2014 has been an eventful year, busy, at times frantic, but as always there has been a lot of learning and a lot of laughter along the way.

November was a busy month for me, having returned from China after the FPSB meeting. We had a visit from our Israeli colleagues who are keen to learn about the business practices in the UK, this was followed by our corporate member strategy day where we try to help them get the most out of the money that they put into the IFP. This is always a good event, we are fortunate to have such supporters and of course it helps that they are such nice people!

November of course also means Financial Planning week and it's good to see momentum gathering each year as we raise awareness. One of the main successes was the Financial Planning surgeries. These events are invaluable, especially to those who struggle to afford to pay for professional advice so it's a huge Thank You to everyone who got involved this year. There were close to 75 firms offering surgeries and more involved in other ways. The IFP puts a huge amount of time and energy in this event and not surprisingly our members have embraced this event too as a recognition of the need to reach as many people as possible.

For me personally, it has been an extraordinary year. I have met some of the most talented people in the world and the experience of my time as president will stay with me throughout my working life.

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The IFP as many of you will know is an affiliate member of the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB). Last year FPSB decided to review the governance of the organisation to help it to evolve, provide procedures to make decisions quicker and to create an organisation that is trusted by all members. I was one of the individuals that moved this forward as part of a working group to review the organisation's board and governance. We have recently presented our recommendations to both the board of directors at FPSB as well as the council which comprises of an individual from each member association.


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The reason that I wanted to share this with you is because we all talk about the sharing of knowledge and experience that we have as a culture that is so embedded within the IFP. I discovered through being part of this global working group that this culture is not exclusive to us. It showed me how much we can all learn from each other, even when perhaps there is limited obvious commonality.

It remains for me to wish you and your nearest and dearest a happy, healthy and successful 2015.