Colonel Rob Morris, our Roadshow Manager, explains our Roadshow programme and its important role in informing and educating serving personnel.
The Society delivers more than 200 free Roadshows briefs each year as part of our remit to help serving members of the Armed Forces, Regular and Reserve, and their families, to understand their pension better and take ownership of pension-related decisions. This is in addition to the 36 Financial Aspects of Resettlement briefings that our pension consultants deliver to Service leavers each year on behalf of the Career Transition Partnership. In 2021, we reached more than 13,500 people.
It is my responsibility to construct and maintain the Society’s external engagement programme and arrange and deliver the Roadshows to serving audiences in the UK and overseas.
What we deliver
We can deliver presentations covering all three pension schemes (AFPS 75/05/15) in a single briefing or we can tailor them to one or a combination of the schemes. Each presentation lasts about an hour, and we can run more than one depending on the numbers. They aim to help personnel understand the benefits of AFPS75/05/15; provide the latest information on the 2015 remedy (McCloud); guide on accessing information on pension entitlements, including the state pension; and provide tips on planning a financial future, including how to obtain Armed Forces pension forecasts.
We deliver presentations to headquarters, Naval bases, Army units, RAF stations – anywhere with a military presence. We also have standing briefings for career courses, including those at Shrivenham, RAF Cranwell, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and BRNC Dartmouth.
The Chief Executive delivers senior officer briefings at the Royal College of Defence Studies, the Higher Command and Staff Course, the Advanced Command and Staff Course and commanding officer designate courses, as well as an annual pension taxation workshop with our pension consultants.
We can also deliver briefings to Veterans groups, charities and other organisations involved with the Armed Forces, such as families federations.
Most briefings are in person at a military location but can be by webinar. This is the delivery method for locations overseas and sometimes works best for headquarters, geographically dispersed organisations and Reserve units.
Our webinars are moderated by one of our pension consultants, who answers questions during the presentation via the chat function, as well as addressing questions or themes during breaks and at the end.
How to book
To book a Roadshow, units or individuals should contact me at roadshows@forpen.co.uk and we can agree on a convenient date, location and the content to be delivered.
In addition, I proactively contact units and organisations to advertise our services. I try, as best I can, to construct the Roadshow programme geographically to avoid being in Scotland one day and Kent the next, but ultimately, I will go where briefings are requested.
So, if you’ve not yet had a presentation and would like one for your organisation, please do contact me at the email address given.
Look forward to hearing from you for 2023.
