ANNUAL REVIEW

Transcription

1 ANNUAL REVIEW

2 CONTENTS Welcome from the Chair Q&A with Chief Executive George Hodgson The year in numbers Our finances This summary of STEP s work covers the period 1 November 2017 to 31 October Financial information covers the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March For a PDF version of this Review, and to see our annual accounts, please visit 2

3 Welcome to the 2017/18 Annual Review, in which we let you know about what STEP has done for members over the past year. As my second and final year as worldwide Chair draws to a close, I am pleased to see that a number of initiatives have taken great strides over the past year. The Your STEP project to ensure we deliver to all members continues to be addressed with a number of important issues being considered. These include regional staffing models, addressing volunteer fatigue, streamlining governance and developing a model that is more visible for presenting STEP and TEPs to the public. A Governance Committee has been formally constituted and has already dealt with amendments to the Articles and Standing Orders and is looking at regional governance models and succession at every level of the Society. A Past Chairs Group has also been established, enabling Board and Council to draw on the extensive experience of former worldwide chairs. Joining STEP is now consistent across the world, following the launch in February of standardised routes to entry: Exam, Essay and Expertise. This has enabled us to launch a global member recruitment campaign Grow with STEP which is already beginning to see results. We ve also continued to develop partnerships with universities to accredit their programmes towards STEP membership, and the Employer Partnership Programme has continued to flourish, with 71 employers across 22 jurisdictions (including my own firm) now part of the scheme. One of the many highlights of the year for me was the full Branch Chairs Assembly in November 2017 meeting so many of the Chairs from across the world was a great experience and the positive feedback we had was overwhelming. Other highlights include all the conferences I have attended, enabling me to meet so many of you. As we move forward, we will be seeing some big changes at STEP. Our CEO, George Hodgson, is retiring, and Mark Walley will be joining us in January to take on the role. On behalf of the worldwide Board, Council and the Society, I want to thank George for the huge contribution he has made to STEP and I wish him many happy years of retirement. Mark joins us from RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) and was appointed with the unanimous backing of the worldwide Board. I am sure that he will help to shape the future direction of the Society. In January, we also welcome a new worldwide Chair: Simon Morgan TEP, who is a Director and Head of Private Clients at Vistra in Jersey. Simon has held a number of roles within STEP over the years, and has served as a Deputy Chair for the last two years. With his extensive knowledge of the organisation, and commitment to the wider industry, I have every confidence that STEP will flourish under his leadership. Patricia Wass TEP Worldwide STEP Chair 3

4 Q&A WITH CHIEF EXECUTIVE GEORGE HODGSON STEP S CHIEF EXECUTIVE GEORGE HODGSON REFLECTS ON THE PAST YEAR What has STEP achieved over the past year? A couple of years ago we launched a long-term strategy, Your STEP, with the aim of ensuring that our offer is delivered consistently and effectively to members wherever they are based. The past year has seen the successful delivery of many key elements within that strategy. An important part of Your STEP is to help and support branches. Our branches are the heart of STEP and integral both to the delivery of member services and to effective member engagement. The past year has seen the roll out of branch microsites, enabling branches to easily have an effective web platform. We are also providing direct support to a growing number of branches around the world, as well as developing clear guidance on issues ranging from data protection to STEP governance. This year we also introduced globally consistent routes to STEP membership. This helps promote and give reassurance about what the TEP qualification stands for. It has also allowed us to launch the first global member recruitment campaign, Grow with STEP, to highlight to fellow professionals the advantages of joining. Another highlight is our important progress in contributing to policy development. We have long had good contact with international bodies such as the OECD and FATF, as well as national policy makers in the UK and many IFCs around the world. I am delighted, however, that the past year has also seen STEP engaging more actively on policy initiatives in major centres such as Canada and Australia. This can only add to our influence around the world. 4

