Sesame to hold national conference

Held on December 6, the Sesame Symposium will give advisers the opportunity to hear what leading industry influencers and policymakers believe the future holds, and help advisers decide how their own businesses should respond to the key challenges facing the advice profession.

Keynote speakers at the event include AIFA chairman John Selwyn Gummer MP, former Which? chief policy adviser Mick McAteer, Standard Life chief executive Trevor Matthews and Stephen Bland, director of the FSA’s small firms division.

Over 400 attendees are expected, and alongside the four keynote speeches, delegates will be able to choose from a raft of panel debates covering a wide range of topics affecting advice businesses.

Topics for debate at the event will include:

  • The impact of the Retail Distribution Review and the outlook for small adviser firms;
  • The rise of wrap and fund platforms and the threat to independence;
  • Is chartered status worth the effort?
  • Is commission really a bad way of buying products?
  • Whether affordability is the next miss-selling controversy
Patrick Gale, Sesame’s chief executive officer, said: “Sesame already hosts around 250 face-to-face events for advisers each year through our Sesame Learning training and development programme, and our new national conference is set to become our flagship adviser event.

"The conference will offer advisers an exclusive opportunity to hear first hand the views of some of our industry’s leading opinion formers, and take part in a series of lively and challenging debates.

“At a time of fluctuating markets and deepening regulation, advisers continually face the challenge of delivering value to their clients and profit for their firm. We are designing the event to enable advisers to gather as much expert insight as possible, in order to help inform their decisions in 2008 and beyond.”

Advisers interested in attending can visit www.sesame.co.uk/symposium for more information.