At last year’s event Sesame executive chairman Ivan Martin was ahead of the curve when he posed the question as to why IFAs were subject to such rigorous scrutiny and sustained attacks over their professional standards, compared to a banking industry that at the time was being lauded as a model of financial stability. Twelve months’ ago, banks were being seen as a key source of primary advice, but in his keynote speech Sesame’s chief highlighted the banks as being largely responsible for the unprecedented and unsustainable level of personal debt in the UK.
This year’s event promises to be equally insightful and forthright, offering advisers an exclusive chance to hear, first hand, the views of leading opinion formers. Keynote speakers at the event, being held at the Park Plaza, Riverbank Hotel in London, include AIFA chairman Rt Hon John Gummer MP, FSA head of the retail distribution review Amanda Bowe, AEGON Scottish Equitable chief executive Otto Thoresen and Double Olympic Champion James Cracknell OBE.
Over 400 financial advisers are again expected at the national conference and delegates will be able to choose from a raft of panel debates covering a wide range of topics affecting advice businesses.
There will also be an early opportunity for advisers to hear first hand from the FSA and AIFA following the publication of the RDR Feedback Statement on 25 November.
The impact of the economic crisis will of course be a key theme as the advice profession looks towards 2009: what’s next for the mortgage market, evolving adviser business models and fund managers’ future investment strategies will be just some of the topics for debate at this year’s event.