5 What do you think members want from STEP? I travel widely around the STEP world and while our membership is very diverse, the message about what most members want from STEP is remarkably consistent. First, they want technical knowledge, in particular help and support to keep up with the tidal wave of changes ranging from FATCA and CRS to beneficial ownership registers and new data protection legislation that have been sweeping through the industry. Second, they want wider public recognition for STEP and the TEP designation. That is why we have invested in initiatives such as advisingfamilies.org, designed to appeal to the public and achieving around 8,000 visits a month in the UK. We are now working on rolling out this model to other regions. Finally, members see STEP as an excellent platform to build their business networks. That is where events, ranging from this year s highly successful STEP Global Congress in Vancouver to local branch events, are so important. There is a lot of discussion about how technology will impact the industry and while it will undoubtedly lead to changes, a lot of what members do is about personal interaction with both clients and fellow professionals, and that is why events continue to be such an important part of our member offer. You are retiring shortly from STEP. What will you miss? I will miss the people. STEP members are an astonishingly diverse group, drawn from a range of nationalities, cultures and professional backgrounds. I am delighted to have had the opportunity to meet and work with so many of them. I am also grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the STEP staff. The greatest challenge for STEP is that our 20,000 members are spread over nearly 100 jurisdictions. The fact that we can service such a widely spread membership is testament to the professionalism of the STEP staff. My successor as CEO, Mark Walley, takes over in the New Year, and I know he is looking forward to working with the team to continue to build and improve our member offer. You have been at STEP for nearly ten years, what have been the biggest changes during that period? For many members, the international move to transparency since 2008 has been a major shift. I was heavily involved in discussions around FATCA, CRS and registers, and know all-too-well how complex these developments are. The additional bureaucracy has inevitably pushed up costs for everyone and the industry has had to change and adapt. Even so, perhaps the bigger story has been that of growing prosperity and increasingly complex families, which have meant more families are seeking advice on inheritance issues. The doomsters predicted that transparency posed an existential threat to STEP and its members. The reality is we, and our membership, have continued to grow and thrive. 5

6 THE YEAR IN NUMBERS GROWING YOUR NETWORK (1 NOVEMBER OCTOBER 2018) DIGITAL GROWTH WEB STEP.ORG RECEIVED: 2.8M PAGE VIEWS 900K VISITS 51.5K DIRECTORY SEARCHES DIGITAL GROWTH SOCIAL DROVE 23K VISITS TO STEP.ORG (+50% FROM LAST YEAR) 27K+ BLOG VISITS FOLLOWER GROWTH: +11% +4% +23% MEMBERSHIP 2,444 NEW MEMBERS (51% increase on previous year) 482 graduates upgraded to TEP COMMUNITIES Global Special Interest Group membership UP 20% TO 14,450 1,100 Digital Assets 2,830 Business Families Introduced globally consistent system for joining STEP, comprising 3 routes to entry: EXAM, ESSAY AND EXPERTISE 1,825 International Client 2,679 Cross-Border Estates 1,325 NEW AFFILIATES AND 535 NEW STUDENTS joined through our education programmes (exam and essay routes) 1,539 Philanthropy Advisors 2,332 Contentious Trusts and Estates 1,996 Mental Capacity 6

7 LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT STRENGTHENING STANDARDS 2 NEW CPD learning courses GDPR & Non-UK Domiciliaries and Tax 1 NEW qualification Certificate in Anti-Money Laundering 1 NEW public-facing course The Informed Trustee 6 university partnerships in Australia, South Africa, Italy and Austria NEW French-language civil-law certificate and diploma education programs in Canada 303 STUDENTS writing for the November 2018 Canada exams (highest number to date) 50+ practitioners from 20 countries completed or are completing the STEP Professional Postgraduate Diploma in Private Wealth Advising Obtained a stronger commitment from members to our Codes of Conduct, CPD and professional indemnity insurance requirements Updated the Disciplinary Panel Publications Policy to include Interim Suspensions Issued new look PCRT (Professional Conduct in Relation to Taxation) guidance for all members advising on UK tax, comprising core standards and principles, and help sheets Issued updated engagement letters for UK tax practitioners STEP Disciplinary Panel concluded investigations into 31 matters and issued: 4 Exclusions; 1 Suspension (4 interim with 1 still in force); 6 Reprimands; and 1 Reprimand & Conditions. 7

