Episode 102 - Regional Matters: engaging at a local level

Welcome to the PFP podcast from the Personal Finance Society, a place for thought-provoking discussion from the world of financial planning and beyond. My name is Harry Elliott and I'm the brand manager at the Personal Finance Society. In this episode we're talking with members of some of the PFS region committees about the importance of the regions, PFS local and the power of volunteering. Joining me today is Kira Octigan, charter champion for great to Manchester, Lewis Richards, Chair for South Wales and Natalie Bush, new professionals officer and professional qualifications officer for the Isle of Man. Thank you all very much for joining me in the podcast today. So get things off and come to yourself, Lewis, could you tell me a little bit about your role and how you became involved in your local PFS community? Yeah, sure. So I'm a chartered financial planner and I'm the director of vital financial planning, which is a firm I started six years ago. So I joined the industry in 2013 and then I think in 2015 I attended an insurance institute of Cardiff event where I was introduced to a couple of guys who had recently started Novus, which is the young professionals group of the insurance institute of Cardiff. So they invited me to their first ever event and whilst that event they invited me to join their committee, which I did obviously. When I joined I saw there was only one other PFS member and they were about seven or eight insurance professionals. So I could see that I needed to fly the flag for the PFS and I was familiar with some of the PFS regional committee because I attended all of the quarterly regional conferences. So I approached them, I told them a bit about Novus and I asked if I could join their committee to promote Novus and offer these networking events to younger professionals in the PFS and they loved the idea. They were very supportive. So they had me aboard and the rest is history. I went on to be Novus president in 2018-19 I believe, joined the insurance institute of Cardiff Council. I was the president there for 24-25 and shortly after that ended I became the chair of the South Wales PFS committee. That's fantastic. Thank you for sharing. How about yourself, Kiri? You talked a little bit about your background and how you came to where you are today. Yes, of course and thank you for having me on this session. I'm afraid my introduction is a bit shorter than Lewis in terms of my route. So I am now a chartered financial planner at Succession Wealth and in terms of how I got to this point I did a law degree first of all, didn't know if I was going to go down the law route or finance, then ended up getting straight onto a graduate program which was to do my diploma in regulated financial advice. So straight into that right financial planner that is my career goal. How I got there was a variety through education, then through power planning, then of course finally got to that point of being a planner. And I was always really keen being kind of one of the younger in those kinds of rooms to really soak up as much knowledge as possible. So doing advanced exams was one thing but then also attending a whole host of different CPD events and seminars webinars. I thought that's how I'll really get to know as much as I can, as quick as possible. So through that I then got to get a flavour of the kinds of events that are available and the different bodies that put those events together and it was actually only a year ago when I attended the PFS Spring Road Show in Manchester in 2025 that Carla Brown was on the stage asking for volunteers for PFS local and I thought that's exactly how I'll do it. Let's not just attend these events, let's actually be parted bringing them to life and that is how I became part of PFS local greater Manchester, volunteered, put my hand up and yes now I'm somehow the charter champion. That's great to hear how the road shows makes such an impact in so many ways so yeah really interesting it would not get there thank you very much. And yourself, Matthew, would you introduce yourself to the group? Yeah so I'm a charter financial planner in at financial in the out of man. This is my 10th year now in financial planning and prior to that I was at Friends Provident International in the technical department for the seven years prior to that. It was actually while I was at Friends Provident that I joined the CII committee and I was at the membership officer there and that was basically to get to know people and I'm trying to meet people in the in the local community on the island and then when I joined the financial planning world I was working for Sharon Sutton it was the year before she was going to be the PFS president and she was obviously very inspiring and encouraging for all of us to get involved in the in the PFS committee so I joined the committee 10 years ago and we've done that typical thing where the committee members are just kind of swap roles on a kind of three-year basis so I think have covered all bases now really apart from the chair. Well that's fantastic, well that really is really nice since the next question is going to ask what do you enjoy most but if you've been doing it for so long it gets to be a lot of aspects you enjoy doing most. Yeah I really enjoy it's meeting people, seeing people kind of getting outside of your own bubble you can get quite kind of caught up in what you do and what your company does and what your clients are looking for so it's quite nice to expand that out and kind of see what everyone else is doing and the most enjoyable but really has been the last say two