
If you’re a paraplanner who lives or works in striking distance of central London, then The Other London Assembly from 10am on Friday 20 October 2023 will be right up your street.
Hosted by Dan Atkinson and Andy Schleider, this is your chance to gather with paraplanners from your neck of the woods to learn what’s going on in each other’s worlds, share ideas, and discover practical tips and illuminating insights.
Book your spot and you’ll be able to shape the agenda for the two-hour get-together but – right now – we expect paraplanners taking part to exchange ideas on report writing and, now that the consumer duty is a feature of daily life, explore how we’re demonstrating ‘fair value’ in annual reviews.
Plus, the chance to tackle any other paraplanning topic that’s on your mind when we gather at the London Wall Place office of Barnett Waddingham.
From our very first meeting in 2013, the Paraplanners’ Assembly has created gatherings – in person and online and all over the UK – that spark collaboration and conversation.
Expect the same from The Other London Assembly.
After all, Assemblies only happen because paraplanners show up. You’ll feel you belong at The Other London Assembly because The Other London Assembly belongs to you.
So how about it? Book your spot now.
Capacity for loss. What is it? What isn’t it? And why it should be a paraplanner’s BFF* (if it isn’t already)?
To explore the topic, the Assembly’s own BFF, Patrick Ingram from Parmenion, joined us for a lunch-hour Assembly during which we covered some really interesting stuff including:
Capacity for loss and attitude to risk. What’s the difference?
Even though the combination of a client’s capacity for loss and their attitude to risk are significant factors when you’re working on a case, Patrick showed us why both ideas are so different – and what that means for clients.
Get busy with client balance sheets
We dug into ideas like ‘client balance sheet’ and ‘wealth ratios’, and explored how they offer both strategic and practical ways to settle on an investment approach that fits their financial position.
Safety first
We explored the idea of a ‘safety margin’. What is it? And how does the idea help insulate clients from financial risks while still allowing them the flexibility to adapt their strategy through life’s ups and downs?
When capacity for loss is such a significant feature of the day job, this was a great chance to catch up with the latest thinking.
*BFF = best friend forever
Host Richard Allum was joined by experts Rachel Geary and Murray Smith from Barnett Waddingham for a lunch-hour session exploring what clients need to know if they want to invest in property as part of their pension
Together, they covered the technical, regulatory and legal issues that influence pensions and property, and served up really valuable insights along the way.
Among the topics covered were:
- Why buy a commercial property with a pension?
- SIPP vs SSAS. What, why and when?
- Rules about property in a pension
- Technical and legal things to know about investing in commercial property with a pension
- FAQs. Which things crop up time and again?
- What can go wrong – and how to avoid it happening
Listen now

New consumer duty rules come into force on 31 July (for new products and services, that is).
Yet as recently as last month, Citywire reported that 59% of advisers have not started preparing for the July deadline – that’s according to a survey of 1,000 advice firms commissioned by Aviva.
It got us wondering: what’s going on in advice practices across the UK?
Are firms comfortable with the deadline because they’re confident they’ve got all the consumer duty bases covered?
Or could they be underestimating the effect the consumer duty rules will have on how we all communicate with clients?
What’s happening where you work? And with client communications at the heart of the Duty – and the role of paraplanners – should we be worried?
To explore what’s going on, we invited Aegon UK’s public affairs director, Steven Cameron, and Gemma Knight, a director of Compliance and Training Solutions (CATS), to join us online for a lunch-hour Assembly.
Is your firm ready for the 31 July deadline?
Watch the replay or listen to the podcast to find out!

Tax year end. ALREADY?
Yes. But it wasn’t just any old hour’s worth of tax chat (attractive though we know that would be).
No. This is all about getting in the RIGHT MINDSET for 2023’s tax year end deadline.
(Like a HIIT workout. But without the HIIT bit. Or the workout.)
What it involved was coach and facilitator, Becca Timmins, being joined by Kez Condy and Jo Parkes from Navigatus, Zoe Hitchcock from Crowe UK and Emery Little’s Satu Flynn to discuss how they were getting in the zone for this year’s tax deadline.
The audience were invited to tune in as the group answer three questions:
- What went well at tax year end last year?
- What was a challenge?
- What will you take with you into this tax year end?
By sharing their insights and experiences from last year – combined with your own contributions in the chat – everyone taking part – on screen or off it – gained ideas, tips and techniques that could prove invaluable in countdown to the tax year deadline.