Time for another one

Happy New Year to everybody as the curtain goes up for what will be a pretty busy year. There is so much to look forward to from all perspectives and I look forward to capturing the highlights as part of my weekly blog.

From a work point of view the year has well and truly started, having just attended the New Model Adviser conference and awards ceremony. Great to catch up with so many IFP members and potential members to gauge the mood of the community. It seems pretty positive and it was fantastic to recognise that seven out of eight of the regional winners of the NMA awards were IFP members. Six of them and soon to be seven are Accredited Financial Planning firms which probably tells you something. Congratulations to all of them. Will be looking forward to the first Accredited Firms conference on 22^nd March in London.

I was nominated for a Lifetime Achievement Award which was slightly unnerving as I was unaware that I was about to retire or die. There were four other contenders and I was not surprised to see Paul Etheridge deservedly winning it. I still feel that I have plenty to achieve and even though I probably peaked from an education point of view at age 10 and from a sporting point of view at about 18, I think that there are still other areas that I am improving in! Given the mood of the conference I was pleased to consider myself as “Best Newcomer in a Lifetime Achievement Award”. Would be nice to win one day but as the children always say, “it’s not all about you!”

Christmas was lovely this year with an excellent break to recharge the batteries and spend time with the family. Father Christmas also brought me a fantastic present. It wasn’t the racehorse alluded to in New Model Adviser but it was a “Course in Stand Up Comedy”. I presume that once I have attended this I will be funny! This is a two day course in London Covent Garden at the end of February where I have two afternoons of teaching etc and then perform live on stage at the Comedy Club on the Sunday night to the public.

The only slight downside to the Comedy Course is that it clashes with the England v Wales match but it has immediately given me an idea for Jo’s birthday as I start to look for some pole dancing lessons!

After Christmas we went skiing to La Tania. This was our fourth time skiing. Rhys and Bec are both excellent skiers now, Jo is getting quite proficient and I still bumble down the slopes resembling an ever growing snowball as I reach the bottom. At least there were no injuries. Unfortunately Jemma couldn’t come with us because of school and exams but at least we had somebody to look after the house and animals and of course reduced the probability of more broken limbs!

There was apparently more snow than they have seen for 30 years and it closed several resorts and caused a number of avalanches. Steve Gazzard, a very enthusiastic skier was also away at the time and his experience was not quite so great so don’t mention skiing to him if you see him. They lost a day skiing, missed their flight home because of the avalanche had to book £500 air tickets to get home to find that the insurance didn’t cover him!

Plenty of New Year Resolutions to break as always but need to focus on a lot of the boring ones as well like weight and fitness. Certainly want to avoid becoming too slim, fit and healthy again! Apart from becoming funny in February, I am also taking golf back up this year with the first lesson coming up this weekend. Rhys and I are starting together and I imagine that he will be better than me very quickly. Just missed out on box 2 at tennis last year and so that remains a goal for 2012. It would be fantastic to see Wales deliver against the potential shown at the World Cup to win a Grand Slam and the roof would go up at Cheltenham if Kauto Star wins the Gold Cup. The Olympics should be a brilliant series of events in the summer and I look forward to attending some of these.

From an IFP perspective we look to grow and help the membership and others prepare for the regulatory changes impacting in 2013. It would be great to push through 2500 members and 1000 CFP professionals. The number of Accredited Financial Planning firms is on the increase and this will help us take a stronger message out to consumers and key stakeholders. There are already some great events lined up with the Financial Planning conference on Feb 23^rd being the first. IFP TV and our other Marketing Plans I hope will make a huge difference to all connected with the IFP.

In October we will proudly host the FPSB Council Meeting in London when 25 countries will be represented in the UK to discuss Global Financial Planning Standards and CFP certification.

I hope that 2012 is a good one to all of you and look forward to playing some small part in it. Good luck to Michelle McGagh as she embarks on her Freelance career after her time as Editor of NMA and good luck to Dan (Kevin Keegan hair style) Grote who is taking over.