The Surrey branch finished 2011 with a bang...two fantastic speakers and a champagne giveaway courtesy of Charles Stanley.

At the most attended branch meeting of the year, Campbell Edgar FIFP, CFP^CM  (John Lamb LLP and former IFP President) got the room thinking about planning assumptions to help clients achieve financial independence.

In particular whether those we use in lifetime cashflow planning were relevant, adequate, reasoned and reasonable. Mike Morrison (AXA Wealth’s pension guru) then held the floor in the second half, sharing his thoughts on recent developments in the pensions arena together with the outputs from some industry think-tanks.

The lively debate continued over a glass of wine courtesy of our branch sponsor Charles Stanley.

Branch chair Claire Menni said: “As the end of my first year as branch chair draws to a close I want to thank my loyal supporters and also welcome all the new faces. As ever, I am always encouraging members to bring their support team with them to our branch meetings and am pleased more Paraplanners and technical analysts are attending - keep on spreading the word!

“The 2012 programme is all finalised now (add the dates to your diary) and as well as half a dozen late afternoon/evening meetings I have also added a couple of lunchtime meetings to the mix. Speakers include Paul Armson on fact finding soft skills and our very own Nigel Green CFP^CM on how he uses cashflow planning with clients.

“The 2012 programme kicks off with Peter Legg sharing some masterful IHT planning tips on 25th January – look forward to seeing you there.”