Paraplanners' Assembly

Even very experienced paraplanners can trip over obstacles lurking in the shadows of IHT. So we invited Aegon’s tax and trusts manager, Elaine Cruickshank, to join host, Richard Allum, for an online Assembly to help you dodge the IHT perils.Over the course of one lunch-hour, Elaine:untangles the transferable nil rate band and residence nil rate band, including the detail that trips people up around second marriages and downsizing provisionsgets into the finer points of gifting exemptions, PETs and CLTs, beyond the seven-year headlineexplains how the inclusion of pensions in estates affects the taper threshold, and what that means for clients close to the £2 million markworks through charitable giving and the 36% rate, including the added complications once pension funds are in the mixbrings it all together with planning opportunities you can take straight back to your deskWhat can you expect to take away?Watch or listen now and you’ll have a sharper grasp of the IHT detail that’s easy to get wrong. Plus the confidence to spot these issues in your own client cases.Useful linksWatch the Replay in CrowdcastDownload slides: IHT the details that could trip up paraplanners

An odd feature of paraplanning is that quite a bit of our time is spent designing strategies that are all about the inevitability of death but – just like in our everyday lives – lots of our clients seem reluctant to talk about death and dying and being prepared for it.Yet the financial grief that families and friends face following a death serves only to compound the overwhelming emotional kind.That’s what this Assembly is all about. Kylie Clark of Wealthtime, Katy Hancock of Dorothy House Hospice Care and Lucy Halliday from Argonaut Paraplanning joined Richard Allum to talk about death and dying.Because at a time when a growing percentage of clients are reaching an age when they should be dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s in plenty of time before they die, what can paraplanners do to help them get death-ready?What you’ll learnOut-of-date expression of wish forms, account and app passwords, overseas accounts, tracking down former advisers and solicitors – what are the biggest and most frequent problems following death? And what can clients and their families do to avoid them?The way firms handle bereavement is one of the most significant sources of complaints across financial services. With bereavement support about to come under the FCA’s spotlight, what can advice practices do to improve things?Learn how the ‘last 1,000 days’ concept could offer a lens to help clients and their families planGrief isn’t just the client’s, it’s the paraplanner’s too. How we’ve been able to acknowledge grief in the past influences how we’re able to help clients experiencing it now and in the future.Watch nowParaplanners from all across the UK got together to share ideas, ask questions and break the big taboo about death. Plus there’s one hour’s CPD available.Missed it? Then follow the links below and watch the replay or catch up with the podcast now.Useful linksThere were loads of links shared by our guests and paraplanners in the Chat during this Assembly. We’ve listed them below. If you watch the Replay at Crowdcast, you can also see the very active Chat contributions posted throughout the session.Watch: Replay at CrowdcastWealthtime's Bereavement HubDorothy House's 'Part of Life' siteDorothy House’s information hub for end of life planningDownload 'Peace of Mind' Planner (PDF)Taking care of your digital legacyPodcast with James Norris about digital legacy planningAnswers to the most Googled searches about deathFCA: Announcement of focus on supporting bereaved customersDorothy House: Children and Young People's Wellbeing HubLottie.org for care statsThe Good Grief TrustAge UK: LifeBook to record practical details of your life

In this month’s Self-Assembly podcast, host Sam Tonks is joined by Julie South and Steven McBurnie to chat about CPD that’s hiding in plain sight, providers WHO WON’T PICK UP THE PHONE, smart glasses, meeting recording, clients who run their suitability report through AI assistants, and ask ‘When is a 'fun fact' a fact?’.Useful linksResources, events and interesting things mentioned during this episode.CISI Financial Planning Conference 2026CISI Scotland Compliance & Operations Conference 2026Lang cat HomeGame 6Women's Wealth Alliance Career GuideFinancial Planner Life podcastSilo (on Apple TV)And the winner is...paraplanning (podcast episode)

Years of frozen allowances have resulted in more and more clients feeling the effect of fiscal drag – when more of your wealth becomes vulnerable to tax.So understanding fiscal drag and what its effects mean for clients, is a really important feature of day-to-day paraplanning.That's why we invited Utmost International's technical sales manager, Steve Sayer, to share his thoughts on fiscal drag and how paraplanners can consider addressing it.Steve explains how, for instance, allowances have lost real value and the capital gains tax exemption has shrunk. And how the frozen nil rate band means more estates than ever are being pulled into inheritance tax.But in this in-depth technical session – which features a case study example along the way – Steve illustrates how the careful application of planning strategies using trusts, and onshore and offshore bonds, mean the negative consequences of fiscal drag needn’t be inevitable.Over the years, Steve has created a series of technical Assemblies that have become some of the most popular episodes we have published among paraplanners. Tune in now and find out why.Useful linksDownload: Steve's slides on Fiscal DragUtmost Technical Academy webinar seriesUtmost x Paraplanners' Assembly: all our previous sessions

We all have pension questions we’ve never quite got round to asking. Maybe the moment wasn’t right. Maybe the right expertise wasn’t around. Maybe you just didn’t want to be the one to ask.That’s why in this Assembly, we staged a pension intervention. Because host Richard Allum posed the most pressing pension-related questions to someone who just loves answering them: Quilter’s retirement and pension technical specialist, Adam Cole.Over one lunch hour, we worked our way through pension topics that either crop up regularly in client cases or maybe just leave you scratching your head from time to time. Things like:Transitional tax-free cash, lump sum allowances and lump sum death benefit allowancesTaking tax-free cash after 75 and the implicationsTaking protected tax-free cash and moving into drawdownHow defined benefit pensions workGuaranteed annuity rates, guaranteed cash sums and other features of older-style contractsWhat can you expect to take away?Watch or listen now to brush up on your pension knowledge. And don’t forget to follow the link below to download your certificate for CPD.Download: Grab your CPD for this AssemblyTransitional regime for past crystallisationsTrusts: Brush up on the essentials in one hourTransitional tax-free amount certificate (TTFAC)ILSA, ILSDBA and permitted maximumsILSA, ILSDBA and permitted maximums grid of protectionsTransitional regime calculatorBlock transfersNormal minimum pension age: changes coming in 2028

