More than 300 attendees have taken part in the two-day CISI Annual Financial Planning Conference which ended today.

There were 300 Financial Planning delegates plus an additional 20 exhibitor delegates who attended the major event in Surrey, one of the biggest in the Financial Planning calendar.

Speaking to Financial Planning Today, conference chairman Martin Ruskin CFP, client director at Paradigm Norton, said the sold-out event had been hugely enjoyable and provided a perfect example of "collaborative learning."

He said: "It's gone really well. It's been highly collaborative with friends learning from each other. It's people coming together to want to do better for their clients."

He said the "vibe" had been excellent this year and similar to the conferences of the Institute of Financial Planning, which merged with the CISI in 2015.

"In the last couple of years we've returned to our roots and the same vibe as before," he said.

Mr Ruskin said the conference highlights for him had been sessions from leading global thinkers on business management and client insight, the tribute to the 'godfather' of Financial Planning Paul Etheridge and a focus on topical areas of interest such as Paraplanning and AI.

Referring to the late Paul Etheridge he said: "Paul Etheridge would be so pleased about where we have got to and where we are going. All that he stood for we continue to stand for and continue to want to do the best for our clients, encouraging them to live life to the full."

The CISI’s flagship annual two-day Financial Planning conference has been taking place this week at Wotton House conference centre, near Dorking, Surrey. It features dozens of expert and distinguished speakers and, this year, a focus on technology.

Next year's conference will be held in Manchester.

•Conference hashtag: #financialplanning23 

The Assets Under Advice business model - used by many Financial Planners - is broken and may be finished, leading tech guru Ian McKenna told the CISI Annual Financial Planning Conference today.

Mr McKenna, chairing a tech panel at the event, said the assets under advice model would no longer work for advisers in the future.

He said a key issue was that younger generations of clients, those under 45, would simply not have enough assets to generate sufficient income for Financial Planning firms.

Many Financial Planning and IFA firms rely on the assets under advice or management model, charging a percentage fee for their advice based on clients' invested assets.

Mr McKenna said: "This model is going to break for under 45s."

Economic challenges for younger generations would mean they would have lower assets than their parents' generation, he predicted.

The tech consultant also warned planners they were failing to reach younger savers who were turning to new offerings from digital firms such as Moneybox and Plum.

He said planners dismissed these new firms at their peril because they were, "capturing the next generation of savers."

Mr McKenna, founder and director of the Financial Technology Research Centre (FTRC), was speaking at a session called: Technology under the Spotlight: Future of tech, one of the key sessions today.

Panellists included: Oliver Bourke, managing director, Mercury Wealth Management; Josh Butten CFP, director, boosst and Jon Doyle, founder and Financial Planner at Juniper Wealth Management.

Panellists discussed using tech to build a revenue model that works for clients with lower assets, digital presence, useful pieces of technology and a tech wishlist.

Mr Doyle said planners should leverage their data through technology to turn into into a powerful tool to provide customer insights and show patterns of behaviour.

Mr McKenna also urged advisers to use the software they already had in their firms better. He said many advisers he had reviewed used only 20% of the functionality of their software. Firms should also invest more in tech training to use software more efficiently, he said.

The CISI’s flagship annual two-day Financial Planning conference has been taking place this week at Wotton House conference centre, near Dorking, Surrey, and has attracted more than 300 attendees.

It features dozens of expert and distinguished speakers and, this year, a focus on technology which can be used to build the future of Financial Planning.

•Conference hashtag: #financialplanning23 

Alasdair Walker CFP has won the prestigious Certified Financial Planner Professional of the Year award in the CISI Annual Financial Planning awards presented last night.

The CISI’s flagship annual two-day Financial Planning conference gets under way today with hundreds attending the sold-out event, writes Emily Berry.