If you are a practising Financial Planner I’m guessing that you have been pretty busy over the last remarkable year. Whether it was reassuring existing clients as markets took an initial battering, helping them to recognise the opportunities afforded by a long-term plan, or helping new clients to build a secure future for themselves based on time-honoured principles, there has been plenty to keep us occupied.

CPD Woes

In the middle of all the activity I suddenly realised that my CPD was turning into a significant mountain to climb as my membership year drew to a close. I was extremely thankful for the outstanding Professional Refresher modules available on the CISI website, together with CISI TV enabling me to increase my knowledge in a wide range of subject areas whilst automatically accruing vital time to set against my requirement. If you haven’t looked at these facilities before, I strongly recommend that you log onto the CISI website and make full use of them. There is a wealth of knowledge and experience represented in these excellent facilities.

First Virtual Branch Meeting

I have to admit that, as a Branch, we’ve been a bit behind the curve when it comes to online meetings during the lockdown. However, we held our first zoom-powered Branch Meeting on 11^th March and it was a great success, with excellent feedback from attendees. We welcomed Andrew Walker from Dimensional who provided a fascinating insight into the importance of relationship in the client/planner interaction, using data based on wide research to deliver conclusions about how planners can work more effectively with clients.

We then heard from Amyr Rocha Lima, Partner at Holland Hahn & Wills Financial Planning and recently installed Chairman of the CISI Financial Planning Forum Committee. Amyr took over this role from Martin Ruskin, who has been a great ambassador for Financial Planning, and a hard act to follow. However, Amyr has risen to the role magnificently, as evidenced by his energetic and inspiring talk. If you missed it, I recommend that take the next opportunity to hear from Amyr, his passion for Financial Planning is highly infectious. Among lots of things that I wrote down was “In a product led world you are relying on hope.” I suggest that you write that quote on your office wall.

Annual Dinner

You also won’t be surprised to know the Committee has taken the decision to postpone this year’s Annual Dinner until 2022. I’m sure you will understand planning an event like that even if restrictions are relaxed in the current conditions would have been nigh on impossible.

We are working on organising our next virtual Branch Meeting and perhaps an exciting summer social, look out for further details.

Promoting CFP^TM

Equally passionate about Financial Planning is Sally Plant, who took over from Jackie Lockie as the CISI’s Head of Financial Planning in November. Sally previously worked for the CISI, including taking responsibility for expanding the Institute’s schools, university and apprenticeship programmes. It is an area that we’ve discussed as a Committee, with some good work being done to forge relationships with education with the objective of building a long-term pathway from higher education through to qualified CFP^TM Professional. The CFP^TM remains the primary benchmark for practical Financial Planning skills, and the Institute has been working hard to continue to refine its solid examination structure and robust process to ensure both candidates and the public that achievement of the CFP^TM licence is primary evidence of competency.

Toward a More Representative Branch

Before Christmas I attended a virtual Presidents Day, designed to help Branch Presidents to understand more about the Institute and how to be effective in their role. I was disappointed to learn that our Branch is the least diverse in the country, being populated exclusively by males. This is a statistic that I am anxious to change, and I would like to invite all members within the region to consider joining the Branch Committee. I can personally testify that doing so will not only introduce you to some great people within the profession, but will also assist your own growth, development and learning. It would be great to have a more representative mix of age, ethnicity and gender driving the Branch forward and making a real difference as we go. Your commitment can be as much or as little as you can manage. Please give it some thought and contact me if you would like to know more.

Indeed, if you have any ideas or suggestions for how we can improve the Branch, whether that is ideas for speakers, new initiatives, educational connections or social events, please let me know. I’ll be delighted to hear from you.

 

Andy Jervis
Branch President
East Midlands and Lincoln CISI

andy.jervis@chestertonhouse.co.uk

The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) launched its first ever global brand marketing campaign in March, with the aim of raising awareness of the CISI brand, membership and qualifications internationally.

The campaign came to Dublin in April with ‘We are your Competitive Edge’ posters at the Luas tram stops throughout the IFSC where firms such as Citi, JP Morgan, BNP Paribas and State Street all have offices and is now also where the Central Bank of Ireland are located.

See the original press release about the global campaign here.

CISI ‘We are your competitive edge’ posters at Connolly Station and Georges Dock.

CISI Ireland held its third awards ceremony on 26 April 2018 at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin

Read more here.

Des Carville, head of the shareholding & financial advisory division at the Irish Department of Finance, delivered a presentation on how he saw through the largest European IPO of 2017 – Allied Irish Banks 

Read more here.

Colin Anderson ACSI, CISI client relationship manager Scotland & Northern Ireland, explains how scripting and sketching can enhance client communication

Read more here.

