The PFS Festival of Financial Planning took place in early November. Here, PFS President Caroline Stuart and other members of the PFS Paraplanner panel give their takeaways from the event.
Caroline Stuart
What a November it’s been for the PFS Paraplanner Panel! It’s seen the return of the Personal Finance Society’s Festival of Financial Planning, and what a huge success it was.
The last Festival was five years ago, and the line up and huge numbers of paraplanners attending this one showed us just how far Paraplanning has come as a profession in that time. At this Festival, not only did we have sessions solely dedicated to paraplanning (which were so well attended by everyone, not only paraplanners!), but also the Paraplanner Panel had a key place on the PFS stand, talking to all attendees and members of our financial planning profession of the important role paraplanning plays.
I thought it was just amazing (although naturally, I am a little biased!) but here’s what other members of the Paraplanner Panel thought too.
Martin Green
Wow! what can I say, what a great festival we’ve had with the Personal Finance Society in Birmingham spread across a couple of days.
It was fantastic to catch up and network with so many people within our profession, sharing ideas and best practice to enhance what we do on a day-to-day basis to deliver good outcomes for our clients.
Although it has been a long time coming I was also very proud to be part of a milestone being achieved as for the first time ever at the PFS Festival, paraplanning was an integral part of the PFS stand, welcoming all paraplanners to come and engage with the PFS and vice versa.
It was great to meet face-to-face some new and existing paraplanners to discuss what the PFS does for its paraplanning members.
I’m already looking forward to next year’s event to build on what was achieved this year.
Sasha Wakefield
I had a brilliant experience attending the PFS festival. I was truly amazed by the variety of sessions across both days, from attending the technical sessions to help improve my knowledge, right through to the tear jerking and inspiring talks from speakers such as Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson.
Having helped at the PFS paraplanner stand, I was in awe of the conversations I had from both those seeking advice on how to make the move into the paraplanning profession but also from financial planners who were asking how they can help empower their paraplanners.
I left the festival feeling reenergised and excited to see how we can further support to our paraplanning community in the years to come.
Alan Gow
It felt brilliant to be out and meeting people face-to-face again, including friends I hadn’t seen since before the pandemic. I also met some friends from the virtual world for the first time and made some new ones too. On the PFS stand, I had some great conversations with people who were looking to get into paraplanning from outside the industry and also with experienced paraplanners who wanted to talk about exams, careers, cashflow…all sorts! There was a real buzz at the event and the sessions I attended were inspiring. And the coffee on the PFS stand was exceptional!
Rebecca Tuck
This was my first time attending a PFS festival, and the scale of it really blew me away, with an impressive amount of content on offer across both days. I enjoyed chairing and contributing to an interactive panel session on report writing, with experts Mel Holman and Melissa Kidd, which had some excellent engagement from paraplanners and financial planners alike.
Other highlights for me included Michelle Hoskin’s session on “Excellence as Standard”, Chris Budd’s talk on ‘The Happiness Paradox’ and financial wellbeing, which both had some excellent thoughts and ideas to take back to the business.
As you can see – and as we have been working on for many years – paraplanning is now very much part of the mainstream. It’s up to all of us to continue to build on that. If you didn’t get to make it this time though, don’t worry, there’ll be plenty more things coming up from the panel – we have a really exciting 2023 lined up and we can’t wait to share our exciting plans with you soon!
