Members with any lingering doubts about the IFP-CISI merger have been told “it’s time to get behind it and make it what you want it to be”, ahead of next week’s annual conference.

Jacqueline Lockie CFPTM Chartered FSCI, CISI deputy head of Financial Planning, hopes the event will “send a clear signal out to membership of what we are trying to achieve”.

The Financial Planning Annual Conference begins on 3 October, with three days of expert speakers, debate, networking and the gala awards evening.

It is the first time the CISI has run the event, since last November’s merger.

Ms Lockie told Financial Planning Today: “I think in any merger there are people who are not very happy, there are people who are happy, and there are lots of people who sit and watch what happens, and I think that’s exactly what happened with the IFP.

“Things weren’t perfect then (during the IFP era) and they’re not perfect now, but we are doing everything we can to take it onto the next level.

“I still class myself as a Financial Planner, I also live with one (husband Robert Lockie). My colleague Campbell Edgar, CISI head of Financial Planning, spent donkeys’ years being a planner.

"It runs through our veins as much as any members and we understand and appreciate where they’re coming from.”

She told members: “It’s time to get behind it and make it what you want it to be. We can’t do it on our own.”

Ms Lockie, whose main task since taking the role earlier this year has been orchestrating the planning of next week's conference, emphasised the “huge amount of effort” that has been made to make sure there are high quality topical and technical Financial Planning sessions.

She said: “I hope this sends a clear signal out to the membership of what we are trying to achieve.”

Ms Lockie has brought back a specific Financial Planning stream for “the first time in a long time” in order to “bring it back to its roots”, she said.

These sessions on the six-step Financial Planning process, primarily run by veteran IFP Fellows, will take place through Tuesday and Wednesday.

She is confident that the line up will be well received, having taken a lot input from planners into account since beginning the process of organising the event.

She said: “It’s been great because the planners have not been backwards in coming forwards, and they have been saying what they like and don’t like (from last year).”

Ms Lockie has been reassured already through seeing a “really even number” of people in the various streams, showing equal popularity, rather than some having poor take up.

Some people have “moaned”, she said, but for good reasons, saying there are two sessions on at the same time they want to see and therefore will miss one.

She said it was a “nice problem” and “gives me comfort that the programme is what people want”.

CISI TV will be covering the conference so many of the sessions that delegates can’t get to will be available later online.

Read more on the conference on Financial Planning Today later this week.

Visit Financial Planning Today next week for live coverage directly from the event in Wales.