ANNUAL REVIEW2016 -2017

Welcome to our Annual Review, in which we provide a few highlights of our activities and achievements over this past year.

As my first year as Worldwide Chair draws to a close, it has been hugely gratifying to receive the results of our 2017 Member Satisfaction Survey (see p8 for the highlights). More than 2,000 members responded to this, representing 12% of our membership. I am proud and humbled by the wonderful comments and high level of value our members place on their membership. I am also thankful for the constructive feedback received, which will help us to continue to develop our services further and to ensure the consistency of our offering across STEP.

Indeed, ensuring consistency, both at worldwide and at branch level, has been a key focus this past year. This has involved work to review the services we provide across our network, to identify gaps and to ensure our governance and structure

enables efficient development and delivery of these services to all our members.

Alongside this internal focus, we are working to build our external reputation as a leading global professional body with widely recognised qualifications and professional standards. To this end we are establishing close and lasting relationships with employers, developing partnerships with leading academic institutions, maintaining and building on relationships with policy makers internationally, and raising public awareness of what STEP is and what members do.

I look forward to working with members and staff over what promises to be another busy year.

Patricia Wass TEPWorldwide STEP Chair

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Welcome from the Chair

Q&A with Chief Executive George Hodgson

The year in numbers

Membership Satisfaction Survey 2017

Our finances

CONTENTS

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This summary of STEP’s work covers the period 1 November 2016 to 1 31 October 2017. Financial information covers the period 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017.

For a PDF version of this Review, and to see our annual accounts, please visit www.step.org/annual-report

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Q&A WITH CHIEF EXECUTIVE GEORGE HODGSON

How would you summarise the past year for STEP?

The external environment in which most STEP members practice is currently changing rapidly. We have therefore been working hard to make sure that we stay relevant to our members through this period of change. We have focused on three broad areas: we have been building links with employers under the Employer Partnership Programme to ensure we understand how employer needs are changing; we have put a lot of effort into helping members support their clients by providing technical guidance on range of issues from CRS to trust registers; and we are embarking on a major programme to improve support for STEP branches, given that, for many members, their branch is the strongest tangible link they have with STEP.

STEP’S CHIEF EXECUTIVE GEORGE HODGSON REFLECTS ON THE PAST YEAR

What were you most proud of this year?

In terms of new developments, looking at member feedback it was clear that many STEP members wanted us to prioritise better public recognition of the TEP. Responding to that

feedback we have successfully launched in the UK the www.advisingfamilies.org website and the ‘You can talk to a TEP’ campaign. Even on a very limited budget, in its first few months

the site has seen more than 50,000 hits and 6,000 people using the ‘Find a TEP’ search function and we are now actively looking at rolling out this success in other jurisdictions.

More broadly, however, our annual Membership Survey shows that 97% of members would recommend STEP to friend and 91% of members believe that STEP membership has helped

their career. I think those statistics are a credit to STEP’s staff and volunteers.

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OUR STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

To achieve STEP’s vision to be the pre-eminent worldwide professional association for those advising families across generations we have set out the following three strategic aims:

To ensure STEP’s membership offer is both highly rated and delivered consistently and effectively across our membership wherever they are based.

To ensure all STEP members feel they have an effective voice in developing STEP’s membership offer.

To build STEP’s external reputation as a leading global professional body with widely recognised qualifications and professional standards.

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How would you describe the external environment in which STEP and its members have been working?

The world has had to cope with many shocks over the past couple of years, from Trump to Brexit. Many STEP members also feel that the external view of our industry remains hostile.

Wherever I go in the STEP world, however, the largest single practical issue employers are struggling with is the rapid rise in compliance costs. This is undoubtedly changing the

economics of the whole private client industry. In addition, in many jurisdictions regulatory reforms are often leading to new ways of doing business. The net result is that consolidation

continues to be a major theme across the industry. In spite of all that, it is worth noting that STEP membership continues to grow. It is clear that families continue to value the services that

STEP members provide and we operate in a sector that is not as exposed as some to volatile financial markets and economic uncertainty.

What is the biggest challenge currently facing STEP and how are we planning to deal with this?

The TEP designation is widely regarded as the hallmark of excellence across our industry and we have to ensure that remains the case. STEP’s membership offer, focusing on developing knowledge, building networks and helping our members help their clients, must therefore be delivered consistently and effectively across our membership wherever they are based. That is a challenge in an organisation that has grown so rapidly. STEP now has more than 20,000 members in 113 branches in 56 jurisdictions, and many of those branches are relatively new or relatively small. We have therefore been spending a lot of time over the past year on consulting on how we can best support STEP branches and regions to deliver the key services that are relevant to their members, to ensure every member, wherever they are based, values their membership.

