First of all, our thanks go to Nick Boe of Brewin Dolphin for helping to prepare and arrange the March CISI Southern Branch meeting in Reigate on the afternoon of 19 March 2019.
With a packed room, the meeting started promptly with two diverse presentations planned for the audience to interest both Financial Planners and Wealth Managers alike. Both presentations were well received by the audience with a good few questions from the floor and much interaction with the presenters after the event.
The first presentation was from Sam Jermy, Senior Business Development Manager at Time Investments, presenting on Inheritance Tax planning in 2019. With examples used throughout the presentation, Sam provided a review of the first Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) report on IHT, the outlook for estate planning in light of the OTS review and the residence nil rate band as a refresher. He also touched upon gifting, charitable legacies, business relief and Trust interaction.
With a short interval between presentations, the second session was given by Marte Borhaug of Aviva Investors who explored the main drivers of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) investing, what it means in practice to be a responsible investor, what plastic cups and antibiotics have got to do with it and where the industry is likely to go next. Reference to the info-tagging system for food was made (with some tasty examples) and the desire for this to occur with all funds into the future so that clients can make informed ESG decisions.
It was good to have such diverse topics and the venue lent itself well to helping the audience focus on the wide-ranging themes.
Thank you again to Nick and also to Louis Coke from Charles Stanley in supporting our East Surrey venue, which is growing in attendees.
Keith Churchouse, President of the Southern Branch, closed proceedings by drawing everyone’s attention to the joint branch Super-Event planned for 14 May at Portsmouth University. I hope you can all attend.
Keith Churchouse CFP Chartered FSCI
President, CISI Southern Committee