Think about the last time you worked on a financial plan for a family with a child or adult with special educational needs or a disability. How confident were you that the plan truly reflected what that family needs, not just now, but for the long term?

Families that include someone with special educational needs or a disability (SEND) face a distinctive set of financial challenges that conventional planning approaches often aren’t equipped to handle. The numbers are significant: around 638,700 (January 2025) children in England alone have an Education, Health and Care Plan. Behind each of those is a family navigating a lifetime of complex decisions about benefits, trusts, housing, care funding, and more. Get the planning wrong and the consequences can be serious.

As paraplanners, we’re in a position to make a real difference but only if we understand what good planning for these families actually looks like.

A chance to better understand special needs planning in one lunch hour

Join us online at 1.00 pm on Wednesday 6 May as we explore what paraplanners need to know to support families with SEND needs.

Peter Spence from Fintuity hosts this conversation with Ali Fanshawe and Rhiannon Gogh, co-founders of SENDA; specialists who work with financial, legal and charity advisers to deliver safer, smarter planning for SEND families.

Together, they’ll explore what special needs planning really involves, where traditional advice tends to fall short, and what paraplanners can do to fill that gap.

During this lunch-hour Assembly we expect to:

What can you expect to take away?

You’ll leave with a clearer understanding of where special needs planning is different. You’ll get a better understanding of what to consider when planning for SEND needs and, and where to go for training and support if you want to develop your knowledge further.

This is planning that can make a genuine difference to families who need it most — and a chance to make sure you’re equipped to deliver it.

Ready to find out more? Register now.

When a client is moving into retirement and suddenly becomes far more aware of every market dip, smoothed funds can feel like an obvious solution. But how well do you really understand what’s happening under the bonnet?

More providers are launching smoothed funds, which means they’re cropping up more often in research and recommendations. Yet the mechanics and the meaningful differences between the various types aren’t always well understood. If you’ve ever found yourself focusing more on the smoothing overlay than the underlying fund, this session is for you.

Almost everything you need to know about smoothed funds in one hour

On Wednesday 8 April 2026, first-time Assembly host Jawaad Tanwir, founder of outsourced paraplanning practice ParaplanX, was joined by Ed Green from M&G for a practical, product-agnostic look at how smoothed funds actually work.

Ed started where it makes most sense to start: with the client. Why do smoothed funds exist at all? What role does psychology play in the transition into retirement, and when does reducing short-term volatility genuinely serve a client’s interests? From there, the conversation got into the detail paraplanners need.

During this Assembly, we covered:

What you will take away

By watching or listening to this Assembly, you’ll have a clearer understanding of smoothed funds. You’ll be able to cut through the product noise and research them with more confidence. Whether you’re encountering smoothed funds for the first time or want to sharpen your existing knowledge, this is a practical session designed to give you exactly what you need to do your job better.

A promotional image for an online Assembly: Wrapper choices, changing rules and what they mean for clients. Featuring a cut out head and shoulders shot of Elaine Cruickshank, Aegon. 1pm on 22 April 2026. 1 hour CPD available.

The tax landscape has shifted significantly over the past couple of years. Allowance reductions, rising dividend tax rates and the proposed extension of IHT to unused pensions means there’s plenty for paraplanners to get to grips with — and plenty of opportunity to add real value for clients.

This Assembly is designed to cut through the complexity and give you a clearer picture of how different tax wrappers work in practice, so you can make more confident decisions about which solution is right for which client.

We’ve invited Elaine Cruickshank, tax and trusts manager at Aegon, to join host Richard Allum for a practical, no-nonsense look at onshore bonds, offshore bonds, GIAs and trust solutions — with an agnostic perspective that keeps the focus firmly on what’s best for the client in front of you.

What we’ll be exploring

We’ll look at how recent tax changes are prompting advisers and paraplanners to revisit wrapper choice, and walk through the kind of comparative thinking that helps you work out when a bond might be preferable to a GIA — or when onshore makes more sense than offshore.

We’ll also take a look at how onshore bonds are actually taxed (including a common misconception that’s worth clearing up), which wrapper tends to suit which client circumstances, and how trust solutions fit into the picture — particularly in the context of the proposed IHT changes to pensions.

