tax horizon as regards:
- freezing and removal of personal allowances
- freezing of higher rate threshold/IHT nil rate band
- restriction in tax reliefs on pensions
- increase in tax rates
2. The introduction of measures to protect tax revenues:
- savings directive
- offshore disclosure initiatives
3. Planning in the new tax world for the following different client categories
- investors
- trustees
- retirement planners
- SME owners
- estate planners
|
|
|
|
Wraps & Platforms
|
| Industry Seminar |
| Tom Sheridan, Chief Executive, Seven Investment Management & Justin Urquhart Stewart, Marketing Director, Seven Investment Management |
Wraps & Platforms - session to include latest developments update and the question of whether one provider will be able to launch an all encompassing wrap everyone desires over the next 3-5 years?
• Wraps & Platforms: what happens next?
• Is there a single all encompassing provider?
• Will there ever be? And if there were should you put all your eggs in a single Wrapped basket?
• The profusion of new entrants? Can they all survive and do they differ in any material way?
• Are they really going to be profitable and sustainable? Or are they just an enhancement and operational facility?
• Should we use multiple platforms or focus on one? What the risks of either route?
• What is the FSA concerned about?
• Transparency and Connectivity between platforms – reality or just theory?
• How can Wraps add material value to your business day to day and the value of your business in the future?
|
|
|
|
Top 5 global best practice ideas for financial planning
|
| Industry Seminar |
| Brett Davidson, Chief Executive, FP Advance Limited |
What do the best financial advisers from around the world do that the others do not?
FP Advance have analysed industry data from the major financial services markets (US, UK, Australia, South Africa) and identified the top 5 best practice ideas from across the globe.
The session will contain a strong emphasis on technology exploring how this is used to enhance the customer experience, improve consistency of delivery and improve business profitability.
Brett Davidson, Chief Executive of FP Advance will explore what makes the best firms tick and how UK advisers can apply these lessons in their local market.
To summarise the session will;
1. Explore the top 5 global best practice ideas for financial advisory firms
2. Look at the technology that underpins an outstanding customer experience
3. Examine the major profitability drivers for advisers worldwide
|
|
|
|
What marketing isn't - a fascinating look at what not to do if you want to succeed spectacularly
|
| Industry Seminar |
| Justin Urquhart Stewart, Marketing Director, Seven Investment Management & Brett Davidson, Chief Executive, FP Advance Limited |
| What the heck is marketing? Brett Davidson and Justin Urquhart-Stewart are not sure either but they can certainly tell you what it isn't. Find out how to seriously punch above your weight and how to turn this into a steady flow of pre-qualified leads for your business (the real aim of great marketing). |
|
|
|
Cash flow forecasting: Holy Grail or wholly garbage?
|
| Industry Seminar |
| Simon Williamson, Managing Director, Broadway Financial Planning |
It is often said that the cash flow forecast should be at the heart of all good financial plans and there is no doubt that many long term decisions are made on the basis of these forecasts. The RDR is encouraging us to consider the added value and service we provide for our clients and the ways in which this can be evidenced.
But in relying on cash flow forecasts are planners in danger of becoming too dependent on something that was only ever designed to be a tool to assist in the decision-making? Surely there should be a difference between holistic financial planning and the simple sale of financial plans?
Is sufficient care, understanding and explanation employed where assumptions in respect of future growth, income and inflation rates are employed? Is more dependence given to the potential accuracy of these assumptions than is healthy? Is sufficient time spent explaining to clients how dramatic the long term effect can be of just a very small change to any of these assumptions?
Simon Pym Williamson CFP, is Managing Director of Broadway Financial Planning, and a past president of the Institute of Financial Planning. As an assessor of submissions for the Institute’s Certified Financial Planner accreditation and as a judge of Money Management’s ‘Financial Planner of the Year’ awards he is well placed to open up some interesting thoughts and discussion on this important subject.
|
|
|
|
Charging structures: Which is the best model? Hourly, value added, monthly retainer?....
|
| Industry Seminar |
| John Baxter, Head of Financial Planning, Macquarie |
As the deadline looms for implementing a post RDR compliant charging structure many firms are turning their attention to how they will charge for their service. There is much confusion over how best to charge fees. Should it be hourly, fixed fee, percentage based, retainer or a combination of more than one of them? The answer depends on your client service proposition.
This session looks at each of the main methodologies and identifies which work best with different service propositions. This session will be of most benefit to firms who are fairly new to charging fees or who would like to validate their own thinking on the subject. The outcome will arm you with some practical tips for the successful implementation of a robust fee charging proposition in your practice.
|
|
|
|
Regaining client trust – placing portfolio performance into context
|
| Industry Clinic |
| Jonathan Gamble, Director, Asset Risk Consultants Limited |
This clinic will look at the following areas:
Do investment managers deliver clients information they want?
What was a satisfactory client experience through 2008 and 2009?
