SWW Conference – roundup

This year saw the 25th anniversary of the SWW conference – a full days conference and followed by 3 workshops on the following morning.  The first day was themed around Vulnerabilities, and we were given the opportunity to listen to some very good speakers –

• Claudine Jackson from The Estate Planners Toolkit – talked about communication, learning styles, age and cognitive ability
• Adam Johnson of New Forest Wealth Management who talked to us about the new Health and Care Act 2022, which is yet to be implemented. There are concerns that the proposed changes will cause more harm than good, and I will follow this up separately
• Tim Farm, Comentis – a mental capacity expert who spoke about how to identify and support vulnerable clients
• Professor Keith Brown, Founding Director National Centre for Post Qualifying Work and Professional Practice (NCPQSW) and Centre for Leadership, Impact and Management Bournemouth (CLiMB) who gave us a fascinating insight into coercion and control in financial abuse, including scams, together with a few ideas on how to help and protect. Again I will follow up with another article separately.
• The day was finished by 2 speakers from the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) who were there to talk about the recent consultation paper that the OPG and MoJ collaborated on, together with how they carry out investigations and what their approach is to safeguarding. Unfortunately due to the mounting issues with the OPG in registering Lasting Powers of Attorney, my impression was that most delegates wanted it to be more of an open forum to ask those awkward questions that we have all wanted to ask the OPG. Unfortunately there was not much time remaining to ask those questions. Another article will follow on my thoughts about the OPG soon.

The workshops on day 2 consisted of:

• Neil Denny of Chattertons Solicitors about Pre-Nuptial agreements and whether they are worth the paper they are written on. These are not something that I get involved with as you need specialist advice about these, but they can impact on how I draft your Wills, so it was extremely useful to learn more about these.
• Alex Horne and Simon Mattison of LSGi Ltd, who gave us a talk about branding and connecting with our clients
• Seb Shakh from WillSuite (developers of the software I use to draft your documents) to introduce us to a new feature which will enable me to send to you your documents as well as getting you to complete various parts of the data that I would need prior to drafting your documents. Currently I complete all of these manually once I have seen you. This may be something that new clients will have the benefit of in the future.

All in all, the conference was an excellent learning opportunity as well as networking with other members, some of whom have become friends over the years.  It was also an opportunity to speak with sponsors who had trade stands at the conference, and there are some exciting new products that are coming soon which may be of benefit to clients in the future!

Conference also gives our regional chairs and the Professional Standards Board to have face to face meetings, rather than virtual meetings that we hold throughout the year.  These are normally held the night before conference starts, so it ends up being a hectic 48 hours.  However, it is good to attend to add to my knowledge and I always come away feeling as though I have learnt something.  Although I have extensive knowledge and experience, there are always updates and changes, which may also mean a change in how I develop my practices in order to keep up to date.  For me, it is worth investing the time spent at conference to ensure that I am providing best advice for my clients.