Agenda:
- 09:15 – Registration and Coffee
- 09:30 – Welcome, Mark Boleat, Policy Chairman of the City of London Corporation
- 09:40 – What is Social Investment, how does it work, why are we talking to financial advisers, planners and wealth managers? Gavin Francis, founder of Worthstone
- 10:00 – 10:15 The FSA’s view on the advice process and Social Investment. David Geale, Head of Investments Policy Department
- 10:15 – 10:25 – Profiling clients suitable for Social Investment. David Ingram, Partner Aim Two Three
- 10:25 – 11:10 – Practical examples of schemes and product wrappers, various Social Investment Product Manufacturers
- 11:10 – 11:30 – Panel discussion (including Q&A) and round up of the morning
- 11:30 – coffee and networking
Background Information:
Social Investment is a relatively new concept in the UK although it is already a huge feature of the US financial planning world. Here, it has been gaining traction amongst private investors, charitable foundations and corporate entities and there are early moves into the retail investment space.
Social Investment is about investors trading off part of the financial return they might otherwise expect from an investment in order to help to generate a positive social outcome in areas which they feel strongly about. Schemes operate across virtually every area of society including prisoner reoffending rates, social housing, mental health, keeping children out of care etc etc.
With goals like this, it is easy to see why Government is supportive of Social Investment – and that’s not just this Government; the previous Government set many of the current initiatives underway when it was in office. In recent months we have seen a Government spokesman for the Treasury announcing changes to the Financial Services Bill to reassure us that progress is being made in the area of social investment through common sense approach to regulation and the appointment of a specific individual within the FSA to ensure that no unnecessary regulatory hurdles prevent the growth of social investment in the UK. It was also confirmed that it has been agreed with the FSA that it will find a suitable way of communicating this to the interested professional groups.
So, Social Investment is here, it has high level support and is widely expected to grow from pretty much nowhere to £1bn by 2016*. It is not a market which can be ignored by any adviser dealing with high net worth clients.
Please visit the Social Investment Academy event page to find out more.
* The Boston Consulting Group “The first billion – A forecast of social investment demand” September 2012