Rory Percival, the ex-FCA technical specialist who left the regulator on Friday, will take centre stage at DFM due diligence seminar.

Financial Planners and Paraplanners are being invited to attend the free event in London on being run by the online DFM forum DISCUS and Financial Planning Today.

The event will explore the current regulatory position on due diligence, the facts around regulatory statements to date and the relevance for the discretionary investment market, both for advisers and providers.

Mr Percival, who has been a regular guest speaker at Financial Planning events in recent years, has exited the FCA to take on a new consultancy venture of his own.

He and the expert panel will shine a light on some of the changing issues surrounding due diligence on discretionary manager selection.

With the use of discretionary managers and Centralised Investment Propositions growing in popularity, this event is designed to be both timely and useful.

There will also be a chance to network.

The seminar will take place in the City of London at Aviva's offices at St Helen's, Undershaft, and will include technical presentations on DFM due diligence from Synaptic’s Eric Armstrong.

Apart from presentations from expert speakers there will also be a panel debate chaired by Financial Planning Today editor Kevin O’Donnell.

He said: “The enormous growth in recent years of DFM propositions makes this morning update for planners a valuable and timely seminar. We’re pleased to be working with DISCUS to help provide this useful update for planners.”

GUEST SPEAKERS

. Rory Percival, Rory Percival Training and Consultancy
. Eric Armstrong, Synaptic Software
. Kevin O’Donnell, Editor Financial Planning Today (chair of expert panel debate)

The event, supported by Bankhall, is open now for pre-registration. Planners and Paraplanners can apply for tickets by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Please note that applying for tickets does not guarantee a place but all applications will be responded to. The event is open to authorised Financial Planners, Paraplanners, Wealth Managers and IFAs.

There is limited space to attend so please email now to express your interest in attending. A light breakfast will be served prior to the event starting at 9 am. The event will finish by 11.30 am.

Gillian Hepburn, director of DISCUS, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Financial Planning Today and Bankhall to organise this event and we hope many in the advisory community will be able to attend. We expect strong demand so getting in touch early makes a lot of sense.”

• Financial Planning Today magazine includes a new investment and DFM section. You can view the second issue of our new magazine here http://bit.ly/2d21I0G