The Paraplanners' Assembly Podcast

Believe it or not, it's already been nine years since the introduction of pension freedoms. And while it's fair to say that the arrival of drawdown has transformed the way that clients can plan income in retirement, when the new measures were announced back in 2015, they were made against the backdrop of a generally benign economic climate.

Today, high interest rates and stubborn inflationary pressure, coupled with greater regulatory scrutiny courtesy of The Consumer Duty and the FCA's retirement income review, make for altogether more changeable weather.

So how are paraplanners expected to make forecasts and hatch plans that will deliver sustainable incomes for clients in their retirement? Plans that stack up under scrutiny - and against the demands - of The Consumer Duty?

During this lunch-hour Assembly, we were joined by Gareth Davies from Scottish Widows, who not only explored these issues but dug into other considerations that could influence paraplanners, advisers and clients when thinking about accumulation and decumulation strategies.

No matter what your experience or expertise as a paraplanner, this 60-minute session offers insights and ideas when considering options for successful and sustainable income in retirement for your clients.

Here are links that were mentioned by Gareth and Richard – and contributors in the Chat:

The Platform Paraplanner Room

Scottish Widows' TechTalk

Picture your future

Our cashflow Assembly with Patrick Ingram

Receive a CPD certificate

Watch the replay in Streamyard

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Canaccord Genuity’s chief investment officer, Tom Becket, joins Richard Allum for a primer on fixed interest investments that is ideal for paraplanners wherever you are in your career.

During a 20-minute conversation, Tom explains the basics of bonds and gilts, how interest rates affect their values, and how the recent spikes in interest rates have affected returns and revived annuities – putting an end to years of fixed interest investments’ appearing to be ‘uninvestable’.

The likelihood of lower inflation combined with potential interest rate cuts is positive for fixed interest markets.

But Tom is keen to stress that all bonds aren’t created equal and he offers his thoughts on where – depending on the risk appetite of your clients – opportunities might lie across a spectrum of fixed interest investments, from government debt to high-yield credit.

For paraplanners looking to get a handle on this significant but possibly misunderstood asset class, this bite-sized Assembly offers valuable insights to help navigate the fixed interest landscape.

Here are some links for this bite-sized Assembly, including the slides that Tom refers to during the conversation. Listen out for the bell to move to the next slide.

Slides: Fixed interest investments for Paraplanners' Assembly

Canaccord Genuity's website

Video: watch on Vimeo

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In a special bite-sized Assembly, Transact’s Stuart Fleat explains how model portfolio services offered by discretionary investment managers are able to be accessed on platforms like Transact.

In less than six minutes, Stuart explains how platforms and MPS providers are able to handle access to client accounts and data securely and confidentially, how portfolio rebalancing works in practice, practical considerations around capital gains tax, and how clients are invested into the model portfolios.

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Once upon a time, we were scouring our library of previous online Assemblies and realised something: we had never covered the topic of inheritance tax (IHT) planning using the alternative investment market (AIM)!

So we thought it was high time to fix that with a whistle-stop tour to discover why investing in AIM is right up there as a strategy for IHT planning.

Whether you’re new to paraplanning and in search of a primer, or you’ve been paraplanning for absolutely ages and want to make sure you really know what you’re talking about, tuning into this Assembly will be well worth your while.

To help us navigate the topic we were joined by the ideal tour guide: Canaccord Genuity’s senior investment director and head of IHT investments, Paul Parker. During our lunch-hour gathering we explored:

• why AIM is so appealing for IHT planning
• business relief and how it works
• why AIM has a reputation for riskier investments
• how clients can invest in AIM – investment managers and DFMs
• researching the suitability of AIM portfolios and their managers
• things to consider when designing an IHT strategy using AIM

As ever, the chat was open for paraplanners to pose questions, or share ideas and observations – and the quality of contributions was great!

Here are some useful links that cropped up during this Assembly – including the slides that Paul referred to and a link to MICAP, an alternative investment research tool mentioned by a number of contributors in the Chat.

Watch the Replay on Crowdcast

Paul's slides: AIM for IHT for Paraplanners' Assembly

Canaccord Genuity's IHT portfolio service

Canaccord Genuity's IHT portfolio documents for clients

MICAP's alternative investment research tool

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Parmenion's head of strategic partnerships, Patrick Ingram, joined host Richard Allum for a lunch-hour Assembly to explore how paraplanners can approach the art of cashflow forecasting these days.

Why? Because two years ago, the Bank of England had raised interest rates to break a 1% ceiling that had been in place since February 2009.

Ten more rate rises followed. Inflation peaked at 11.1% in October 2022. The result for many investors, savers, borrowers, and anyone who bought anything, quite frankly, was a cost of living shock.

Moreover, the already unfamiliar effect of rising living and housing costs was compounded by a fiscal drag that was set to squeeze the spending power of many taxpayers: any gains in pay evaporated as personal allowances remained stubbornly static.

So the chances were that we were all living in a 'new normal' – and many would have said we were experiencing a reversion to pre-2008 financial crash 'normal'.

What did all that mean? Well, after 15 years of low rates and barely perceptible cost of living rises, predicting the future with any confidence suddenly felt a lot more…unpredictable.

Once ultra-reliable features of a paraplanner's toolkit didn't seem half as straightforward as they once did. And that included one of the foundational elements of any financial plan: cashflow forecasting.

So in a world that continued to be beset by economic, political, and environmental uncertainty, what did a paraplanner need to know to produce a cashflow forecast that wouldn't dissolve on contact with reality?

