Financial Planner magazine's new staff writer James Nadal was invited to the IFP's new Integrated Financial Planning workshop in London this month to gain an insight into the profession and its practices.
Here is his report on what the course offers to planners and others considering a career in Financial Planning.

Having joined Financial Planner magazine in December it would be fair to say I'm essentially a novice on the subject of Financial Planning.
Before arriving here I was a senior reporter and content editor at a local newspaper for nearly six years. Covering general news and principally covering political stories in the last two to three years - and latterly the ongoing hunt along the Thames for an escaped capybara – the world's largest rodent – I am therefore getting to grips with the rather different topic of finance.
So, I was very happy to accept the IFP's kind invitation to gain some new knowledge by taking part of the course.

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Back to the future – and into the classroom
Going back into a classroom was a bit of a jump back in time for me.
It was the first time since I had studied for my initial journalism qualification – about seven years – that I had sat in a classroom for training.
So when I stepped into the conference room, provided by the hosts Pictet Asset Management, an IFP corporate member based near Moorgate in the City of London, it felt a tad strange initially.
I joined course tutor Sarah Dingley-Brourn, who had battled her way through the Devon floods to get to the capital, and seven delegates, who were participating as part of their journey towards CFP accreditation.
I was glad to see immediately that this introduction to Financial Planning was not riddled with jargon or complicated language (as I've found to be the case in some aspects of the finance sector so far). 
In fact, the information was presented in as clear and as plain and straight forward way as I could've hoped.

Keeping it simple
The workshop started with the basics – what a Financial Planner is, does and aims to do.
Having had a couple of months now working for the magazine I came in armed with some knowledge but this basic introduction really crystallised things for me.

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What happens on the course?
Running over two days, the workshop is based on a typical client case study scenario and is designed to be practical. It is interactive, with a lot of group discussion.
This week's example was a couple called Kelvin and Eva who had slightly different views and ideas on how they wanted to manage their finances and plan for their retirement.
Delegates were given a full list of their various accounts, savings, income and expenditure and a detailed outline of what they wished to achieve, their ambitions for their son, Mark, Kelvin's business and the goal to buy a holiday home.

The people are what matters
The focus on the case study brought it home to me that Financial Planning really is about the people more so than the money.
That's the key thing I learnt from my day.
The human aspect really did shine through. Listening to Sarah take the delegates through the workshop it was clear that these matters relate to everyone. Everyone has complex financial matters to manage.
Using this realistic but imagined example of two people trying to sort out their finances put Financial Planning into perspective for me personally and for the delegates it gave them plenty of food for thought. After all, these people could be real clients for them.
The workshop emphasised to me that Financial Planning is about life and how you and your family are going to make your way through life successfully. It's about problem solving and being prepared for what the future holds and helping people to realise their ambitions.

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Calculating the next move
One thing I wasn't expecting was learning how to use a financial calculator – a device which looked far beyond my comprehension on initial inspection. The afternoon session focused on getting to grips with this piece of kit and doing exercises using it.
Talking to delegates, a lot of this mathematical slack is normally taken up by software they use in their own work that does the calculating for them, so it wasn't all entirely familiar to them either. Being relevant to the exams they have to take, this was evidently a highly useful skill for them to learn. I can't profess my own attempts to do the sums we were tasked with were absolutely without error, and it did trigger a couple of nightmarish flashbacks to my childhood maths lessons. But I did get a bit of a handle on it.

A fluid conversation
Some key issues and messages were conveyed throughout the day and often Sarah's teachings proved a springboard for conversation among the group. Topics emerged that were clearly relevant to all and added to my overall impression that this workshop had fully engaged the attendees. Instructed with great enthusiasm by Sarah, you could see why the IFP decided to introduce this workshop and from what I could tell, everyone was taking away extremely valuable knowledge that was highly relevant to their everyday work.

Personal conclusion
As an outsider, it gave me the chance to dip my feet into the world of Financial Planning and peak through the window of the profession to get a glimpse of the challenges and tasks professionals face on a day to day basis.
The main thing for me was showing the relevance of Financial Planning to everyone's lives – it became far clearer how important a role it can be.
I came away feeling much the wiser for it.


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Who would the workshop benefit?
The course is applicable and relevant to financial advisers, planners and Paraplanners who wish to boost their Financial Planning skills and is a great first step for people working towards the certificate in Paraplanning or the CFP Certification and people new to the profession.
The IFP points out that it can help support the transition from transactional financial advice to a full Financial Planning service.
Dates and venues
The workshop runs over two days and costs £500 for members and £650 for non-members.
Courses run throughout the year but the next four workshops are:

Date Location
4 & 5 March Bristol
8 & 9 April London
1 & 2 May Bristol
4 & 5 June London

Discounts
For more details on discounts see the IFP website or call them on 0117 945 2470