Colin Anderson ACSI, CISI client relationship manager Scotland & Northern Ireland, explains how scripting and sketching can enhance client communication

Read more here.

The Southern Branch Committee would like to extend its warm thanks to our guest presenters, Linda Warner from Roffe Swayne Chartered Accountants in Godalming and Trevor Neil of BETA Group. It was a packed room for the early morning session and with bacon baps and coffee consumed, the audience was fully engaged in both topics on the agenda, namely the end of tax year update and then onto the use of technical analysis in market timing. Both speakers held the attention of all throughout as they covered their topics with knowledge and candour.

Trevor’s presentation featured live feeds of trading at the end of his presentation…a first we think for our branch!

Trevor Neil presenting at G Live Guildford

Thank you again to everyone who attended this very timely and topical event. Slides from the presentations are available on request.

Kevin Keegan OBE, former England football captain and manager, shared some memorable anecdotes with the crowd at the event, held on 9 March 2018 at The Royal Yacht Hotel

View the photos from the ceremony here.

A large crowd gathered at the University of Edinburgh Business School on Thursday 29th March, eager to discuss the latest updates on Brexit due to the topical timing of the one-year anniversary of the triggering of Article 50.

As the event was being hosted by the Professional Bodies’ Forum of Scotland, there were attendees from many professional bodies, those present included Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment, Chartered Banker Institute, Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, Institute of Chartered Accountant in England and Wales, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, Law Society of Scotland, Pensions Management Institute and the CFA Society of the UK.

Attendees were ushered into the auditorium at 6:30pm where they were welcomed by Aidan Hetherington, Corporate Engagement Manager, University of Edinburgh Business School. Aidan provided a brief overview of the Business School’s activity surrounding the topic before handing over to Colin Anderson, CISI and Chair, Professional Bodies’ Forum of Scotland. Colin provided the audience with a great overview of the Forum’s activity and purpose before handing over to the panel of expert speakers for the evening.

Owen Kelly OBE acted as Chair for the panel and asked each panellist to briefly open the discussion on their thoughts regarding Brexit and the impact a No Deal could have on Scotland’s services. He was joined on the panel by Roger Mullin, Director, Momentous change, Lucy O’Carroll, Chief Economist, Aberdeen Standard Investments, Anthony Walters, Head of Public Relations, ACCA and Leigh-Ann Plenderleith, Head of Brexit Actuarial, Aberdeen Standard Investments.

Following each speaker’s opening remarks, Owen wonderfully kept the conversation flowing by posing further detailed questions to each speaker before opening to the floor for a Q&A session from the audience. There were some challenging questions which the panel addressed starting with looking at some of the positives that Brexit could bring to Scotland, considering the impact that a no deal would mean and are business leaders saying and doing enough to bring information on the table. There was discussion on the political nature of Brexit disregarding the business aspects, thoughts on the impact of the devaluation of sterling and the opportunity to build better relationships with clients regarding companies plans surrounding Brexit.

At the end there was a consensus that Government should be listening more to businesses in the service industry whilst providing more clarity on the agreements reached and regardless of your point of view you should be preparing for all outcomes. But ultimately a few just wanted to turn back time and not have the vote.

It was an engaging debate and it demonstrated the importance of having open discussions across all professions as we all have similar issues.

Following on from the session, the audience retired to the landing at the Business School for some networking, a glass of wine and to continue the debate surrounding the future of Scotland under the ever-changing potential Brexit implications.

Forthcoming events include a look at the Scottish Rate of Income Tax and how it will impact on Scotland’s workforce having different and higher tax rates than the rest of the UK. The Forum will also be starting the first of a series of events to assist those Accidental Managers, those technically gifted individuals that are created into managers but never really given the skills they need to manage a team of unique individuals.

About the Professional Bodies’ Forum of Scotland

Membership of a professional body is an ever increasing way of building your network and staying up to date with changes in the industry. Here in Scotland we can also see the greater benefit of occasionally working together to host events for all our different members, bringing investment professionals with legal professionals, actuaries and accountants with pension specialists and financial planners. Every professional body works towards benefiting our individual membership and the Professional Bodies’ Forum allows us to work closer together to deliver unique events for all professionals within Scotland.

Keep in-touch and join us on LinkedIn.

The dinner was held in partnership with the Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission on Friday 9 March at the Four Seasons, Limassol, Cyprus.

Click here to view photos from the event.

Sky News Ireland correspondent David Blevins was guest speaker at the event, held on 22 February 2018 at the Belfast Harbour Commissioner’s Office.

Click here to view photos from the event.

