Schwab Scraps In-Person Plans for Impact 2021

Charles Schwab is the latest financial organization to scrap its plans for an in-person event this year, saying Friday its annual Impact conference will be virtual-only again for the second-straight year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had considered hosting in-person receptions in 10 cities as part of Impact 2021 but have decided to keep Impact 2021 completely virtual again this year,” a Schwab spokesperson said Friday. “The decision was based on the current environment and on feedback from advisors and employees.”

This year’s Impact will be held online Oct. 19-20, and the Schwab team “has been working hard to put together two days of thought-provoking speakers and unique education sessions that will be free of registration fees for all invited attendees,” the spokesperson said.

Impact registration for advisors starts Tuesday at the company’s event website, which also now tells visitors that the event is going virtual again this year.

Schwab is “planning and hoping for an in-person event in Denver in 2022, likely also with a virtual component,” the spokesperson said. The dates have not been finalized yet.

After skipping 2020 due to the pandemic, the Technology Tools for Today (T3) Advisor and T3 Enterprise conferences scheduled to be held back-to-back Monday, Sept. 27, through Friday, Oct. 1, in Denton, Texas, this year were recently postponed until spring 2022 at the same location. That decision was made after several participants expressed concerns about taking part due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, Joel Bruckenstein, T3 president and producer of the conference, told ThinkAdvisor.

The Financial Planning Association also recently canceled its annual conference, which was to be held Sept. 22-24 in Columbus, Ohio, due to concerns over the increasing number of COVID-19 cases and the surge of the delta variant. Those already registered will receive a full refund, FPA said, noting the group “will work to make some of the planned sessions, including keynote presentations, available virtually on-demand — and free — for any member to access.”

The Invest in Others Awards, meanwhile, will be held virtually, Sept. 20-24.

However, Orion Advisor Solutions decided to go ahead with its in-person Ascent conference last month in Scottsdale, Arizona, although it too made conference sessions available virtually.

Carson Group is among the companies that have opted to go ahead with plans for in-person events this fall. Its Excell conference will be held Oct. 12-14 in Las Vegas.