In their regular quarterly political catch-up, host Leanne Pickering from Pivotal Paraplanning and self-invested pensions technical specialist at Barnett Waddingham (soon to be called Howden), James Jones-Tinsley, to chat about political goings on over Parliament’s summer recess, and what paraplanners should look out for in the new Parliamentary session.

Their conversation covers:

• Andy Burnham’s by-election win and rise to become the UK’s new Prime Minister
• Ministerial appointments in Burnham’s first Cabinet reshuffle including the arrival of John Healey as Chancellor of the Exchequer
• The Clacton by-election and what Reform's result there might tell us about the wider picture
• The run-up to the 28 October Budget – including possible changes to capital gains tax and a windfall tax on oil companies or banks; and
• Gaps left in HMRC's technical guidance on IHT and pensions – and the pressure that puts on personal representatives

Leanne and James also discuss whether the new Prime Minister might call a snap election, and whether the IHT on pensions rules could yet change before April 2027.

So if you like to keep half an eye on Westminster, this one's well worth your time.

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Even very experienced paraplanners can trip over obstacles lurking in the shadows of IHT.

So we invited Aegon’s tax and trusts manager, Elaine Cruickshank, to join host, Richard Allum, for an online Assembly to help you dodge the IHT perils.

Over the course of one lunch-hour, Elaine:

• untangles the transferable nil rate band and residence nil rate band, including the detail that trips people up around second marriages and downsizing provisions
• gets into the finer points of gifting exemptions, PETs and CLTs, beyond the seven-year headline
• explains how the inclusion of pensions in estates affects the taper threshold, and what that means for clients close to the £2 million mark
• works through charitable giving and the 36% rate, including the added complications once pension funds are in the mix
• brings it all together with planning opportunities you can take straight back to your desk

What can you expect to take away?

Watch or listen now and you’ll have a sharper grasp of the IHT detail that’s easy to get wrong. Plus the confidence to spot these issues in your own client cases.

Useful links

Watch the Replay in Crowdcast

Download slides: IHT the details that could trip up paraplanners

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In this month’s Self-Assembly podcast, host Sam Tonks is joined by Julie South and Steven McBurnie to chat about CPD that’s hiding in plain sight, providers WHO WON’T PICK UP THE PHONE, smart glasses, meeting recording, clients who run their suitability report through AI assistants, and ask ‘When is a 'fun fact' a fact?’.

Useful links

Resources, events and interesting things mentioned during this episode.

CISI Financial Planning Conference 2026

CISI Scotland Compliance & Operations Conference 2026

Lang cat HomeGame 6

Women's Wealth Alliance Career Guide

Financial Planner Life podcast

Silo (on Apple TV)

And the winner is...paraplanning (podcast episode)

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Years of frozen allowances have resulted in more and more clients feeling the effect of fiscal drag – when more of your wealth becomes vulnerable to tax.

So understanding fiscal drag and what its effects mean for clients, is a really important feature of day-to-day paraplanning.

That's why we invited Utmost International's technical sales manager, Steve Sayer, to share his thoughts on fiscal drag and how paraplanners can consider addressing it.

Steve explains how, for instance, allowances have lost real value and the capital gains tax exemption has shrunk. And how the frozen nil rate band means more estates than ever are being pulled into inheritance tax.

But in this in-depth technical session – which features a case study example along the way – Steve illustrates how the careful application of planning strategies using trusts, and onshore and offshore bonds, mean the negative consequences of fiscal drag needn’t be inevitable.

Over the years, Steve has created a series of technical Assemblies that have become some of the most popular episodes we have published among paraplanners. Tune in now and find out why.

Download: Steve's slides on Fiscal Drag

Utmost Technical Academy webinar series

Utmost x Paraplanners' Assembly: all our previous sessions

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We all have pension questions we’ve never quite got round to asking. Maybe the moment wasn’t right. Maybe the right expertise wasn’t around. Maybe you just didn’t want to be the one to ask.

That’s why in this Assembly, we staged a pension intervention. Because host Richard Allum posed the most pressing pension-related questions to someone who just loves answering them: Quilter’s retirement and pension technical specialist, Adam Cole.

Over one lunch hour, we worked our way through pension topics that either crop up regularly in client cases or maybe just leave you scratching your head from time to time. Things like:

• Transitional tax-free cash, lump sum allowances and lump sum death benefit allowances
• Taking tax-free cash after 75 and the implications
• Taking protected tax-free cash and moving into drawdown
• How defined benefit pensions work
• Guaranteed annuity rates, guaranteed cash sums and other features of older-style contracts

Watch or listen now to brush up on your pension knowledge. And don’t forget to follow the link below to download your certificate for CPD.

Download: Grab your CPD for this Assembly

Transitional regime for past crystallisations

Trusts: Brush up on the essentials in one hour

Transitional tax-free amount certificate (TTFAC)

ILSA, ILSDBA and permitted maximums

ILSA, ILSDBA and permitted maximums grid of protections

Transitional regime calculator

Block transfers

Normal minimum pension age: changes coming in 2028

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What actually goes into the total cost a client pays for their platform? That’s the question that this episode sets out to answer.

And to do it host Richard Allum is joined by Transact CEO, Tom Dunbar, who covers the four components that contribute to charges: the annual platform charge, wrapper fees, brokerage fees, and any cash interest retention.

Along the way Richard and Tom explore how annual charges are typically tiered, why family linking can make a real difference for smaller portfolios, how wrapper fees scale with the complexity of the product, and where brokerage fees do (and don’t) add up.

Finally, the conversation turns to the issue of cash interest retention – the gap between what a platform earns on client cash and what it pays out – and how it differs from platform to platform.

Tom explains why Transact has taken a firm stance on the issue, and why retention of interest plus ‘double dipping’ and ‘triple dipping’ have become a focus for the FCA.

Useful links

Transact's website

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You'd be forgiven for thinking that a gathering of previous award winners could turn into a smugfest.

But it’s PARAPLANNERS that we’re talking about.

So this episode – recorded specially to mark the tenth annual Professional Paraplanner Awards – is far from self-congratulatory. In fact, it's packed with thinking that will inspire every paraplanner wherever you are in your career.

Why? Because it illustrates how entering an award – or even just thinking about it – is one of the most helpful ways to reflect on your career, what you’ve achieved and what you would like to achieve in the future.

Host Caroline Stuart of Sparrow Solutions is joined by Natalie Dawes, editor of Professional Paraplanner, along with three paraplanners who've been through the process themselves: Hannah Hirons of Navigatus, Luke Sparkes of Sparkes Paraplanning, and Hannah Wynick of Core Financial Paraplanning.

In an hour-long chat they talk about:

• overcoming your imposter syndrome
• why nominating yourself is OK even when it might not feel like it
• why being nominated by someone else feels ACE
• whether there’s a difference entering awards when you’re in-house versus outsourced
• why writing an award entry helps you realise what you're actually good at
• what it's like to sit in an interview with judges – and why it’s so valuable

What’s more, the conversation also recognises that some people just don’t want to enter awards or feel the need to do so and explores ways in which paraplanners can receive the recognition their work deserves.

Above all, this is an episode that shows how powerful it can be for paraplanning practitioners to reflect on their professional progress. And how the peer-led evaluation of entries has established the Professional Paraplanner Awards as the preeminent standard for the paraplanning profession.

Useful links

The Professional Paraplanner Awards 2026 shortlist

Visit the episode page at the Assembly website

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