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THE YEAR IN NUMBERS

SELL-OUT EVENTS: TOP 5

800K+ VISITS

2.5M PAGE VIEWS WWW.STEP.ORG

SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS DROVE 15K+ VISITS TO WWW.STEP.ORG

FOLLOWERS UP ACROSS THE BOARD

DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT

+16%

+25%

+23%

+208%

Canada Conference 2017

724 DELEGATES

Asia Conference 2016

465 DELEGATES

LatAm Conference 2017

370 DELEGATES

Private Client Awards

726 ATTENDEES with a record

265 ENTRIES from 24 JURISDICTIONS

13th Annual International Estate Planning Institute in New York

335 DELEGATES

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STEP BLOG

GLOBAL SIG MEMBERSHIP

+34% TO

12,000

LAUNCHED STEP ST LOUIS IN USA, TAKING NUMBER OF

STEP BRANCHES TO

113

MEMBERS OF NEW DIGITAL ASSETS SIG

(LAUNCHED AUGUST 2017)

EXTERNAL AWARENESS

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

25NEW EMPLOYER

PARTNERS TAKING US TO 68 ACCREDITATIONS FOR 51 EMPLOYERS IN

14 JURISDICTIONS

50K+PAGE VIEWS FOR

ADVISINGFAMILIES.ORG STEP’S NEW

PUBLIC-FACING WEBSITE (LAUNCHED MAY 2017)

55K+VIEWS OF ‘TALK TO A TEP’ PUBLIC CAMPAIGN VIDEO

10 STEP JOURNALS

1 NEW ADVANCED

CERTIFICATE: CROSS-BORDER

ESTATES

2 NEW CPD

LEARNING COURSES CRS: LAW & PRACTICE

FATCA: LAW & PRACTICE

4TQR

250 NEWS DIGESTS

11 MEMBERSHIP NEWSLETTERS

NETWORK GROWTH

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TOP 5 MOST USEFUL MEMBER SERVICES

NEWS DIGEST EMAILS

MEMBERSHIP NEWSLETTER EMAIL

USE OF TEP DESIGNATION

STEP JOURNAL

TQR

MEMBERSHIP SATISFACTION SURVEY 2017

More than 2,000 members responded to our Member Satisfaction Survey 2017. Here is a snapshot of some of the results.

TEP

97%Would recommend STEP to a colleague

93%Say STEP membership is

considered important within the industry

92%Say their peers and

colleagues are aware of STEP

91%Say being a STEP

member has benefited their career – 17% more

than in 2008

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“GOLD STANDARD FOR OUR INDUSTRY”

“STEP INCREASES MY KNOWLEDGE AND CREDIBILITY AS A PROFESSIONAL”

“ONLY GLOBAL ASSOCIATION FOR OUR INDUSTRY”

“BENCHMARK OF EXCELLENCE”

“BADGE OF COMPETENCE”

“ENHANCES MY PROFILE WITH COLLEAGUES, EMPLOYERS AND CLIENTS”

“AN EXCELLENT COMMUNITY OF PEERS”

“A GREAT ORGANISATION TO BELONG TO FOR ONGOING LEARNING AND

PROFESSIONAL REPUTATION”

“A WORLDWIDE NETWORK OF DEDICATED AND TRULY EXCELLENT ADVISORS”

HOW WOULD YOU RATE THE VALUE OF YOUR STEP MEMBERSHIP?

39%EXCELLENT

51%GOOD

9%AVERAGE

1%POOR

WHAT DOES STEP MEAN TO YOU?

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OUR FINANCES

INCOME

£10,880,437(up 12.7%)

EXPENSES

£10,463,129(up 12.8%)

SUBSCRIPTIONS

COURSE AND LECTURE

EXAM FEES

SPONSORSHIP

OTHER

COURSE AND LECTURE

WORLDWIDE OFFICE

BRANCH ADMINISTRATION

OTHER COSTS

PROFESSIONAL FEES

EXAM FEES

ADVERTISING AND MARKETING

WEBSITE AND IT

FINANCES FROM 1 APRIL 2016 TO 31 MARCH 2017

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www.step.org

A company limited by guarantee and incorporated in England and Wales under the Companies Act 1985. Registered number 2632423. Registered Office: Artillery House (South), 11-19 Artillery Row, London, SW1P 1RT United Kingdom

© STEP 2017

ABOUT STEPSTEP 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 Worldwide Artillery House (South), 11-19 Artillery Row, London, SW1P 1RT, United Kingdom

Telephone: +44 (0) 203 752 3700 Email: step@step.org