Join us online at 1.00 pm on Wednesday 26 August for a lunch-hour Assembly exploring some of the dark corners of inheritance tax planning.

Our host, Richard Allum is joined by Elaine Cruickshank, Tax and Trusts Manager at Aegon, to unpick the areas of IHT that most often trip paraplanners up, and the planning opportunities hiding in the detail.

During this lunch-hour Assembly we expect to

• untangle the transferable nil rate band and residence nil rate band, including the detail that trips people up around second marriages and downsizing provisions
• get into the finer points of gifting exemptions, PETs and CLTs, beyond the seven-year headline
• understand how the inclusion of pensions in estates affects the taper threshold, and what that means for clients close to the £2 million mark
• work through charitable giving and the 36% rate, including the added complications once pension funds are in the mix
• get a brief update on business relief (BR)
• bring it all together with planning opportunities you can take straight back to your desk

What can you expect to take away?

You’ll leave this Assembly with a sharper grasp of the IHT detail that’s easy to get wrong, and the confidence to spot these issues in your own client cases.

As always, this is a chance to learn something new, fix the gaps in your own knowledge, and share your questions, experiences and all you’ve picked up with your colleagues.

Sound like a good use of your lunch hour? 

Save your spot now.

We all have pension questions we’ve never quite got round to asking. Maybe the moment wasn’t right. Maybe the person wasn’t right. Maybe you just didn’t want to be the one to ask. This Assembly is your chance to put those questions to someone who genuinely loves answering them. Consider this your pension intervention.

Join us online at 1.00 pm on Tuesday 29 July for a practical, no-slides pension clinic with host Richard Allum and guest Adam Cole, Retirement Specialist at Quilter.

Together, they’ll work through some of the pension topics that often crop up in cases or have you scratching your head. Things like: 

• Transitional tax-free cash, lump sum allowances and lump sum death benefit allowances
• Taking tax-free cash after 75 and the implications
• Taking protected tax-free cash and moving into drawdown
• How defined benefit pensions work
• Guaranteed annuity rates, guaranteed cash sums and other features of older-style contracts
• Annuities including the different options available to members, dependants, nominees and successors
• The State Pension and how it accrues, what’s inheritable and common areas of uncertainty
• Safeguarded benefits, what they are and how they affect transfers
• The minimum pension age changes coming in 2028

What can you expect to take away?

You’ll leave with a clearer understanding of some of the trickier or less travelled corners of pension planning, and with the confidence that comes from having had the space to ask the questions you might not always feel comfortable raising elsewhere. 

Save your spot now.

The rules are changing and from April 2027 and unspent pension pots will fall within the scope of inheritance tax. Draft legislation is now published, and there’s plenty for paraplanners to get to grips with.

This Assembly looks at how we got here, and where we need to go with less than nine months to go. We looked at what the May 2026 HMRC technical note and draft legislation actually confirmed, what it means in practice, and, what it means for the planning advice paraplanners are helping to shape right now.

On 1 July 2026, host Richard Allum was joined by guest Mark Devlin, Senior Technical Manager at M&G, to practically address some of the trickier questions the changes raise.

Together, they covered:

• The background: how we got here, and what the consultation process did and didn’t address
• Discretionary vs directed schemes: a refresher on the distinction and why it matters for IHT treatment
• How the new process will work in practice, including the role of personal representatives
• Planning implications: is it still worth funding a pension, and at what level?
• Balancing pension use for retirement income against IHT exposure, and keeping an eye on taxable funds for beneficiaries
• A common income tax misconception, and why some recent press coverage has muddied the water

What can you expect to take away?

At the end of this Assembly, you’ll have a better understanding of the confirmed changes, a better grasp of the planning considerations that flow from them, and some practical frameworks to bring to your paraplanning work, whether you’re reviewing existing pension strategies or helping to shape new ones.

Setting up your own outsourced paraplanning business can be an exciting prospect but going into it with your eyes open  and with the benefit of other people’s hard-won experience makes for a much stronger start.

On Wednesday 3 June, our guests had an honest, practical conversation about what it really takes to start an outsourced paraplanning business.

Host Richard Allum was joined by three paraplanners who’ve recently been through the process: Jawaad Tanwir founder of ParaplanX, Ellie Bailey founder of Paraflo, and Phillip Williams of Beyond Paraplanning (and author of ‘What If?…: A Guide To Working Smart & Building Your Own Path In Paraplanning‘).

