The Personal Finance Society has postponed its eagerly-awaited Festival of Financial Planning, due to take place in the autumn, until 2022 due to the pandemic.

The professional body - which awards the Chartered Financial Planner designation - has pushed back the event due to uncertainty over safety and concerns that Covid-19 social distancing requirements are likely to linger in some form for the rest of 2021.

The PFS said: “In the current climate, we have consider our responsibilities to the safety of members, speakers and staff in bringing together such a large number’s of people under one roof.”

The Festival, an enlarged version of its annual conference, last took place in 2018 and attracted 3,500 people to the Birmingham NEC, making it the largest UK Financial Planning event.

The PFS is keeping the Coronavirus situation under review and may reintroduce smaller regional in-person events this year if the situation improves.

Despite the PFS move, rival professional body the CISI announced today it would go ahead with an in-person live Annual Financial Planning Conference in October, albeit with contingency plans to move again to a virtual event if the pandemic situation worsens.

Keith Richards, chief executive of the Personal Finance Society, said: “Our top priority is the wellbeing of our staff, speakers and members and while there is a greater sense of optimism with the vaccination programme and as we start our journey out this current lockdown, uncertainty over social distancing and the possibility of additional strains, is still something we acknowledge and continue to monitor. 

“Naturally we are disappointed to have to defer the Festival of Financial Planning, but feel that it is better to plan a programme we know we can deliver responsibly through digital but are geared up to introduce regional events quickly should it be safe to do so.”