President's Message - End of Term

I can't quite believe that the last year has gone so quickly. And never did I imagine that as I ended my term as President of this Institute, we would be dealing with the global situation we find ourselves in right now. I've said it before but I'm proud of how we as an industry have adapted to changes to our processes that essentially occurred overnight. The kindness and courage witnessed by many over this challenging time is something that will stay with all of us for a long time to come.

At the end of 2019, I wrote a post about what we as both a Council and an Institute we had achieved, and during the process of compiling that I realised how much work the whole Council puts in. Of course in reality I always knew that was the case, but so much passes you by as you juggle work, home and all the other commitments you take on in your life. Writing that post made me feel hugely proud of the whole team. Our Council may have a President at the helm, but it is truly a group effort.

(A photo of Council taken at the Annual Dinner last April - missing those making the most of the bar!):

As you know last year we held a very successful event as part of the Dive In Festival where we welcomed Kelly Smith to Ipswich. We supported the national CII campaign around Insuring Women's Futures. We went out to schools and universities to spread the word about insurance and personal finance career options. We held a sell-out quiz, and hosted our annual Christmas curry night.

We put on CPD events focusing on Lasting Powers of Attorney, Dementia, the Impostor Syndrome and Managing Lone & Remote Workers. Additionally we’ve provided sessions on technical subjects such Flood Management, Cyber, Solvency II and the Ogden Tables, Drones, Defined Benefit Pensions and a full study day for R01.

And all of that was before Christmas! We may only be a third of the way through 2020 but we've delivered a huge amount in that time.

We delivered face-to-face CPD sessions on tax year-end & pensions, and Mastering Advanced Diploma coursework. We also held an all day revision session on AF7 as well as our hugely popular all-day conference with wonderful industry speakers covering a range of topics, and welcomed Ben Smith of the 401 challenge to address us all with his keynote speech.

We supported the other Local Institutes in our region by combining forces to put on this years' Anglia Market Forum in Newmarket. And the Cambridge, Chelmsford and Norwich Institutes were kind enough to help us raise additional money for Lizzie's Fund by holding fundraising activities of their own, for us. Watch out for an article in The Journal soon!

So far we have managed to raise over £3,500 for Lizzie's Fund which our main fundraiser still to come at the Annual Dinner. Understandably we have had to postpone this until September, but we are so excited to bring some fun and festivities after lockdown! Thank you to everyone who took part in our October quiz, those who attended the Annual Conference (your attendance fee went straight to Lizzie's Fund) and to all of those who took part in our first ever Virtual Challenge.

Just before lockdown we held our Building Resilience and Student Presentation where we celebrated all those who completed qualifications in 2019.

Shortly after this, as increasing numbers of people began working from home and then as the UK Government announced the lockdown, we have brought you a number of webinars to continue our CPD offering. These have proved so popular, we will be continuing to provide online seminars as part of our continuing professional development programme.

It has been an honour to be President of this Institute, and is an experience I will take with me through the rest of my career. It has been hard work at times, and has challenged me considerably, but I believe has improved my resilience and has been so rewarding to give back to the community that has supported me through my career.

So thank you to Richard Brame for asking me to be Deputy President just over two years ago, thank you to everyone on Council for all the hard work you do as volunteers, and thank you to all the members of this brilliant Institute for your support, ideas, contributions and time.

Good luck to Laura Blyth - I know you'll be a fantastic President, and I hope you have as much fun as I did. I look forward to supporting you over the next year.

Take care everyone and stay safe; I hope to see you all soon.

Sarah