What can you expect to take away?

You’ll leave with a clearer understanding of the tax treatment of different wrappers, a more confident sense of when each option is likely to work best, and some practical frameworks for thinking about trust planning solutions. We’ll share the comparative calculations in the slides afterwards, so you can refer back to them whenever you need to.

Whether you’re looking to sharpen your technical knowledge or just want to feel more confident having these conversations, join us online at 1.00 pm on Tuesday 22 April.

Pensions will become subject to inheritance tax (IHT) from April 2027, but how much of a role does protection play in your approach to building IHT strategies for your clients? And how confident are you about the protection options that are available to you?

But with IHT receipts expected to almost double, and sweeping changes to business and agricultural property relief already landing from April 2026, paraplanners can expect more and more clients to want to explore all the options.

So at this Assembly, host Richard Allum was joined by Alan Jenkinson, protection specialist at Scottish Widows, to walk through the essentials. During their lunch-hour discussion, Richard and Alan unpack IHT and how it works, run through the key exemptions and reliefs, and explore how protection fits into an IHT planning conversation alongside gifting strategies, trust structures and the normal expenditure out of income rules.

There’s also a really useful section on the underwriting process: what to do when a client has health risk factors, when concurrent applications make sense, and why a declined application isn’t necessarily the end of the road.

If you’re looking for a solid grounding in this area — or a practical refresher before your next client review — this one’s well worth an hour of your time.

Budget measures are often the subject of media speculation. But the level of attention in the run-up to the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Budget statement on 26 November 2025 was unprecedented.

So did the reality match the hype? 

For our final Assembly of 2025, we invited Les Cameron from M&G Wealth to join us and share his latest thoughts on what paraplanners need to know following Rachel Reeves’s statement.

Les covers a bunch of different topics that include:

Plus more besides. So if you want to catch up with what’s been announced, what’s changing, or what’s staying the same, this is the Assembly for you.

Assemblies featuring the M&G technical team in 2025

This is the fifth Assembly of the year featuring experts from M&G Wealth’s technical team. Here are the other four from 2025:

February 2025 – Pensions, death and taxes (with Les)
April 2025 – A guide to investment bond essentials for paraplanners (with Barrie Dawson)
August 2025 – Tax wrappers: which, why and when? (with Neil Macleod)
September 2025 – The pension IHT bombshell has landed – now what? (with Les)

When a client dies, their will isn’t necessarily the final word on how their estate gets distributed. Deeds of variation and disclaimers give beneficiaries a valuable window – two years from death – to reshape inheritances in ways that can reduce tax bills and improve family outcomes – often both.

In the latest episode in our ‘Technically speaking’ series, we invited Steve Sayer from Utmost to join host Richard Allum, to cast his expert gaze on the post-death planning issues that paraplanners need to consider.

During the hour-long session, Steve explains:

What’s more, the session also explores disclaimers – the simpler but more restrictive alternative to variations. Steve clarifies:

Throughout the episode, Steve offers examples to help illustrate concepts such as periodic charges and ten-year anniversaries.

If you’re working on suitability reports that cover post-death planning options, are supporting a client following a death, or would just like to give your technical knowledge a boost, this is the ideal ‘Technically speaking’ episode for you.

If you want to know what’s on the minds of other paraplanners, then this is definitely the Assembly for you.

That’s because Scottish Widows’s Craig Spittal joined host, Richard Allum, and guests Alison Neale of Principle Paraplanning, to exclusively reveal key findings of this year’s Scottish Widows‘ Paraplanner Survey ahead of it’s formal publication in November 2025.

Since recording the results have been published and you’ll find them here.

Original  insights on the big issues

During this recording of a lunch-hour online Assembly, Craig shares findings from a sample of 200 paraplanners who completed the third annual survey of paraplanners. Topics covered include:

What can you expect to take away?

Listen and you’ll hear practical insights, honest reflections, and a clear idea of where paraplanners like you think our profession is heading.

So tuck in to a helping of hot-of-the-press original research and take this chance to reflect on the attitudes and trends that are influencing paraplanning today.