 

The National Institute of Business Management (NIBM) in Colombo and the CISI have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to offer professional financial services qualifications to local students to complement their academic studies at the campus.

Read more here.

John Cubitt, Chartered FCSI has been appointed President of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) Northern Ireland Branch.

A Chartered Wealth Manager with Cunningham Coates (part of Smith & Williamson group) John graduated from the Queen’s University of Belfast with a BSc in Economics and MSc in Finance.  He is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.

Click here to read more.

Brian Radbone and Robert Noble-Warren, CTA, FCSI spoke to the theme of fine tuning the portfolio for tax, raising some surprising results.

Brian - whose updated slides from Transact are below - started by explaining that far fewer assets now paid interest with deduction of tax, and therefore the impact of tax upon customers would be that much more obvious. He took us through the seven stage process of the income tax computation, and then into the personal allowance, the savings allowance, the savings rate, the dividend allowance and the pension annual allowance charge. Demonstrating that more income tended to reduce allowances, he showed that the tax burden for higher rate taxpayers was moving up. 
Download Brian's presentation file

Robert commenced with a review of recent Ombudsman complaints in connection with tax and suggested that there was good reason to be explicit about which analyses were not being undertaken, and that a blanket "we are not acting as your tax adviser" might well be insufficient. He then applied a cost benefit analysis to three different tax saving techniques. The first was the annual bed and ISA tactic to pick up the annual CGT allowance, usually recommended as always useful. But since the extra charges would lower the future value of the portfolio, Robert explained that in practice, for many individual situations, the Bed and ISA was not worthwhile.  He then applied the same cost/benefit to rearranging sectors of the portfolio between the ISA and the dealing account for less tax, using computer algorithms, showing that a swift answer was possible. 

Our next talk is on 24 April and looks at attempting to define which sectors of the UK economy are likely to grow faster than others, by looking at the Bank of England's recent data for investment by sector, and productivity by sector. Once again, we welcome Dona Kehoe from the Bank of England to open, and Phil Robotham to talk about how to interpret the figures we have just heard.

[ Please note! The next event is in Plymouth, Boringdon Hall. Click here to book your place for our 24 April event. ]

Former poker pro Caspar Berry drew parallels between poker and investment risk at the event held on 2 February 2018 at Beau Sejour Leisure Centre, Guernsey

View the photos from the ceremony here.

As 2017 draws to a close, I would like to wish you a very Happy Christmas.

The year has seen a significant rise in membership, so I would like, particularly, to welcome new members, our expanding student population and those of you who re-joined over the past year.

2017 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the CISI. We have grown to be the premier internationally recognised qualifications and membership body for professionals in the investment and fund management industry. We have had an extremely busy and worthwhile year in terms of hosting a series of events on a range of topics suggested by members which provide an excellent opportunity to discuss timely and relevant issues and meet like-minded industry colleagues.

I would encourage you to note the diary dates below for seminars organised in the first quarter of next year. Likewise, if there any topics you would particularly find useful to discuss in 2018, please let us know by contacting your CISI Ireland representative, Deirdre Heffernan.

Congratulations to all those who have successfully completed your CISI qualifications this year. We will recognise the highest achievers at our members dinner on 26 April 2018.

Thanks again for all your participation and Best wishes for 2018.

Frank

Frank O'Riordan MCSI, President, CISI Ireland

Gretchen Betts CFP^TM Chartered MCSI, has been appointed President of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) Wales branch.

Click here to read more.

The North-East’s CISI branch committee met on 30 November to outline the 2018 programme. Prior to the meeting we requested for all members to assist us in completing a survey. The survey was very useful highlighting CISI members wants and needs well and we thank you for your participation in the survey.

There was a particularly strong response for sessions related to Personal Development and associated skills. In the meeting held, the committee asked two follow-on questions:

1. What does personal development mean to each CISI Member?
2. How can we delivery branch meetings that encompass a range of skills from key areas such as financial planning, wealth management and back-office operations.

To help answer these questions, the Committee evaluated the demographics of the region’s members. Colin Anderson, the CISI regional coordinator, broke down the region’s membership statistics showing that the gender breakdown of members is 60% male and 33% female. These were further broken down by age as follows:

Age Groups	Males	Females %
Under 30	40%	27%
30 to 39	20%	39%
40 to 49	22%	21%
50 to 59	11%	12%
60+	7%	1%

 

This data showed that the region has a lot of members in the early stages of their careers, where personal development and associated skills can have a meaningful impact for long-term success. The younger age is believed to be due to a large intake of members from Northumbria University and Newcastle University Business School who received student registration as a result of studying the CISI Foundation Course. This is worthwhile for Employers to take note for those interested in future recruitment opportunities from the regional network.  