How many clients changed managers over this period?
Industry Clinics are chaired sessions by an expert in the topic area who will give a 15-20 minute update on the area before handing over to the audience for questions. Groups of up to 8 people. A real chance to learn more about a particulate topic, ask the questions that have been on your mind and opinion share with your peers. |
|
|
|
Ways to retain and attract new clients
|
| Industry Clinic |
| David Wingar, Managing Partner, Future Asset Management LLP |
With RDR gathering pace and getting closer, are you running a business that charges for advice, or still stuck in a transactional mode with no real business process in place. If you are to attract the right clients, you need to have your business geared up to be able to provide a high level of service, to attract the right clients.
Industry Clinics are chaired sessions by an expert in the topic area who will give a 15-20 minute update on the area before handing over to the audience for questions. Groups of up to 8 people. A real chance to learn more about a particulate topic, ask the questions that have been on your mind and opinion share with your peers. |
|
|
|
How to deal with legacy assets
|
| Industry Clinic |
| John Baxter, Head of Financial Planning, Macquarie |
| Many firms have clients with vast amounts tied up in legacy investment and pension products. For some firms it is a huge administrative burden that yields little income. This clinic will address how, rather than being a TCF challenge to service, these investments could become the catalyst that pays for the firm’s journey to the ongoing advice driven model. It will benefit firms specialising in arranging lump sum investments and pensions, particularly if indemnity commission was taken. |
|
|
|
The Hamish Taylor Masterclass Seminars
|
| Professional Development |
| Hamish Taylor |
In these master class sessions, Hamish will mix his own experiences in driving turnarounds at Procter and Gamble, BA, Eurostar, and Sainsbury’s and his many worldwide consultancy clients with lessons from other arena outside business. Case studies, adverts, easy to use tools and even a rugby ball and a relay baton will all make appearances!
Topic One: Your personal and/or team “Brand” Value
Have you ever thought of yourself or your HR/IT or Communication team as a soap powder brand? This masterclass takes the principles used by major consumer brands and shows how they can be used to improve personal and/or team effectiveness by creating more impact with your internal customers.
From the war stories, cases and exercises, you will emerge with a practical set of tools that you and/or your team can start to use the following day as you implement your “Brand Plan”.
So, what if you or your team was a brand and the customer was your boss or another department?
• How would you write your brand proposition? If you cannot position what you are doing in terms of the value you are adding to your customer, then the brand model says you will fail! Who’s language do you use – yours ...or your customer’s?
• Great brands are built on Customer Insights. Have you really immersed yourself in your customer’s world?
• Techniques used to maximise advertising communication effectiveness can be applied to all forms of communication from corridor conversations to full presentations.
• What techniques does BA use to influence service behaviours? How can we adapt these for ourselves?
• Successful brands build their product and service from their strengths.
Topic Two: Accelerating Innovation
What do a rugby referee and a Yacht designer have in common? Answer: they’ve both been used by major organisations to help accelerate innovation. Whether putting beds into aircraft at British Airways or helping Sainsbury’s Bank to behave like a grocery retailer, Hamish Taylor has learned that...
“If you want a breakthrough, look outside your current environment!”
This masterclass will look at the building blocks and tools required to create breakthroughs in your product and service delivery by looking beyond the usual sources of inspiration.
Topics covered will include:-
• The need to immerse yourself in the customers world to spot insights that others might miss – but only if you look at it with the right pair of lenses!
• The “ambition statement” as the key to breakthroughs
• The “stretch model” as a way of helping yourself and your team to look for ideas from new sources outside your current frame of reference including other industries, sport, the arts, the armed and rescue services and many more.
So, prepare to look at your challenges from a new and exciting perspective – how other people might look at them!
Topic Three: Leading Change
When you play football, there are 22 players and a referee on the park. When you play “reverse” football there are 22 referees for every player!! This is how Hamish was introduced to his new role at British Airways and the challenge of driving change through the organisation. You know what you want to do and yet the most difficult challenge is to take other people with you.
Lessons from BA, Eurostar, and sport are used to look for new ways to take others with you.
Topics covered will include:-
• Do you describe your leadership in terms of your abilities or the benefit you bring to others?
• What can you learn from advertising models and philosophy for how to influence others?
• What is the balance of the team you build around you? Clones of you, or filling your gaps?
• How are you making it easy for others to deliver what you want?
• When do you involve others?
Please note delegates are highly unlikely to be able to attend all three sessions.
|
|
|
|
The things you wanted to know about social media but were afraid to ask
|
| Professional Development |
| Matthew Jeffery, Global Head of Talent Brand, Electronic Arts |
Social media is constantly changing: It grows, it innovates…it evolves. So much so that, if you don’t have a basic understanding of it’s inner workings and benefits already, you can feel like you have been left behind.
