Yesterday we held our 7th Annual Client Investors Masterclass at our Avallenau House Offices.
I arrived early at 7.30 am to open up, all the preparation now complete, just a waiting game to welcome speakers, helpers and clients alike. In truth I’d been awake several hours earlier – these events always make me nervous – we want it to be perfect.
Everyone arrived and parked in time and we had a full house for our event. After handing out our ‘party bags’ and settling everyone in, Katy kicked off with a cracking presentation on our Client Survey findings and news about Thomas and Thomas for this year.
Iestyn and Christopher from Sarasin Investments were next up with a fascinating presentation on global population growth, demographics and the effect this is all having on the global economy. Our clients were riveted. Iestyn went on to show how farming innovation has helped save spraying whole fields, cutting back costs and damage to the environment. The session was excellent and our clients were then free to ask questions (which they certainly did!) of the fund house.
I then presented a ‘Speed Tax Session’ to update clients on recent tax allowances and traps. There was much hilarity and competition as I distributed prizes (Smarties) to those who could guess the correct allowances.
We then broke for coffee, where Lisa and her catering team which included our amazing Accountant Pete, ensured everyone had eaten their own body weight in Cream Scones, Sponges and Berries.
Then it was back into the Conference room for my ‘Income in Retirement’ session. I won’t spoil this one as it was recorded and will be available on our website in the coming month or so. Suffice as to say that a lot more chocolate was eaten, volunteers were sought and steady hands were required!
Next up was Rebecca Laugharne from Douglas-Jones Mercer who spoke on the importance of making a Will, Inheritance Tax, Trusts, Long Term Care and Lasting Powers of Attorney. Once again, our audience were really challenged and entertained by a top class presentation from a brilliant speaker.
Finally, I presented my annual ‘Portfolio Updates’ session which enabled us to show our clients what we are seeing in the markets currently and how our eight client portfolios are all holding up. Some interesting correlations were demonstrated and we were able to show why investing into markets over the long term is still the only game in town. We also were able to show how well our Ethical portfolios have performed against the markets and the competition. Again, this session was recorded and will be available to view in the coming month or so.
The day was wrapped up with a questions session from the floor and then it was back through for lunch where Lisa, Pete and Katy had outdone themselves in laying on enough food to feed twice as many people as we actually had! I found my talent in persuading attendees to squeeze in just a little more cake and then, gradually, our clients left for the day.
Many of our clients said that this had been a truly wonderful morning. We were delighted to have a lot of first time attendees but we did also have a few long standing Masterclass supporters who said that this ‘was the best one ever’. This meant a great deal to us as it made all the work worthwhile.
Three hours later, we finally had everything cleaned up and we all went to our homes to get some sleep! We couldn’t have made the day such a success without Pete and Rebecca throwing themselves into our team so we really want to say a huge thank you to them. We are all off ‘Go- Karting’ tonight with Pete and Rebecca to thank them for all that they did.
Well done class of ’19 – you certainly were a pleasure to entertain!
Darren and the Thomas and Thomas Team
