Dear members…

I write this letter in the first months of my appointment as worldwide Chair with great excitement about the opportunity ahead of me.

My election statement was a stand for change and I was pleased to see that my fellow STEP Council members agreed with what was required to facilitate that.

A STEP member since 2008, I have always been passionate about the need for an organisation like STEP: a cross-jurisdictional, cross-professional organisation advising families across generations. We have undertaken great things, but the world is constantly evolving and it is important for us to pivot and continue to remain relevant to our members and the world generally.

Priorities

To enable the evolution of STEP, my three main priorities in my position as Chair are as follows:

• To facilitate STEP’s necessary evolution by ensuring that we adapt to the changing needs and expectations of our clients, regulators and stakeholders. To do this, we need to become more innovative, agile and responsive in delivering our services and enhancing our standards.
• To make STEP a truly global organisation by expanding our reach and influence in regions where we already exist and growing our branch network in other regions where there is potential. To do this we need to be inclusive, collaborative and supportive of our members across different cultures and jurisdictions.
• To focus on the next generation by attracting, developing and retaining new members who will shape the future of our profession. This means that we need to be relevant, engaging and inspiring for our current and prospective members, with an eye on the competition.

Through the delivery of these three main priorities, I believe we will position STEP for the future. We will continue to be a powerful force for good for our clients and, just as importantly, you, our members. We are a membership organisation first and foremost, with our values of community, collaboration, integrity and continuous learning helping us to inspire confidence in families planning their assets across generations.

We have already started to make progress on our evolution. As Chair I have connected with Council to understand what the membership would like to see discussed, including bringing ideas to the STEP Board where appropriate. This transparency is key, as the communications need to be insightful, frequent and, just as importantly, bi-directional. It is important that any concerns, thoughts or ideas be brought to your Council representative. They represent you and cannot do so effectively if they are not fully apprised of the issues or ideas on your mind.

The next generation

We have put together our next generation working group, which Matt Gilligan TEP has very kindly agreed to chair for us, in an effort to grow our membership and remain relevant. It is important that we look to the next generation of practitioners to understand their needs and wants and how we can evolve to meet them. For example, as the digital world is developing rapidly, the way in which the younger generation might like to receive the latest STEP updates may not be through an email, website or even a relatively old technology such as social media.

This committee will also encourage people much earlier in their careers to volunteer and get involved with our committees and governance. Who knows? Maybe someone will beat my record as the youngest ever Board member and the youngest Chair!

Branch growth

As to our reach and influence across the regions, we have already seen some proposals for new branches, and it is always great to interact with those enthusiastic to build new branches. The proposals I have seen have been excellent and I wish them the best of luck at the beginning of their new journey.

This year will also see a new events programme being trialled for England and Wales, which, if successful, may be rolled out to other jurisdictions. However, we cannot claim much credit, given that we borrowed the idea from STEP Canada after visiting Toronto in 2023 for its 25th anniversary celebrations and annual conference.

EDI

Our equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) committee is paving the way for EDI principles to be embedded across the entire organisation. Additionally, we are enhancing the speaker selection process at conferences to ensure we have a diverse set of speakers, including from our younger membership.

Thought leadership

In 2024, we will continue our thought leadership projects; in particular, the Global Representative Power, which launched last year. We have already had great interest from a number of jurisdictions and I am keen to see what impact we can make in 2024.

I am truly looking forward to serving as Chair of an organisation I feel a deep affinity for. As an organisation, we are as strong as the sum of our diverse parts, so please do engage with your Council members, network, learn, evolve, share knowledge and get involved in our community through the many volunteering opportunities available.