What actually goes into the total cost a client pays for their platform? That’s the question that this episode sets out to answer.And to do it host Richard Allum is joined by Transact CEO, Tom Dunbar, who covers the four components that contribute to charges: the annual platform charge, wrapper fees, brokerage fees, and any cash interest retention.Along the way Richard and Tom explore how annual charges are typically tiered, why family linking can make a real difference for smaller portfolios, how wrapper fees scale with the complexity of the product, and where brokerage fees do (and don’t) add up.Finally, the conversation turns to the issue of cash interest retention – the gap between what a platform earns on client cash and what it pays out – and how it differs from platform to platform. Tom explains why Transact has taken a firm stance on the issue, and why retention of interest plus ‘double dipping’ and ‘triple dipping’ have become a focus for the FCA.Useful linksTransact's website

You'd be forgiven for thinking that a gathering of previous award winners could turn into a smugfest.But it’s PARAPLANNERS that we’re talking about.So this episode – recorded specially to mark the tenth annual Professional Paraplanner Awards – is far from self-congratulatory. In fact, it's packed with thinking that will inspire every paraplanner wherever you are in your career.Why? Because it illustrates how entering an award – or even just thinking about it – is one of the most helpful ways to reflect on your career, what you’ve achieved and what you would like to achieve in the future.Host Caroline Stuart of Sparrow Solutions is joined by Natalie Dawes, editor of Professional Paraplanner, along with three paraplanners who've been through the process themselves: Hannah Hirons of Navigatus, Luke Sparkes of Sparkes Paraplanning, and Hannah Wynick of Core Financial Paraplanning.In an hour-long chat they talk about:overcoming your imposter syndromewhy nominating yourself is OK even when it might not feel like itwhy being nominated by someone else feels ACEwhether there’s a difference entering awards when you’re in-house versus outsourcedwhy writing an award entry helps you realise what you're actually good atwhat it's like to sit in an interview with judges – and why it’s so valuableWhat’s more, the conversation also recognises that some people just don’t want to enter awards or feel the need to do so and explores ways in which paraplanners can receive the recognition their work deserves.Above all, this is an episode that shows how powerful it can be for paraplanning practitioners to reflect on their professional progress. And how the peer-led evaluation of entries has established the Professional Paraplanner Awards as the preeminent standard for the paraplanning profession.Useful linksThe Professional Paraplanner Awards 2026 shortlistVisit the episode page at the Assembly website

The rules are changing and from April 2027 unspent pension pots will fall within the scope of inheritance tax. Draft legislation is now published, and there’s plenty for paraplanners to get to grips with.This Assembly looks at how we got here, and where we need to go with less than nine months to go. We looked at what the May 2026 HMRC technical note and draft legislation actually confirmed, what it means in practice, and, what it means for the planning advice paraplanners are helping to shape right now.Host Richard Allum is joined by guest Mark Devlin, Senior Technical Manager at M&G, to practically address some of the trickier questions the changes raise.Together, they covered:The background: how we got here, and what the consultation process did and didn’t addressDiscretionary vs directed schemes: a refresher on the distinction and why it matters for IHT treatmentHow the new process will work in practice, including the role of personal representativesPlanning implications: is it still worth funding a pension, and at what level?Balancing pension use for retirement income against IHT exposure, and keeping an eye on taxable funds for beneficiariesA common income tax misconception, and why some recent press coverage has muddied the waterWhat can you expect to take away?At the end of this Assembly, you’ll have a better understanding of the confirmed changes, a better grasp of the planning considerations that flow from them, and some practical frameworks to bring to your paraplanning work, whether you’re reviewing existing pension strategies or helping to shape new ones.Useful linksHere are the links you need from this event.CPD: Request your certificateSlides: Pensions and IHT for Paraplanners' Assembly - 1 Jul 2026Watch at Crowdcast (with chat)

We got together online at 1pm on Wed 17 June 2026 for The Self-Assembly Paraplanning Show.Why 'Self-Assembly'? Because host Sam Tonks and guests Alan Gow, Jackie Manning and Kimberley Malin started out with four talking points to cover in one lunch-hour. The topics were– how the paraplanning year has gone so far– what's coming up for paraplanners– what could be a thing but isn't yet, and– what events and resources they're recommending right nowThe result is a wide-ranging conversation that takes in mixed feelings about AI (it's handy for handover emails, but when it's confidently wrong..?), chat about rising role of annuities and gifting from excess income, plus questions about the decline of cash, what advice might look like in the future if so-called 'finfluencers' are allowed to continue to 'finfluence'.Fancy tuning in? Then listen now.Useful linksThere were loads of useful links shared of the course of the lunch hour. Here are the ones we managed to note down.Watch the Replay in Crowdcast (includes chat)Find out more about the PFS Paraplanning PanelPFS Paraplanning resourcesPFS Festival of Financial PlanningCISI Paraplanner Interest GroupEstate Research: Good webinars and resourcesM&G Trusts SchoolProfessional Paraplanner Technical Insight SeminarsThe Financial Planning ClubKings College London: Consumer Duty in the Age of AI & SustainabilityWhat If?... A Guide To Working Smart & Building Your Own Path In ParaplanningSign up for the Lang Cat newsletterSquiggly CareersOpen AI AcademyThink Fast, Talk Smart: The PodcastPodcasts from Adam GrantThe Private Eye podcastBooks from Freida Mcfadden