The consensus was that the programme should include personal development for members, but should balance these sessions as an ongoing sub-theme throughout the year rather than in one-off, standalone events. The committee noted that many firms operate their own in-house training and so any such sessions to be delivered by the CISI should be complementary where possible.

Topics under the theme of Personal Development were discussed with suggested topics including negotiation, effective client communication, marketing skills and finally routes for further professional qualifications, such as providing access for members to learn more about the CFP six stages of financial planning for those interested in taking the CFP license.

Two members of the committee noted a keen interest in promoting greater diversity. Any female members interested to discuss further are asked to please contact Dr Emma Black or Natalie Turner for more information.

Since becoming Branch Chairman, I quickly realised the strong relationship that my predecessor Nick Swales developed with the both Northumbria University and Newcastle University. Nick remains on the committee in addition to his CISI board responsibilities. One topic both Nick and I are passionate about is helping the younger generation (aged 16 and over) find information when considering a career in financial services. Such assistance could extend to participating in project work with our region’s universities. These will continue to be explored over the months ahead.

The committee agreed on the region’s program for 2018 and I’m delighted to share the events with you as follows (NB: dates, timings and venues will be announced shortly):

22 February 2018 – Royal Station Hotel, Neville Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 5DH

• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – are you ready?
• Why wealth and financial planners should still consider and discuss offshore planning with their clients.

7 March 2018 – Royal Station Hotel, Neville Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 5DH

Theme: Economics and Politics

• Mauricio Armellini Agent Bank England North East Mauricio will deliver a presentation about the UK economic outlook from the perspective of the Bank of England. He will share the Bank of England’s forecast for growth, inflation and unemployment, as well as discuss the main judgements of the Monetary Policy Committee that sit behind their interest-rate decisions
• Open forum to discuss with North East Committee how we can support our members in the region

4 May Theme: The Power of Effective Client Communication

• Communicating with clients is a major challenge for financial advisers. This presentation discusses the importance of having a well-structured client communication strategy. It considers the challenges in connecting with clients, reviews the results from Dimensional’s Global Investor Survey and Benchmarking Study, and introduces a powerful framework for effective communication.

TBA September 2018 - Theme: Behavioral Finance and Vulnerable Clients

• Vulnerable Clients – it may not just be the obvious, so we’ll cover the recent updates to the FCA’s Occasional Paper No. 8 and Financial Lives study;
• Behavioral Finance - Framing the Question – It is not what you say it how you say it. This session will be delivered by Northumbria University who has carried out extensive research on this subject. They will give you an understanding how different questions can have different outcomes.

TBA October 2018 – Theme: Diversity- How will affect the future and the way we work 

• This session will focus on diversity and will be of benefit to everyone from business owners and regional directors to individual members and their clients. This will be a forum format which members who attend will share their practices to help establish a blueprint for success.

Personal Development is our overarching theme for 2018

The committee is here to help you. Remember the phase “shy-bairns-get-nowt”.

All you have to do is ask. Financial services plays an important role within the region and it is our aim to build up the profile of the CISI to work with other professional bodies to improve the voice of the North-East.

We are looking forward to speaking with you all in due course and seeing you at the events over the year to come.

In the meantime, both I and the committee hope you have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2018.

James Clancy
President of the CISI North East Branch 

I had the honour of attending the Presidents' Day at the new CISI offices in the ‘Walkie Talkie’ building in Fenchurch Street, London, towards the end of January to consider the calendar of events for UK branches over the course of 2018 and beyond.

Although it was great to visit on of the London skyline’s most iconic buildings, it was a greater honour to meet so many current and future Presidents of the CISI regional branches and to see the branch network thriving.

The agenda for the day was packed and included aspects of marketing, education and future focus, also announcing the next CISI Financial Planning Conference in Birmingham in early October 2018.

Lunch included a tour of the Sky Garden at the Walkie Talkie building and it is amazing to see how the London skyline is changing so rapidly (even through the cloud!) within the square mile, which is encouraging for all forms of financial and investment services post-Brexit.

I am pleased that I was able to provide feedback from the Southern branch of the CISI and to gain insight into other branches' modus operandi going forward. Lots to see and consider and of course to achieve during 2018 and 2019. It was also great to hear from Jackie Lockie CFP, Chartered FCSI, Head of Financial Planning at CISI (pictured), about the great opportunities ahead. 

The CISI looks to be in fine form to face the challenges of financial services during the course of the year and I look forward to working with them further into the future.

Keith Churchouse CFP Chartered FSCI
Vice-President CISI Southern Committee

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Maggie Lindsay, Chartered FCSI as President of the CISI Scotland branch.

Read more here.