The IFP held its inaugural ethics conference last Thursday, looking at the topic of Managing Conflicts of Interest.

The conference, sponsored by Nucleus, was held in Solihull and attended by over 50 delegates.

Sessions covered the ethical considerations typically faced by Financial Planning firms.

The conference was chaired by IFP president Marlene Shalton, FIFP CFP^CM.

The programme blended sessions from eight expert speakers who provided a range of practical approaches to the ethical practice of Financial Planning.

Highlights included sessions from Prof Paul Palmer of Cass Business School, Simon Collins of Resources Compliance and Chris Keeble from Harris Manchester College, Oxford.

Feedback from delegates indicates they were stretched and challenged into thinking how they could use an ethical approach to add business value.

Sue Leech, IFP education director, said: “Rarely do Financial Planners take time out of their busy schedules to consider their approach to the important concept of ethics. However, doing so can have very positive benefits for even the most successful Financial Planning practices as our conference showed last week.

“The speakers highlighted a range of ways that planners can improve their client relationships and build greater trust by putting ethical practice at the heart of good client service.”