Innovative and fun client events can be one of best ways of finding new business and keeping existing clients happy, according to veteran Financial Planner Warren Shute CFP sharing ideas from his 30 years in the profession. 

Top tips on meeting and finding new clients came into focus at his seminar at the CISI Financial Planning Conference today. 

Mr Shute said client events, along with client referrals, were a top way to find new clients and encouraged more planners to do both.

He said his Financial Planning firm Lexington tried to theme regular client events to make them special and enticing.

He gave the example of client events organised by the firm, which is based in the West Country, such as:

(loadposition hidden2}

• A night with a magician (a good conversation starter and ice breaker, he said)

• Wine-tasting evenings (always popular with clients, he said)

• Demos of virtual reality (offers a chance to learn about a new technology)

• Chef's table gourmet food evenings for select clients (exclusive evening for higher worth clients)

Mr Shute said that his chef's table evenings were often excellent for building relationships with HNW clients who valued being treated as special.

He said:"For small groups chef's table events are excellent, clients often come as strangers but leave as friends."

His session in front of more than 100 delegates was called: Structuring Your Financial Planning Meetings.

He urged planners to spend more time getting to know clients and see them as friends you work with. He said he always asks clients first what is on their mind so that any pressing issues can be discussed at the outset.

He said: "A client won't hear you if they have something on their mind. We need to be real and not ask superficial questions. We should ask about the importance of financial security to clients, for example."

He said he always asks about client's health and says health can be easily overlooked. He said: "When you lose your health everything goes out of the plan", he said.

He said it was no surprise that most of his clients have an annual health check, something he encourages.

He also believes strongly in engaging with younger clients, particularly the offspring of clients.

He said: "We proactively engage with the children of clients. We don't charge for Financial Planning below the age 30 and we start the process (of engaging) with clients from 15."

"Parents get an email for their kids on their birthdays, we're trying to do more for clients above and beyond the regulation."

In terms of regular client review meetings these are called, "forward planning meetings" at Lexington, not just review meetings. 

His firm divides clients into lower level asset management clients for those with smaller sums who just want investment advice and wealth management clients for bigger clients paying at least £5k in fees per annum (the firm's minimum wealth client fee). All clients get annual suitability report.

He works 40 weeks of year and takes 12 weeks off a year, a strategy he said he learned from the godfather of Financial Planning, the late Paul Etheridge. This provides a good work life balance, something he encourages for clients.

Mr Shute explained that the firm focused on Financial Planning and not just accumulating assets.

"We are not an asset gathering firm, we're a Financial Planning firm. Asset gathering is boring, it's not as much fun as Financial Planning," he said. 

More than 300 Financial Planners are attending the two-day 2025 CISI Financial Planning Conference which takes place this today (Thursday) and tomorrow at the De Vere Beaumont Estate centre in Windsor.

The event is the flagship Financial Planning gathering of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) which awards the Certified Financial Planner designation in the UK alongside other financial qualifications.

The event features two days of workshops, seminars and working sessions with contributions from leading Financial Planners.