years where we've had control of the events that we've put on because we're in quite a unique position on the island or possibly the same as the channel islands that we have a different regulator we have different rules and that ability to kind of now put events on which are really specific to our area and to the island has been really really rewarding and we've seen engagement improve because now we've got members who can give us feedback to what they want and we've got controllers to what we put on so it's been a kind of really enjoyable two years. That's great to hear thank you thank you for sharing yourself Kira again what do you enjoy most volunteering for your regional committee I was going to ask with a particular moment that made you want to volunteer I guess we'll be coming back to the road show again. Yes that would be exactly it and I think touching on what Natalie said there it's been able to shape the content so I was going to a whole variety of CPD events like I mentioned earlier and I think when we think of CPD that market is quite saturated there is a whole host of different events that you can go to and you can fall into the trap of it almost being just to tick the box when actually no CPD it shouldn't be just a tick boxing exercise it should be relevant and all about well how can that knowledge all learn or thinking pattern help my client and so I'd say yes I most enjoy being able to really shape that content and being able to deliver exactly what content we know is relevant whilst minimizing product pictures and minimizing recycled topics so yeah that that shaping element is absolutely what I'm passionate about. Absolutely in terms of the the elements you enjoy is anything you'd like to add to do us? Yeah I'd say for me I've been quite lucky and I would say I've built some really genuine friendships on both the PFS and CII committees that I serve on. I never really feel like I'm under pressure because the way everyone mucks in and helps each other out no matter what we're trying to do and we always have a laugh while we're doing it and when you're running a small firm it is so helpful having that network of others that you can trust and you can turn to for these things just within our PFS committee we have a little WhatsApp group and quite often people are asking for technical help on their day-to-day jobs in there and that's lovely to see plus the network I've built across the region over the years and even looking wider than that I've rubbed shoulders with some of the best and brightest across the country from my work with the PFS people who I never would have had the chance to meet otherwise. Oh Lewis you've shown us up there can I say the friendships as well? Absolutely and it's just staying in in South Wales and focusing on your region Lewis how would you say you engage with your local membership? Yeah so I think we have quite a loyal following I like to think in South Wales they very much enjoy the face-to-face events so since we took over the local program a couple of years ago we have focused mainly on full-day conferences similar to the old regional conferences and they've always been sell-out events we just had one a couple of weeks ago it was first put up for 80 people which sold out overnight we added another 30 they also went same day and out of these people I probably recognise about half the room has been regular attendees these events year in year out and we also invited a number of students to this event from Swansea University so we've had a relationship with Swansea University for probably seven or eight years now with a key contact in the careers department there and she arranges a mini bus and brings members of the investment and finance society to our events who are all interested in joining our profession and she knows of a number of them who have joined over the years and we were really glad to see at that event a couple of weeks ago there was an individual who attended one of our events with Swansea University about six years ago and he's now a chartered financial planner so it just shows that all that effort we're putting in is actually paying off. That's fantastic I was to be very rewarding seeing things like that. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, fantastic. And then move to yourself, Natalie, in terms of that, engage with local membership. Anything you'd like to add? We've done a similar thing, really. We've tried to keep to the old format where we have a full day local conference. We've done two each year, and that's been really successful. And let's say we've seen our kind of attendance really improved since we've had control over the content. This year where we're doing something a little bit different in July, we're going to do our first kind of networking, more social event. And we've invited the CII members and members of the local CISI to that, because we've recognised that we're a small island and a small kind of financial planning community and rather than kind of work against each other, let's work together and collaborate and see what we can do. So that's something that's quite exciting that we've got coming up. But because we are a small island and we do kind of all know each other, we've all been doing this for quite a long time. There's a lot of overlap and we cross over in other events, networking events, industry body events and things like that. So we're quite fortunate, I think our engagement is pretty good. That's fantastic to hear. And we're in a greater Manchester, Kira. Yes, so in terms of greater Manchester and engaging with our local membership, I'd say it is similar to Lewis and Natalie very much face