Nearly 3,000 Financial Planners, Paraplanners, Wealth Managers and IFAs are expected to attend the two day PFS Festival of Financial Planning which gets under way today at the NEC in Birmingham.

The free-to-attend festival, set to be the biggest Financial Planning event ever to take place in the UK, will run over two days beginning at lunchtime today and running all day tomorrow.

Financial Planning Today will be covering the event extensively over the two days so check back on the site regularly for updates and also follow the event on Twitter at www.pfsfestival.org. Pre-registration for the event is now closed but it is still possible to attend  by registering in person in Hall 20 at the NEC from Tuesday 7 November: 11am - 8pm and on Wednesday 8 November: 7am - 4pm.

The event has been billed as a festival-style celebration of Financial Planning. It will feature dozens of seminars, keynote speakers, workshops and a number of fun elements including live music, a radio station presented by leading Financial Planner Martin Bamford of Informed Choice and five separate 'stages' featuring speakers, including one venue with a capacity for 2,000 attendees. There will be nearly 100 exhibitors.

Key Festival 'zones' include:

• A ‘village green’ - a central part of the event - with speakers and live entertainment
• Festival Radio - hosted by Chartered Financial Planner Martin Bamford of Informed Choice
• Fintech start-up cafe with ‘silent disco’ elevator pitches
• ‘Future generations’ area with university and student attendance
• An area for international advice focus
• Fun activities in and around the exhibition including a Tesla car on display

PFS chief executive Keith Richards said before the event: "In recent years, our profession has worked tirelessly in pursuit of the highest professional standards. In recognition of that fact, we felt that the time was right for something new and exciting. We all know professional conferences can at times be dry and predictable, but I can promise you that our festival will be far from that. Visionary content has been designed to both inspire and entertain." 

Mr Richards will also be speaking at one session headlined: "It ain't rock and roll but we like it", other sessions include "Sex, chocolate and bucket-list planning" and "The rough guide to behavioural money coaching" as well as others covering everything from investment planning to retirement planning, coaching, pension transfers, running a HNW client business, Brexit and many others.

Liberal Party leader Sir Vince Cable will close the event and will be one of many well known speakers including England’s World Cup-winning rugby coach Sir Clive Woodward and two former Pensions Ministers, Baroness Ros Altman and Sir Steve Webb. 

Leading Financial Planners will also speak including PFS President Sharon Sutton, Pete Matthew, Julie Lord, Steve Martin, Phil Billingham, Damien Rylett, from US Life Planning guru George Kinder and many others. 

Expert investment speakers will include Trevor Greetham of Royal London Asset Management, Edward Bonham Carter of Jupiter, 7IM founder Justin Urquhart Stewart and many others including speakers from Blackrock, M&G and several other fund managers.

The PFS Festival this year merged its regional annual Financial Planning conferences and symposiums into one big event under the Festival theme - billed as a Glastonbury-style get together to celebrate the best in the Financial Planning and Paraplanning professions and to encourage networking and dialogue.

There is more information about the event here: www.pfsfestival.org