Here’s a question that might hit close to home: when you’re crafting retirement recommendations, are you addressing the three big risks that keep clients awake at night — or are you unknowingly leaving them exposed to sequence of returns risk, longevity risk, and inflation erosion?

As paraplanners, we have the power to transform retirement outcomes by understanding how product innovations can take these critical risks off the table. But are we truly using the full toolkit available to us? Or are we sticking with conventional approaches that might not deliver the stable, reliable income our clients need?

It matters because retirement planning has evolved beyond traditional drawdown strategies. The FCA expects us to distinguish between accumulation and decumulation approaches, and innovative product solutions now exist that can protect clients from running out of money — even if they live to 100.

Expand your knowledge in one hour

This Assembly – originally recorded on 1pm on 15 October 2025 – was the second part of our exploration into the retirement risk zone, focusing specifically on how product innovations can deliver better outcomes for your clients. You’ll find part one here.

In this online Assembly Connor Stewart from Standard Life joined host, Richard Allum, to explore this facet of the retirement risk zone.

Together, they explore what clients truly want from retirement (and what terrifies them), how regulatory expectations are driving change, and most importantly, how you can use cutting-edge product solutions to deliver the security and growth your clients need.

During this Assembly we:
What can you expect to take away?

You’ll leave this Assembly with actionable insights into product innovations that can transform your retirement planning approach. You’ll understand how to match these solutions to specific client needs and circumstances, ensuring you can deliver genuinely tailored retirement strategies.

Most of all, this session will equip you with practical tools and case study examples so you can confidently recommend product innovations that protect clients from the major retirement risks while helping them achieve their long-term goals.

Here’s a question that might keep you awake at night: what do you tell clients who’ve spent years building pension pots specifically because they were IHT-free, only to discover that’s all changed?

On 21 July 2025, HMRC published their response to the pension IHT consultation, along with draft legislation that will bring unused pension pots into the inheritance tax net from April 2027. The writing’s been on the wall since Rachel Reeves’ October 2024 Budget announcement, but now we have the detail and it’s time to work out what this means for our clients.

As paraplanners, we’re about to face some of the most fundamental shifts in retirement and estate planning strategy we’ve seen in years. The days of treating pensions as the IHT-free golden goose are numbered, and clients will be looking to us for answers.

This isn’t just about understanding the new rules. It’s about completely rethinking how we approach pension planning, estate planning, and the delicate balance between the two.


Your crash course in the new pension IHT landscape

In what turned out to be an essential Assembly, we were joined by M&G’s Les Cameron to dive deep into the practical implications of these seismic changes. We strongly recommend reading M&G’s detailed response before watching the Assemly as it provides crucial context for our discussion.

During this Assembly, we evaluated the different options to mitigate pension-driven IHT liabilities, including:


What can you expect to take away?

You’ll leave this Assembly with a clear understanding of how the new IHT rules will work in practice and with strategies you can implement immediately to help clients navigate this changing landscape. We hope to give you the confidence to tackle those difficult conversations about restructuring retirement plans that took years to build.

Fair warning: there’s so much ground to cover that we may run slightly over our usual 60 minutes. If we do, we’ll schedule a follow-up session to tackle any outstanding questions.

Once upon a time, when taxes were relatively low, ISAs and unwrapped investments seemed like pretty obvious choices for clients’ money.

But the big cut in the capital gains tax allowance and rises in tax on gains and dividends has changed things. Tax wrappers that once seemed like more hassle than they were worth (like investment bonds) could now be the ideal vehicle – especially for higher rate taxpayers.

But which wrapper is right in which circumstances and why?

That’s the question that guest Neil Macleod from M&G’s technical team was invited to answer when he joined host, Leanne Pickering, for this Assembly.

What you’ll learn by listening

Over the course of one lunch hour, Leanne and Neil explored when bonds are more suitable, when offshore makes sense, and why the ‘best’ mathematical answer might not actually be the right choice for your client. In this Assembly you’ll:

You’ll discover that the right choice for your clients isn’t just about what the spreadsheet says but about the broader thinking

What’s more, once you’ve listened, follow the link below and you can request a record of 1 hour’s worth CPD too.