Our flagship event for financial professionals advising or looking to advise on divorce and separation.
The Financial Advisers Conference is back at Eastside Rooms Birmingham, Thursday 27 and Friday 28 February 2025
After another year of overwhelmingly positive feedback, we’ve got a programme crafted with all the content you loved as well as topical sessions to further your expertise. Expect both technical and practical content from the experts, an interactive setting for sharing best practice, plus plenty of networking.
The main programme is on Thursday, with further content on Friday for Resolution Accredited Specialist financial advisers (or for those in the process of accrediting). This will include a roundtable discussion and workshop.
Resolution members receive over 25% discount on ticket prices
Member Price £240
Non-Member Price £330
Programme
Thursday 27 February 9.30-5.00pm
| Welcome Address | Steve Hennessy |
| The new Duxbury Regime | Mary Waring |
| Supporting clients by creating boundaries | Fiona Sharp |
| Resolution Together | Jo O’Sullivan & James Pirrie |
| Trust, listening and fresh thinking | Becca Timmins |
| Economic abuse and the Family Court | Olivia Piercy & Anita Mehta |
| State of Nation – PODE report writing in 2025 | Ian Hawkins, Stephanie Potter & Jonathan Galbraith |
| Workshop and Roundtable Discussion | Asif Sadullah & Daniel Gornall |
Welcome Address from Conference Chair
Steve Hennessy FPFS, Resolution Accredited Specialist financial adviser and Director, Beeswax Wealth Management
The new Duxbury Regime
With Mary Waring
Duxbury calculations, have for nearly four decades, been used by family courts for the assessment of the lump sum necessary to provide for a clean break in a case where there would otherwise have been a periodical payments order.
The underlying assumptions have been the subject of criticism in articles in legal journals, generally on the basis that the sums arrived at are not sufficient to provide the level of spending power intended for the lifetime of the recipient.
In 2024 The Duxbury Working Party was set up to review the underlying assumptions and to modernise the approach. Mary Waring was invited onto this committee.
This talk will review the assumptions in place and review the proposals made by the Working Party, discussing how and why the recommendations were arrived at.
Supporting clients by creating boundaries
With Fiona Sharp
When communicating with clients, it’s essential to frame our language in a way that makes them feel supported and reassured, whilst maintaining professional boundaries.
• How do we do this, especially when we have a heavy workload?
• What are our responsibilities if a client shares information they haven’t disclosed to their lawyer?
• How can we support the other professionals involved in the divorce?
• What does “Without Prejudice” in correspondence mean to us as financial professionals?
• Useful language to help
Resolution Together – early experiences of a solicitor working with a Financial neutral and one couple. It’s gone quite well…….
With Jo O’Sullivan & James Pirrie
Jo O’Sullivan & James Pirrie discuss the Resolution Together (One Lawyer: Two Clients) way of sorting things out for clients. Steve and Jo will share their early experiences of working together – the financial neutral and the solicitor – working seamlessly (or almost) for their once coupled clients. Chaired by Steve Hennessy.
We will explore:
How clients access this process? How do/can clients work with together with the solicitor and the financial neutral? What clients are most suitable and who should be steered away? And answering all your questions….
Trust, listening, and fresh thinking: Facilitating open dialogue with clients
With Becca Timmins
How could we have better conversations with clients about emotive topics?
Whether it’s protection, divorce, inheritance tax planning, gifting strategies, re-marriage, or even succession planning in our own firms, Financial Planners often find themselves at the centre of sensitive family issues. Few though are seizing the opportunities that come with supporting families to think through these issues together.
This session explores strategies to facilitate more open dialogue to bridge differences and have more honest, open conversations. We will discover techniques to build trust, encourage deeper listening, and challenge assumptions to unlock fresh thinking and new solutions.
Move beyond conflicts to collaborative outcomes on these highly charged issues.
Economic abuse and the Family Court – What financial advisers need to know about Domestic Abuse in Financial Remedy Proceedings
With Olivia Piercy & Anita Mehta
This session will cover the definition of economic abuse, what it looks like within a relationship and how it plays out on separation and divorce. We will look at how the law currently addresses economic abuse and other forms of domestic abuse in financial remedy proceedings and go on to discuss Resolution’s ground breaking report on this topic published in October 2024. Finally we will have an interactive discussion about how you as financial advisors should respond to situations where you identify or suspect economic abuse is at play and we will have a think about tips, tricks, red flags and strategies.
State of Nation – PODE report writing in 2025
With Ian Hawkins, Stephanie Potter & Jonathan Galbraith
A fireside chat with three industry experts on the issues and demands facing actuaries and PODE Report writers in 2025, and how IFAs, family lawyers and mediators can effectively engage with their services.
Friday 28 February – for Resolution Accredited Specialist advisers
9am to 12 noon Workshop and Roundtable Discussion
With Asif Sadullah & Daniel Gornall
Workshop and Roundtable Discussion – An informal session for Accredited Specialists (or those on their way to becoming Accredited) to discuss issues and pitfalls in our work, best practice, and looking ahead to the future of divorce financial planning.