Join this foundation-building session for anyone who wants to wrap their head around where social media is going today and where it could go tomorrow.
|
|
|
|
Presentation skills – learning from the rules of magic
|
| Professional Development |
| Nick Fitzherbert, Magician & Member of the Magic Circle |
By combining his marketing experience with research of The Magic Circle’s archives and knowledge gained through access to some of the world’s top magicians, Nick Fitzherbert has identified The Rules of Magic - 20 principles that are used instinctively by the best magicians and prove equally effective in business.
In this introductory talk, Nick demonstrates with practical examples of both magic and business communication how magicians’ know-how can be put to much better use than simply pulling rabbits out of hats or making handkerchiefs disappear!
|
|
|
|
All aboard the revolution: four steps every company can take now to reduce costs, increase sales and connect to a new generation of consumers
|
| Porfessional Development |
| Dr Graeme Codrington, Co-Founder, TomorrowToday |
Sustainability, energy efficiency and diminishing resources present clear risks but also significant opportunities for every company as long as they are taken seriously and not just viewed as “nice to have” PR opportunities.
This session, far from being all 'doom & gloom', will focus on how, and why your company should put sustainability at the heart of it’s business strategy. In addition to the moral and legal imperatives, this session will highlight the ‘business case’, including: reduced costs, increased profits and revenue opportunities, as well as the growing demands of ethical consumers.
This is not just a session for do-gooders but one that will benefit every business everywhere. And don’t forget, even if you are not convinced, your competitors just might be! And is that a risk you can afford to take?
|
|
|
|
Built for Greatness
|
| Professional Development |
| Jim Rees Author, Ultra Cyclist & Director Ripple Leadership |
Jim Rees – Ironman, Ultra Cyclist, author and father of 6, will present a personal view of peak performance in action. Weaving his own experiences with the stories of those who have inspired him, Jim identifies what he sees as ‘the difference that makes the difference’ – the success strategies that separate the average from the extraordinary.
In 2007 Jim became the 2nd British solo rider to finish what is considered to be one of the toughest races on the planet - The Race Across America, an ultra cycle race covering just over 3000 miles of non-stop cycling. There were various curve balls that Jim & the support crew had to overcome. It is Jim’s firm belief that it’s more about the mindset that you apply to those curve balls that makes the difference.
In his presentation Jim draws on his experience of battling through the limitations of physical and mental pain, in order to discover just what the human mind and body are capable of.
|
|
|
|
Risk-Taking and Decision-Making in Poker, Business and Life
|
| Professional Development |
| Caspar Berry, Former Professional Poker Player |
Focusing on the science of decision-making, this session discusses how risk works before demonstrating how we use this knowledge at a conscious and subconscious level in order to make every decision we have ever made: from trying something new for lunch to starting a new life working abroad.
Using the metaphor of poker and gambling, this fun session is effectively about WHY anyone makes a decision to DO anything, with the overall aim to give us all a unique and profoundly important tool to help us lead our lives: a tool which Caspar learnt as a professional poker player tasked with embracing risk on a daily basis.
|
|
|
|
Virgin Galactic - the dream becomes reality
|
| Professional Development |
| Will Whitehorn, President, Virgin Galactic |
Will Whitehorn, President, will outline the progress in developing the world's first private sector space launch system which will be capable of carrying humans and science payloads into space.
As the former Virgin Corporate Affairs Director and current President of Virgin Galactic, Will will outline specifically some issues of such a massive groundbreaking project, and how Virgin Galactic have overcome them, one by one.
|
|
|
Highlights from Past Conference Programmes
Highlights from the 2009 Conference Programme
|
| Keynotes, Seminars, Workshops & Professional Development |
| Sessions & Speakers Included: |
Keynotes:
- Opening Address: Becoming better leaders through improved relationships - Ruby Wax
- Thursday Keynote: Crunch time for the economy - Dennis Turner, Chief Economist, HSBC
Industry Seminars & Workshops:
- The future of financial planning: trends in the industry – past, present and future - George Kinder, Founder, Kinder Institute of Life Planning
- Alternatives in a Recession - Stuart Podmore, Vice President, JPMorgan Asset Management Academy
- Why to charge fees and how - David Wingar, Managing Partner, Future Asset Management LLP
- The future landscape of the IFA business model - Scott Soper, Senior Manager, Financial Services Group, Grant Thornton UK LLP
- Justifying your choice of asset allocation & exercising due diligence - Phil Lindsay, Sales & Marketing Director, Old Broad Street Research
- Ten Top IHT and Estate Planning Ideas - Danby Bloch, Chairman, City IFAs Helm Godfrey and Taxbriefs Financial Publishing
Professional Development:
- Inspiring and motivating a team: revealing the secrets that enable some teams to achieve magical results - Ben Hunt-Davis MBE, Former Olympic men’s rowing eight Gold Medallist and Founder, POINT8 Coaching
|
|
|
|
|