Patrick explored ways of thinking about cashflow and forecasting which relied less on predicting the future and more on preparing for it. We covered concepts including:

• causes and effects of fiscal drag
• capacity for loss
• cash budgeting
• wealth ratios
• cashflows and the consumer duty

It was a 60-minute session that offered a stack of insights and practical ideas that could be applied to client cases right away – plus a discussion that underlined just how vital conversations about cashflow with clients could be.

Here are some links we thought you’d like. To watch the replay on Crowdcast, follow the link and tap ‘Save my spot’ to view the recording.

Patrick's slides: Patrick Ingram: cashflow modelling visuals

Bank of England daily estimated yield curves

Want a record of your attendance today for your CPD? Follow the link, add your details and we’ll email you a personalised certificate: Get your CPD

Watch the replay on Crowdcast (includes Chat)

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It’s no secret that top slicing relief offers a powerful method of reducing tax liability by spreading bond gains across each year of the lifetime of the bond. 

But no matter how experienced a paraplanner you may be, working out the best way to make use of the relief, and getting the top slicing calculations right, can be tricky.

That’s why we think this case study investigation (CSI) on top slicing will be right up your street.

In this 45-minute special on top slicing, Utmost International’s technical sales manager, Steve Sayer, joins The Paraplanners’ Richard Allum, to pick his way through a case study featuring fictional client, David. 

Designed to give you the chance to consider the financial planning opportunities from all sorts of angles, this CSI will help you:

• understand how top slicing relief works and when it can be applied;
• calculate top slicing relief as accurately and tax efficiently as you can;
• work out strategies to assign bond segments to spouses or beneficiaries to reduce tax liabilities;
• understand how pension contributions can be used to save tax and maximise relief; and
• navigate how bond gains, personal allowances, and other sources of income work together

Whether you’re new to top slicing relief or are a seasoned pro, it never hurts to top up your knowledge and know how – especially when it can make such a big difference to a client’s financial plan.

Download the slides referred to in this case study investigation. Just listen out for the bell to follow along.

Slides: Case Study Investigation - more top slicing relief (opens PDF)

CPD: take the quiz and receive a certificate by email

Utmost x Paraplanners' Assembly: all our previous deep dives

Utmost Technical Academy webinar series

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A bit of extra time with Les Cameron following his online Assembly on the post-LTA allowances regime. 

We ran out of time for Les to deal with a large number of questions in the chat at the main Assembly session, so Richard and Les met up later to address the questions instead.

To watch the online Assembly session visit https://www.crowdcast.io/c/beeglny38q63

You can listen to the podcast episode featuring Les's guide to the new allowances landscape here

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In a world where even HMRC doesn’t seem too sure what the score is, how can paraplanners get to grips with the new allowances landscape so clients know what they need to know right now?

Well you could tune into this recording of our Assembly with Les Cameron on 24 April 2024 for starters.

Because M&G Wealth’s head of technical took us on a guided tour of the new allowances regime following the abolition of the lifetime allowance (LTA).

During this lunch-hour event, hosted by Richard Allum of The Paraplanners, Les explored what has changed, what matters, and what it all means for you and your clients.

Here are useful links and downloads from this event. M&G Wealth have created a dedicated page for this event where you can take a quiz to receive a record for your CPD. Just follow the link to grab your certificate.

Les Cameron's guide to the new allowances landscape at M&G Wealth

Les refers to slides throughout this Assembly which you can download here:

Slidedeck: Quite simply - the new pension allowances

Finally, Les mentioned M&G Wealth's transitional tax free amount tool, which is available here:

M&G Wealth’s transitional tax free amount tool

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How will AI affect paraplanners' day-to-day role?

Jonny Stubbs of LIFT Financial and Benjamin Fabi from Principled Paraplanning joined host, Richard Allum, for an online Assembly exploring how paraplanners are adapting to - and adopting - AI tools.

As well as learning about real-life examples of the role AI is already playing in paraplanning, this Assembly offered participants a chance to share their hopes, fears and experiences of the technology. By gathering together, we wanted to discover what paraplanners' are thinking and feeling about AI, and begin to understand how it could affect our day-to-day work.

Early on in the podcast, Benjamin, Jonny and Richard run through some slides which summarise some of the commonly used jargon. That doesn't work brilliantly on audio but here's a PDF of the defintions they ran through:

AI jargon buster (PDF)

Later on, Jonny and Benjamin also share examples that illustrate the difference in results depending on the quality of prompts. Here are the examples they shared:

Benjamin's boiled egg example (PDF)

Jonny's report content example (PDF)

For UK viewers: BBC iPlayer

For the rest of the world: YouTube

Online learning platform, FutureLearn, offers a range of courses that you can choose from to get familiar with AI

FutureLearn

ChatGPT by OpenAI

Claude by Anthropic

Copilot by Microsoft

Saturn

PPOL suitability report builder

You can watch the full replay and read the comments in the - very active - Chat over here:

https://www.crowdcast.io/c/2xfo2f2o459r

paraplannersassembly.co.uk: Paraplanning in the Age of AI

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With the dust settling on the Chancellor’s Budget, Assembly favourite, Les Cameron from M&G Wealth, joined us to cast his expert gaze over the measures announced and what they mean for advice firms and their clients.

Over the course of one lunch-hour, Les explored what Jeremy Hunt’s Budget statement meant for things like inheritance tax, non-dom status, national insurance, lifetime allowance, annual allowance and pretty much any other allowance you can think of.

How many of the Budget measures trailed in the media in advance of the Chancellor’s speech actually materialised or turned out to be Treasury sleight of hand?

As regular Assembly participants know, Les absolutely loves fielding questions on tax and investing (especially from paraplanners) so tune into to see what issues cropped up.

Grab a record of attendance for your CPD visit the dedicated event page for this Assembly at M&G Wealth’s Tech Matters site.

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