Another work-from-home order is all a bit depressing so we all need a bit of good news to balance the depressing return to more restrictions.  Well, here on Octo we try to do our little bit to help with some superb content and events!

On Tuesday, Sally Plant, head of Financial Planning at the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments held a webinar outlining the routes to becoming a Certified Financial Planner and why the discipline has never been more relevant. The qualification enhances the client journey, also providing a practical learning experience for advisers and paraplanners alike.

BNY Mellon also posted an article on Tuesday, looking at why responsible investment matters to the loans sector, noting that the class has been somewhat slow to adapt to ESG demands. Noting that the European Leveraged Finance Association and the Loan Market Association are partnering to create their own best practice guidelines, the progress being made in this sector is clearly tangible.

Wednesday saw Andy Brown and Will Overall of team Octo attend the Protection Review Conference, which was back to being held in person at the Landmark Hotel in Marylebone. This gave us an invaluable opportunity to build our own profile amongst the protection insurance industry.

On Thursday, we hosted the first meeting of the Advisers’ Responsible Investment Forum. We have convened this to give the industry the opportunity to respond collectively – and anonymously – to the FCA’s recently launched discussion paper on how to approach implementing new sustainability disclosure requirements for asset managers and certain FCA-regulated asset owners. The regulator is also seeking a sustainable classification and labelling system for this emerging genre of responsible investment products. They are keen to seek views on the design and delivery of this system and have engaged with Octo to discuss feedback from our community on the labelling. Our thanks to Georgina Mitchell for chairing the session and a summary conclusion will be published in due course.

Also on Thursday, Jupiter posted their investment outlook for 2022 into the app, providing the latest insights on key asset classes from the manager’s team of experts. Jupiter sees itself as “the house with no house view”, but remains committed to providing its fund managers with the resources they need to excel on behalf of clients. The report looks as themes as varied as whether inflationary pressures will prove transitory, sustainable investing amidst the urgent move to tackle climate change and why asset allocation needs to remain agile enough to adapt to the continuing global health pandemic.

As ever, a huge welcome to our latest community pioneers, Kate Green, Aiste Niuniavaite, 

Bilal Moosa, Bonnie Earl CeMap Cert CII, Joanne Chapman, Will Wood, Lucie Thornton, 

Darren Winfield, Paul Tinkler, Duncan Glassey, Jonathan Roseweir, Rikesh Bhatt and Asim Javed.

It’s great to have you here.  Stick up your photo and do get stick in.

So against a backdrop of tightening restrictions again, we wish you well, stay safe and we are here if you need anything.             

Photo by Aryo Lahap on Unsplash