to face event based. So we are running a mini series, so a three-part conference series. We have that face to face, which tends to be Manchester City Centre, because we found that is the easiest when it comes to travel and logistics for our membership. So we have those which are full day events. We then have our Christmas social and our summer social. So I'm currently just putting together the World Cup sweet stake for our summer social, trying to keep it engaging. And hot off the press, I am currently organising a chartered dinner as well. So a whole host be it full day conference, social and networking based, or more niche, such as the chartered dinner. And that is fantastic. They sell out, they are very engaging. I'm really proud of that as are the rest of the committee. But we feel like other engagement is something we could be better at. So how do we engage in and around those events, whether it is podcasts like this, whether it's engaging on social media, how else can we engage, not just relying on those face to face interactions. So that's something that we're also hoping to think a bit more about and perhaps improve. No, it sounds good. And in terms of the rest of 2026, clearly we're we're some way into the in-out. But there's also a lot of the road ahead of us before the Christmas social you mentioned. Kira, what are you looking for to most for 2026? So I'd say it would be continuing with that mini conference series. And we have part two up on the 13th of April. So not too far away. I know we were trying to do it a bit earlier, but we're very mindful of the wider kind of implications. So texture and of course something needed to be mindful of. And as well, the spring road shows we don't want to be conflicting with the wider PFS events. So we settled with the 13th of April and it is a segment two of those three parts. So the last focus was all about powering up with AI. How can we use an embrace AI and not see it as a challenge, but rather an opportunity. This next section is all about personal brand. So if you were to ask a AI software, who are the best advisors in my local area, is your name coming up? If not, why not all about getting your brand out there? And it's a given that we should all be doing a fantastic job as planners, but does anyone know that we're doing a fantastic job? So how can we be visible, different tree are brand? And that is what that focus will all be about. As you can tell, I'm very excited about that. We have got our last few spaces available. So it's another very popular event and I can't wait to see that all come to life. That's fantastic. The excitement is definitely coming through. And as a brand manager myself, I think that's a really important point you raise around what individuals can do. So you're excited to see how that plays out. Come into yourself, Lewis. Is anything in the calendar for the next sort of in my months or so, the rest of the year? You'd like to share? Yeah, absolutely. We're looking to branch out a little bit this year. Because the conference is, we think we're nailing those and we're looking at what more can we do. So we're in talks with Plan X at the moment to put on an AI based event this summer, which I'm very excited for because I know those guys are all over it. And they know they'll be able to bring some great insight to our local members. We've also spoke to a few providers about doing some smaller, more interactive sessions. So we have one coming up in April on structured product, which is over a nice lunch at the Ivy and Cardiff. And we're hopefully going to put on a couple of more of those types of events later in the year, as well as another conference in the autumn. Plus, then, they're the central organized events. We have the Summer Road Show. It's coming to Cardiff in July, which is always great. And I'm glad to see the Festival of Furniture Planning is a two-day event again this year, because I always enjoy going to those. That's great. Yes, it sounds jam-packed, which is fantastic. How about yourself, Natalie, on the Isle of Man, so much to report from there? There is actually. Yes, similar to Lewis, we kind of feel like we've nailed the organisers of the conferences now. So we're trying to focus our attention out into the kind of wider Isle of Man population. We've got the young adults and grad fair next week, which will be the first time that we've had a PFS representation at that. So that's really good to get in front of the young people on the island. We've had some interest from the schools now for going into the schools, which is something that we haven't been able to do for the last two or three years. We've kind of struggled to get traction there. And then later on in the year, we're hoping to do some more consumer-facing work along with the Isle of Man financial services authority. So back in 2018, we did a pension matters series where we tried to raise awareness of kind of pensions and the importance of pensions and then that kind of spun off into an investment matters and a scam awareness piece. And it would just be really good to update that. So we're kind of hopeful that we'll have some time and resource towards the end of the year to kind of build that consumer trust. So kind of move away from focusing just on our membership and then trying kind of build trust and awareness and their profession out into the wider population. Well, that's great and really good to hear. And the variety, all three of you have shared there is absolutely fantastic. I think for members certainly aren't sure of fantastic events and insights to go to, which is great. So Natalie, if there's the PFS members who are listening to