Together they reflected on their own experiences and shared what they’ve learned, covering:

• what the outsourced paraplanning market looks like right now, and whether it’s a good time to be thinking about this
• the questions worth asking yourself before you take the leap and how to know if it’s genuinely what you want
• how to go about setting up an outsourced business in practice
• what they wish they’d known at the start, and what they’re still figuring out
• how they’re finding balance in work, in business, and beyond

What can you expect to take away?

After tuning into this Assembly, you’ll leave with a clearer picture of what outsourced paraplanning business life actually looks like including the opportunity, the reality, and the things worth thinking through before you commit. Whether you’re seriously considering it or just curious, this is an opportunity to hear from people who’ve been exactly where you are.

Trusts used to be the kind of thing you’d come across every now and again. Something to dust off the knowledge for, handle carefully, then put back on the shelf.

That’s changing. With pension IHT changes on the horizon, trust planning is becoming a regular fixture on paraplanners’ desks and the paraplanners best placed to support their clients will be the ones who can approach it with genuine confidence, not just familiarity.

This Assembly is designed to help you get there.

This practical Assembly takes you from the foundations right through to real-world trust planning decisions.

Shaun Moore, Tax and Financial Planning Expert at Quilter, joins host Richard Allum for this Assembly. Together they work through the essentials and the less obvious bits that every paraplanner working with trusts needs to have at their fingertips.

During this Assembly, we:

• explore why trust planning has moved from the occasional to the everyday, and why the pension IHT changes expected from April 2027 are likely to accelerate that further
• get to grips with the types of trust you’re most likely to encounter (loan trusts, discounted gift trusts and reversionary interest trusts) and how to tell them apart when different providers call them different things
• use the three circles of access, flexibility and tax efficiency as a practical framework for matching the right trust to the right client
• explore the common mistakes and questions that come up again and again
• understand the ongoing practical obligations that come with trusts, from the Trust Registration Service to trustee bank accounts, and when a professional trustee makes sense

What can you expect to take away?

You’ll leave with a clearer, more confident grasp of trust planning, not just the theory, but the practical judgement to apply it. Whether you’re doing in-depth trust research or writing up recommendations that involve one, this session gives you a framework and a reference point you can keep coming back to.

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 (SEND). How confident were you that the plan truly reflected what that family needs, not just now, but for the long term?

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.

So in this Assembly first-time host Peter Spence from Fintuity was joined by Ali Fanshawe and Rhiannon Gogh, co-founders of SENDA who are specialists who work with financial and legal advisers to deliver safer, smarter planning for SEND families.

All three participants have children with SEND needs.

What the Assembly covers

Together, Peter, Ali and Rhiannon talked about what special needs planning really involves, where traditional advice tends to fall short, and what paraplanners can do to fill that gap.

The conversation covers:

• how many families are affected in the UK and what the financial planning picture looks like for them on a personal level
• an exploration of the consequences of getting financial planning wrong for families with SEND needs
• the key problems that can crop up during a financial planning process compared to a regular advice process
• the training and support that’s available if you want to develop your knowledge

What can you expect to take away?

By tuning into this Assembly, you’ll get a clearer sense of where special needs planning is different and what to start thinking about when planning for SEND needs. It’s an introduction to the subject rather than a complete guide. But it’s a great primer which offers practical ideas you can use right now. Ideas that will give confidence about doing the right thing for clients whose plans need to take account of family members with special educational needs and disabilities.

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:

• the three main types of smoothed fund, conventional with-profits, future expectation of returns (such as the EGR model), and backward-facing averaging, and what distinguishes them
• why smoothed funds tend to carry higher costs than conventional multi-asset funds, and what those costs are buying
• scale, structure and smoothing as a framework for evaluation
• private market exposure and how it contributes to lower-volatility returns
• what to actually look at when you’re researching these funds (hint: start with the underlying multi-asset fund, not the smoothing overlay)

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.

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 cuts through the complexity and gives 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.

Host, Richard Allum is joined by Elaine Cruickshank, tax and trusts manager at Aegon 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 explored

We looked at how recent tax changes are prompting advisers and paraplanners to revisit wrapper choice, and went 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 also looked 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?

After catching up on the Assembly, you’ll have 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.

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:

• Inheritance tax changes and business relief updates
• Capital gains tax rates and allowances
• ISA allowances
• Pensions, IHT liability and the role of personal representatives
• Salary sacrifice
• Tax rates, bands and allowances
• Beneficial ordering
• The effect of fiscal drag (or ‘stealth taxes’)

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)