The Essex branch meeting in July welcomed John Niland of VCO Global as its guest speaker.
John's presentation titled 'The Courage to Ask' encouraged delegates to think about the key questions they should be asking their clients and perhaps more importantly what are the things that prevent them from asking these questions.
RDR and fees were at the top of most delegates' agendas, with members particularly concerned around how and when the fee proposition should be positioned.
Breaking into groups, delegates discussed these and other concerns, taking turns to explain how they were meeting current challenges. 

It soon became evident that many of the other issues we had were common ones and that invariably it is all too easy for us to hide behind the growing mountain of information that arrives on our desks.
Email, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on are all forms of what John calls 'sophisticated procrastination' and can all too easily distract us from what we should be doing.
'The Courage to Ask' was a thought-provoking presentation for all attendees and one which reminded delegates that in the fast changing world of Financial Planning, communicating with our clients is as important as it ever was, perhaps even more so than before, and should be our priority.