Following his popular Assembly debut in February, Jon Hall returns to finish his exploration of protection essentials at 1pm on Wednesday 2 April 2025.

And this time it’s the essentials of business protection that the Scottish Widows’ protection expert will be focusing on.

And with good reason.

A Swiss Re report in 2024 claimed that of almost 1.4 million new protection policies sold in the UK in 2023, just 2.8% were related to business protection and relevant life policies [1]. And in a country where 99.8% of the 5.6 million privately owned businesses are SMEs – that’s according to the UK Government data – it doesn’t half seem like there’s a BIG business protection gap in the UK. (The source of those stats, you ask? See below.)

The chances are you’ll have business owners among your clients. And plenty of you run your own businesses as outsourced and freelance paraplanners.

So what happens when someone running a business becomes critically ill or dies? What steps can you take to address the risk? How do you start a conversation about business protection?

Tune in to hear Jon as he shares his expertise on:

Whether you want to develop your knowledge or make sure clients with business have the right plans in place, you’ll find this Assembly really valuable.

PS.

Shortly after the event, Jon popped over to The Big Tent and answered questions that paraplanners had raised during the gathering, but he hadn’t had time to answer live, in a dedicated thread. Be sure to take a look at his responses.

[1] The Business Protection Opportunity.

If you don’t feel all that confident about annuities, you’re not alone.

Once the default choice of guaranteed income in retirement for generations of UK pension savers, for a whole bunch of reasons, annuities had been falling out of favour for year and years.

Why annuities matter again

Higher interest rates and inflation have led to a revival of interest in securing certainty of income in retirement. 

The trouble is that an emerging generation of paraplanners – and a sizeable chunk of the more established paraplanning population – had barely any recent experience of annuities.

So we invited Andy Powell from Standard Life to join us to explain:

Tailoring annuities to client needs

During this Assembly, Andy explores the different ways annuities can be designed to meet different requirements. For instance:

Andy also covers newer developments like fixed-term annuities and platform-based solutions that let clients combine secure income with investment flexibility without splitting pension assets across different providers.

For paraplanners, perhaps one of the most valuable takeaways is understanding enhanced terms where, in contrast to other insurance products, health conditions actually increase and not decrease income.

This practical session will give you paraplanners useful knowledge to help clients weigh up their retirement income options. So why not watch or listen now?

From April 2025, the rules determining who pays UK inheritance tax are changing. 

Instead of the complex domicile rules, a new ‘long-term residency’ test will decide whether someone’s worldwide assets fall into the IHT net.

Discover what’s changing

In this episode, Utmost’s international technical sales manager, Steve Sayer, explores how the new rules could affect clients in a range of scenarios – whether they’re UK residents planning to retire abroad or people returning home after years overseas.

Using worked examples, Steve demonstrates how changes affect trust planning, and explains when trusts might shift between excluded and relevant property status. He also touches on the implications of pension death benefits becoming subject to IHT from 2027.

Who is this Assembly for?

Whether you’re already dealing with cross-border IHT planning or want to understand how these changes might create new planning opportunities, this session is a great way to get to grips with the new framework.

What are the learning outcomes?

By the end of this podcast, you’ll understand the post April 2025 changes to:

Once you’ve listened, make sure you grab your CPD

CPD: Take the quiz to receive your certificate

Want to learn more? Then tune in now.

The way pensions are treated for inheritance tax (IHT) is set for a big shake up in April 2027 when unused pension funds will count as part of a client’s estate and become liable to IHT.

In preparation for the change, the government announced a consultation on the liability, reporting and payment of IHT at last October’s Budget.

That consultation ended late in January 2025. But what are its conclusions likely to be? And what do paraplanners need to know so you, your firm and its clients are ready when the reforms go live?

What do you and your clients need to know?

Those are the questions that M&G‘s head of technical, Les Cameron, addressed when he joined us for an online Assembly to explores what the changes could mean for paraplanners and your clients (or clients of clients if you’re outsourced or freelancing).

What you can expect to take away from this Assembly?

Together with Assembly host Richard Allum, Les shared his thoughts on how the new IHT framework will affect pension death benefits after 2027. The conversation to covered things like:

Stop press: post-event answers to questions raised in the chat

There were loads of questions from paraplanners in the chat but, because we ran out of time, Les posted his responses to them in this thread at The Big Tent.

Do you find that, even though you spend each and every day working on financial plans for clients, you hardly ever get mixed up in protection? 

Well you’re not alone. Because despite being a foundational long-term financial security, for paraplanners, the topic of protection often takes a back seat compared to consideration of investment and retirement strategies.

Which invites the question: what happens to that carefully crafted financial plan if a client’s income falls or they’re faced with the financial consequences of a bout of serious illness or worse? 

In other words, what does every self-respecting paraplanner need to know to make sure their clients plans don’t unravel when the unexpected happens unexpectedly?

Protection: get up to speed

To find out tune into the recording of this Assembly held online on 5 February 2025 when Jon Hall, protection specialist at Scottish Widows, joined us to explore protection essentials for paraplanners.

Whether you’re new to protection or need a refresher, the recording of this session will help you understand:

What you’ll discover when you tune in

Jon brings real-world experience as both a protection specialist and former adviser focusing on high-net-worth and complex cases. He shares insights on how paraplanners can help build protection into the advice process, even in firms where it hasn’t traditionally been a focus.

