A horizontal image with cream background. To the right of centre, the title displayed is 'A guide to business protection essentials for paraplanners'. Above the title smaller text reads 'Online - 1pm on Wednesday 2 April 2025'. To the left of the title is the focal image of the promotion - a headshot of Jon Hall from Standard Life.

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. 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.

Sound interesting? Then save your spot now and we’ll see you there.

PS. Is CPD available? Of course it is.

Oh and the source of those stats? Turn to page 3 in Scottish Widows’ The Business Protection Opportunity.

A horizontal image with orange background. To the right of centre, the title displayed is 'A guide to annuity essentials for paraplanners'. Above the title smaller text reads 'Online - 1pm on Wednesday 19 March 2025'. To the left of title is the focal image of the promotion - a headshot of Andy Powell from Standard Life.

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

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

So when pension freedom arrived in 2015, it seemed certain it was curtains for annuities.

But in a plot twist worthy of a BAFTA-winning thriller, the return of higher inflation and interest rates (which peaked most recently in 2023) revived the appeal of annuities to gain certainty of income in retirement.

The trouble is that, by 2023, an emerging generation of paraplanners – and a sizeable chunk of the more established paraplanning population – had barely any recent experience of annuities.

In other words, it’s time we all brushed up on annuities.

Enjoy an expert tour through annuities

That’s why we’ve invited Andy Powell, annuity expert at Standard Life, to join us online at 1pm on Wednesday 16th April 2025.

During the course of one lunch hour, Andy and Assembly host, Richard Allum, expect to cover topics including:

Andy will also share examples of cases to help illustrate how different options plus disclosure of health conditions can combine to positively influence outcomes for retirement income – practical examples and insights to take away from this Assembly and apply when considering client cases straightway.

Grab your spot now

Fancy brushing up on your knowledge of annuities? Then follow the link and grab your spot now.

PS. Is evidence of CPD available? Yes, of course!

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 last month. But what are its conclusions likely to be? And what do paraplanners need to know now so you, your firm and its clients are ready when the reforms go live?

What do you and your clients need to know?

Join us online at 1pm on Wednesday 19 February 2025 as technical specialist Les Cameron from M&G explores what the changes could mean for paraplanners and clients.

What you can expect to take away from this Assembly?

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

There will be plenty of time for questions so, whether you’re wondering about specific client situations or broader planning strategies, this is a great chance to gain expert insight into a big change for pension planning.

Plus, there’s one hour’s CPD available when you tune in.

Interested? Then save your spot now

Promotional image for "An informal Assembly for outsourced paraplanners". An online gathering in Zoom from 10-11 am on Thursday 10 February 2025.

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 10am on Thursday 27 February 2025, 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.

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.

Think you know how to stay safe online? No matter how tech security savvy you think you are, even people who have never known a world without the web can fall victim to sophisticated scams (listen out for the case of a 20 year old digital native who nearly lost £000s in a fake HMRC email scam). 

Which is why you should tune in to this eye-opening conversation with Sarah Coles, Parmenion’s head of cyber and resilience. 

As a seasoned cybersecurity expert, whose blog posts have acquired almost cult status among readers of the Assembly’s monthly newsletter, Sarah has spent a decade protecting wealth management professionals and practices. In this conversation with host Richard Allum, Sarah shares five practical tips that will help shield you and your business from a world of cyber threats.

Be in the know

Want to know why storing passwords in your browser might be riskier than you think? Or why relying on SMS codes for two-factor authentication could leave you vulnerable? Sarah breaks down complex security concepts into actionable steps you can implement right away.

In fewer than 30 minutes, you’ll discover:

Whether you’re a solo paraplanner or part of a larger team, this conversation offers valuable insights for protecting not only your practice and your clients’ sensitive information but your personal information too. 

Tune in and adopt healthy habits

These days, good security isn’t just about the tech you use. It’s about developing smart habits that become second nature. Tune in and, in half an hour, you could be setting out on a lifetime of freshly minted healthy cyber security habits.

Thank you for joining us on 15 November to take your outsourcing game to the next level.

Thanks to the generous support of Assembly supporter, Aegon UK, we were able to team up with coach and consultant Rachael Hurdman to create a workshop where paraplanners could gather to exchange practical insights, knowledge and experience.

We hope you agree it turned out to be a day out of the office that made a real difference to you and your future in outsourcing.

This image displays text promoting Aegon's association with the workshop outsourced paraplanners. The text reads "A personal and business power-up for outsourced paraplanners would not be possible without the generous support of Aegon UK". On the far right of the image is Aegon's logo. The overall design is minimalist with black text on a white background.