this broadcast, but maybe don't volunteer for their regional committee, what would you say to them? Why do you think they perhaps should consider doing that? I think it's a really rewarding role. It's really good to have some kind of control and input into what we do next. Of course, the more people that volunteer, then the less pressure that is on each of the members are volunteering. So it's spread the load and being involved. But I also think especially for younger people and people that are maybe new to the profession, rather than being kind of fearful of what you don't know, just take it as the great learning opportunity that it is. You develop skills that you might not get just for your day-to-day role. And I think that kind of that teamwork, that's the skills, the organisation, organising an event might not be something that you would do in your day-to-day role. And there's the ease and with people, there's so many things that you can develop of yourself. And it's confidence-building exercise as well. I think especially if you're quite shy or don't really like networking, if you've got a role at the event, then you've got a purpose to be there, and a committee to be with and to support you. So I just think it's really rewarding. It can be hard work and it kind of comes in clusters, I guess. On the run-up to the event, that's when you're most busy. And then you might get a couple of weeks where you don't really speak to anyone on the committee. But I just think that the rewards and the benefits weigh out way any of the kind of work that you have to do to put into it. That's lovely to hear. And Kirif, if anyone is in the Greater Manchester area and they're in that sort of boat, what would you say to them? Yes, so I just want to absolutely echo what Natalie's just said there. I wholeheartedly agree because I was in that camp. I felt I was one of the youngest in the room. I wasn't sure how to network. I would find it quite daunting space to enter. And since joining the committee that has absolutely excelled my networking skills, I go in with this role and this purpose. And suddenly I can approach groups of people and say, "Hi, how are you today? How can I help? Here's the agenda." That purpose really does drive your confidence. And I would love everybody to experience that if they think it's a skill that they would like some work on. So yes, Natalie, fantastic point. I think in addition to that, I was also guilty of being one of the people in the room before I was on the committee going, oh, I wish they did this or why don't they do more of that? Well, the only way to drive that change is either feed it back with the committee or be on the committee yourself, drive the change that you want to see if you've got some great ideas, whether it's something as simple as that venue wasn't great because there was no parking. Or I know this great speaker who the content would be really useful, you can absolutely drive that change by being on the committee yourself. It's a very collaborative open space. And I think the more people that we have on our committees, the more representation, so we can have more backgrounds, more ages, more different job roles that had their possibilities are endless with the amount of representation that we can offer. And I would just yes, really encourage anybody that's even thinking about it, just give it a go. You're not locked in for life, just give it a go, see what you think, even if it's a year, please just give it a go. Yeah, fantastic, really, really pertinent points. Anything you'd like to add to that Lewis? Yeah, absolutely. I would just say it's such a great opportunity to give back to your community. If the PFS helped you as you were coming through and doing all of the exams, then this just gives you the opportunity to help others in that position. And for me personally, just like what Natalie and Keira have said, it was such a huge development for me with my communication skills and my leadership skills throughout those early years of my career, which no doubt contributed to me eventually starting my own firm. I might not have been able to do that without those skills. And I would also add, if you don't think you've got the time available to volunteer for your regional committee, you could always volunteer for the education champion programme instead, which is something I don't think we've touched on today, but you could volunteer to go into schools and colleges to deliver education sessions to children, to students. And it's so rewarding to see them light up and understand what it is that we actually do. So you can sign up for the programme, you do the training on your own time. And it's a bit like a zero hour contract with a email you if there's a school or a college in your area that wants to arrange a session and you only reply if you're available to do it. So there's no obligation on your time whatsoever. If you just want to do one or two per year, you're absolutely welcome to do that. And so anyone who is interested, you can just Google PFS education champions and they can send you all the information. Yeah, really, really good point. Thank you for raising that. Yeah, that does sound like a very exciting and flexible opportunity. If it is as much as little as the member wants to do. Yeah, absolutely. That's really good. Thank you so much for everyone for giving me your time today. We really appreciate it. It's been a really insightful conversation from my point of view. I'm sure members listening will find that as well. So a big thank you from everyone here at the PFS. Thank you so much. Thank you. 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