Straight after the event, Jon popped over to The Big Tent and created a thread where he answered questions that paraplanners had raised during the gathering but he hadn’t had time to answer live. Be sure to take a look at his responses.

For our very first online Assembly of 2025, we asked whether we’d absolutely definitely seen the back of all the corrective legislation, clear-as-mud HMRC guidance, and lifetime allowance (LTA) limbo that paraplanners, advisers and clients endured for long periods over the previous two years.

So for those who wanted to be certain where things stood, and confirm for themselves that the LTA saga was absolutely definitely over, James Jones-Tinsley from Barnett Waddingham and Transact’s Brian Radbone joined us to put us all straight – once and for all.

Over the course of one lunch hour, James and Brian offered their insights on all the corrections, clarifications and considerations that you could possibly want to know when it comes to the lifetime allowance.

Paraplanners came armed with their questions and comments to share in the chat, and tuned in to hear what our experts – and paraplanners just like them – learned from the saga of the LTA abolition.

A couple of post-event answers

During the event, Colin Stewart of The Paraplanners posed the following question in the chat: ‘If you apply for a transitional tax-free amount certificates (TTFAC), and then fixed protection, can you have the TTFAC recalculated?’. Brian said he’d check and here’s what he found out following the event:

Here’s the relevant bit of the Assembly via Vimeo and Acast if you’re interested in tuning in to the conversation.

Each of us shares an ever more complex and connected planet. One where we’re all facing the consequences of a human-made climate emergency and conflicts. A world of profound inequalities in health, economic and social outcomes between – and within – populations. 

So it shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that more and more clients are looking for returns that aren’t measured financially, but by effecting positive economic, social and environmental change.

But how many of your clients think this way? And if you did know how many, how confident are you that you can help clients make their social and charitable ambitions part of a practical financial plan? 

What you’ll learn from this Assembly

To explore this topic we gathered together three wise people (appropriate for the time of year) to help us:

Host Richard Allum is joined by pioneering ethical investing advocate and financial planner Jeannie Boyle of EQ Investors, Jack Chellman chief project officer of the innovative Global Returns Project and David McIntosh of chief executive of ShareGift – a brilliant service that has turned the shareholding equivalent of spare change into more than £50 million in donations to UK charities since 1996.

Watch or listen now

Once upon a time, philanthropy was something that only the very wealthiest would consider. But in this season of goodwill – and in a world that doesn’t half need it – find out why that’s no longer true – and how paraplanners can help clients put their money to work in powerfully positive ways more easily than ever before.

Aegon UK’s Sarah Purves and Succession Wealth’s Ellie Welling return for a follow-up to last month’s ‘What kind of paraplanning leader will I be?’ Assembly.

Picking up where they left off in November, Sarah, Ellie and host, Richard Allum, explore a topic that every aspiring and existing leader will experience during their career: difficult conversations. 

Sarah shares ideas and techniques that can help paraplanning leaders successfully prepare for and navigate discussions that you might otherwise dread.

During the second half of this episode, our guests focused on questions, ideas and topics raised by paraplanners during the first Assembly.  

But whether or not you joined Sarah and Ellie last time, and haven’t had a chance to listen or watch it on catch up yet, you’re sure to gain plenty to inform your reflections on successful leadership by tuning into this discussion.

Watch or listen now

So if you’re on the lookout for an hour that’s packed with practical ideas and insights that could prove vital to your next steps in paraplanning, look no further.

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Perhaps you’ve been thinking about stepping into a leadership role in paraplanning. Or you’re already managing others and want to build your skills. Either way, our specially extended lunchtime Assembly at 12.30pm on Wednesday 13 November is for you.

What’s in it for me?

Over 90 minutes, you’ll explore what kind of paraplanning leader you could be and discover how you can make that step with confidence – all from the comfort of your own desk (or canteen, cafe, or kitchen table).

Wherever you’re joining from, we’ll have Aegon UK’s learning and organisational consultant, Sarah Purves, on hand to help. Throughout the Assembly, Sarah will be inviting you to try out a series of exercises that will help you:

What’s more, Sarah will be joined by paraplanner Ellie Welling from Succession Wealth who will be sharing her own experience of moving into a leadership role – what she’s learned, what she wishes she’d known, and how she’s gone about developing her own approach to managing a team.

It’s an Assembly that’s specially designed so you can:

Save your spot now

There’s no magic formula for becoming a leader. But there are tools and techniques that really work. Whether you just want to tune in to listen and learn, or get stuck in and share your thoughts in the Chat, you’ll be really welcome.

So how about it? Save your spot now.

Don’t miss part two!

This Assembly was the first of a two-parter on paraplanning leadership. In the second part, Sarah, Ellie and Richard will dig into dealing with difficult conversations as well as exploring the questions raised in the Chat at today’s Assembly.

To save your spot for that Assembly, visit the event page.

Scottish Widows’ pensions specialist (and Big Day Out 2024 ‘Quiz the Expert’ alumnus), Gareth Davies, joins host, Richard Allum, for the follow-up to his popular ‘Is there a recipe for successful retirement income advice?‘ Assembly which we held back in June.

Why a second helping?

An unbelievably busy Chat meant that Gareth fielded a fair few comments and questions which left too much ground to cover in just one lunch hour. So Gareth agreed to come back later in the year to conclude his survey of the retirement advice landscape.

In this concluding Assembly, Gareth and Richard…

It makes for a lunch-hour Assembly that’s packed with valuable insights and practical ideas that you can apply to client cases right away.