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 lunch hour

Join us online at 1.00 pm on Wednesday 8 April for a practical, product-agnostic look at how smoothed funds actually work, hosted by first time Assembly host, Jawaad Tanwir, with Edward Green from M&G.

Ed will start 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 will get into the detail paraplanners need.

During this Assembly, we expect to cover:

What can you expect to take away?

You’ll leave with 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.

Sound useful? Save your spot now.

Are you an outsourced paraplanner?

Whether you’re the only employee of your paraplanning practice, or you lead a paraplanning powerhouse with employees and a hefty bank of clients, outsourced paraplanners share lots of things in common.

You just do.

But here’s the thing: despite the growing number of outsourced paraplanners in the UK these days, opportunities to get together to talk only about things that matter in the outsourced world, are surprisingly few and far between.

Switch off. Show up. Join in. 

So, if you’re an outsourced paraplanner, here’s our invitation: at 1pm on Thursday 30 April 2026, set your notifications to ‘do not disturb’, click on the Zoom link in your event invitation and gather with other outsourced paraplanners across the UK for an hour of conversation, ideas and practical insights.

There’s nothing to prepare. Just come along ready to share your answer to one question: 

‘What’s on your mind today?’

Spaces are limited. To save a spot hit ‘Book Event’ and look out for the calendar invitation in your inbox.

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.

We’ve been recording ‘Technically speaking’ sessions with Utmost’s Steve Sayer for a few years now.

And because they offer really crunchy case-study based content, they’re really popular with paraplanners. 

But we like to plan ahead so late last year, we sat down with Steve and the team at Utmost to talk about the ‘Technically speaking’ plans for 2026. During the conversation, Steve talked about each of the major tax planning milestones that stem from the measures announced by the Chancellor since October 2024 and stretch ahead to 2031.

And when Steve revealed that he had a single slide that set out each of the changes against a timeline, we decided – there and then – that was definitely something paraplanners would like to hear more about.

So we invited Steve into the studio to talk us through it.

And here’s the result: Steve Sayer’s guide to the tax change timeline until April 2031. In it, Steve covers inheritance tax and the domicile regime, excluded property trusts and the new foreign income and gains regime, the agricultural and business property relief changes, pension death benefits in 2027, plus the effects of the freezing of tax bands until 2031.

Plus you can download his slide using the link below.

Are you an outsourced paraplanner?

Whether you’re the only employee of your paraplanning practice, or you lead a paraplanning powerhouse with employees and a hefty bank of clients, outsourced paraplanners share lots of things in common.

You just do.

But here’s the thing: despite the growing number of outsourced paraplanners in the UK these days, opportunities to get together to talk only about things that matter in the outsourced world, are surprisingly few and far between.

Switch off. Show up. Join in. 

So, if you’re an outsourced paraplanner, here’s our invitation: at 1pm on Thursday 26 February 2026, set your notifications to ‘do not disturb’, click on the Zoom link in your event invitation and gather with other outsourced paraplanners across the UK for an hour of conversation, ideas and practical insights.

There’s nothing to prepare. Just come along ready to share your answer to one question: 

‘What’s on your mind today?’

Spaces are limited. To save a spot hit ‘Book Event’ and look out for the calendar invitation in your inbox.

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.

Back in November, guests from CISI, PFS and LIBF joined us to talk about what the professional bodies can do for paraplanners. (If you missed part 1, you’ll find it here.)

But there was too much to cover in just one session. So we invited Nicola Mellor (PFS), Chris Morris (CISI) and Sally Plant (LIBF) back to pick up where they left off.

This time around, they answered questions including which body to join and why, exams and qualifications, the role of CPD and how paraplanners can influence the work of professional bodies.

What you’ll hear

We structured this Assembly around six key areas that came up most often from paraplanners:

What can you expect to take away

You’ll leave with a much clearer understanding of what each professional body offers, which matters when you’re making decisions about where to invest your time and money.

More importantly, you’ll know exactly how these organisations work, how you can influence them, and whether they’re actually listening to what paraplanners need — not just what they think you need.

This is also a chance to hear the professional bodies respond directly to some uncomfortable questions about cost, accessibility, and whether they truly recognise paraplanning as a profession in its own right.

A head and shoulders image of Zara Okoro at The Big Day Out 2025

In the second of her two-part special on AI in paraplanning, Zara Okoro asks where we are heading as a profession. What plans are AI tool providers and financial planning practices likely to pursue in future? And what could it mean for the role of paraplanner itself?

In conversation with Benjamin Fabi of Principled Paraplanning, Aram Kupelian of Holden and Partners, Jonny Stubbs of Brooks Financial, and Ben Wright of Melo, Zara asks how far and fast AI adoption should go, what could go wrong, and what needs to happen to get this right?

Our last episode looked at where AI in paraplanning stands today.

For this concluding episode, we’re looking ahead.

As well as links to the podcast episode on Spotify, Apple and Acast, we’ve included downloads of Harriet Mayer’s slides on AI and paraplanning from The Big Day Out in 2025, and Harriet’s glossary of AI terms too.

A head and shoulders image of Zara Okoro at The Big Day Out 2025

In the first of a two-part special on AI in paraplanning, Zara Okoro (pictured above) hears about the tools paraplanners are using now, the ways they’re being adopted, and the boundaries practitioners are drawing when it comes to their use.

In conversation with Benjamin Fabi of Principled Paraplanning, Aram Kupelian of Holden and Partners, Jonny Stubbs of Brooks Financial, and Ben Wright of Melo, Zara discovers how AI is already influencing multiple parts of day-to-day work that will be very familiar to paraplanners, such as meeting notes, research and collaboration.

But we also hear about reasons for caution: concerns about accuracy, security, and the pace of change.

What is clear is that we’re at the beginning of widespread adoption of AI tools in paraplanning. And no matter how much exposure you’ve had to AI at work so far, this episode (and the next) make for essential listening to understand what’s happening to paraplanning now and in the future.

As well as links to the podcast episode on Spotify, Apple and Acast, we’ve included downloads of Harriet Mayer’s slides on AI and paraplanning from The Big Day Out in 2025, plus Harriet’s glossary of AI terms from the same event.

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)