Hundreds of Financial Planners, Paraplanners and Wealth Managers are set to attend one of the biggest Financial Planning events of the year in a few weeks - the annual CISI / IFP Financial Planning Conference.

Top speakers booked for the three day 'Focus on the Future' event at the Celtic Manor Resort in Wales later this month include Dame Kelly Holmes, former Pensions Minister Steve Webb and ex-IFP chief executive and stroke survivor Nick Cann who will close the conference.

Mr Cann suffered a stroke in 2013 while working as chief executive of the IFP, resulting in him losing much of his speech. He was the chief executive of the Institute of Financial Planning until it merged with the CISI in late 2015 with colleague Steve Gazzard covering as acting CEO during much of his illness.

The event takes place from 25-27 September in the 5 star hotel and offers over 13 hours of CPD. There will be several concurrent streams of education and professional development including Real Financial Planning Case Studies, Wealth Management and Practice Management.

There will also be dozens of experts speakers guiding the sessions including leading Financial Planners such as  Julie Lord CFP^TM Chartered FCSI, FPFS, from the US Sophie Bera CFP^TM, founder of Gen Y Planning, Anna Sofat CFP^TM Chartered MCSI of Addidi Wealth, Chris Budd ACSI of Ovation Financial Planning and Paul Etheridge CFP^TM Chartered FCSI (Hon), founder of Prestwood Software.

Other leading technical and expert speakers include Ian McKenna, director of Financial Technology & Research Centre,  Justin Urquhart-Stewart, co-founder, Seven Investment Management and Alistair Haig, research and teaching fellow, University of Edinburgh Business School. Motivational speakers include Mike Lynch, former Commander of Indigenous Covert Operations Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, 22 Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) and conference favourite John Hotowka on how to get the most from the event.

Sessions will cover topics as diverse as Brexit and Trump and Financial Planning in Africa. There will also be debates, round tables, keynote speeches and the Financial Planning Awards Gala Evening.

The CISI’s nominated charity for this year’s Conference is Breast Cancer Now and the CISI will also be making a donation to the Stroke Association. 

• More details of space availability are on the CISI website. Financial Planning Today will also be covering the build up to the conference and reporting from the event.