8 CONNECTING MEMBERS KEEPING YOU INFORMED STEP PRIVATE CLIENT AWARDS the most international yet Finalists from 14 jurisdictions STEP Canada National Conference RD STEP GLOBAL CONGRESS held in Vancouver SPECIAL 355 DELEGATES INTEREST GROUP SPOTLIGHT SESSIONS 2017 achieve record attendance TOP 5 REGIONAL CONFERENCES BY DELEGATE NUMBERS 530 STEP Asia Conference 2017 (Singapore) 675 UK STEP Tax Trusts and Estates Conference Series STEP LatAm Conference 2018 (Mexico) UK STEP Tax Update Conference Series STEP Journals 4 Trust Quarterly Reviews 250 Industry News Digests 29 Blogs 11 Membership Newsletters 1 ST official joint US/Canada webcast 5 STEP Journal Roundtables 7 web events as part of STEP Australia s new programme 2 STEP BOOKS Business Families and Family Businesses (2nd Edition) STEP Accounting Guidelines (3rd Edition) 8

9 RAISING AWARENESS WITH POLICYMAKERS WITH POTENTIAL MEMBERS GROW WITH STEP (member recruitment campaign launched in April 2018) 250% INCREASE in traffic to Join pages on step.org 90 RECOMMEND A COLLEAGUE member referrals 80 ENQUIRIES ABOUT JOINING via Talk to us web form in first two months 112K VIEWS of Grow with STEP campaign video WITH THE PUBLIC ADVISINGFAMILIES.ORG (STEP s public-facing website) 120K page views 90K visits 9K Find a TEP searches 5AMLD: Invited to European Commission s Supranational Risk Assessment closed consultation DAC6: Hosted and presented at key seminars to explain key issues to government policymakers WITH EMPLOYERS FATF: Provided expert opinion for the preparation of the UK s mutual evaluation FATF: Drafted guidance for TCSPs on the new Risk-Based Approach OECD: Attended working group on Mandatory Disclosure Rules, outlining key concerns EMPLOYER PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMME 20 new Employer Partners in 8 new jurisdictions taking us to 71 employers in 22 countries 21% increase in STEP members at Employer Partner firms since accreditation GDPR: Set up Data Protection Working Group, which has been liaising with the UK Information Commissioner s Office on guidance for trustees Consultations: Drafted 20+ responses to government policies across various jurisdictions 9

10 OUR FINANCES FINANCES FROM 1 APRIL 2017 TO 31 MARCH 2018 INCOME 2017/18 11,750,730 (up 8%) EXPENSES 2017/18 11,242,434 (up 7.5%) SUBSCRIPTIONS COURSE AND LECTURE SPONSORSHIP EXAM FEES OTHER WORLDWIDE OFFICE ADVERTISING AND MARKETING COURSE AND LECTURE EXAM FEES PROFESSIONAL FEES BRANCH ADMINISTRATION WEBSITE AND IT OTHER COSTS To view our full annual accounts, please visit 10

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12 ABOUT STEP STEP is the global professional association for practitioners who specialise in family inheritance and succession planning. We work to improve public understanding of the issues families face in this area and promote education and high professional standards among our members. STEP members help families plan for their futures, from drafting a will to advising on issues concerning international families, protection of the vulnerable, family businesses and philanthropic giving. Full STEP members, known as TEPs, are internationally recognised as experts in their field, with proven qualifications and experience. STEP Artillery House, Artillery Row, London, SW1P 1RT, United Kingdom Telephone: +44 (0) step@step.org A company limited by guarantee and incorporated in England and Wales under the Companies Act Registered number Registered Office: Artillery House, Artillery Row, London, SW1P 1RT United Kingdom STEP 2018