This week I addressed delegates at the annual financial planning conference, reviewing the progress almost one year on from the merger between CISI and IFP.
This week I addressed delegates at the annual financial planning conference, reviewing the progress almost one year on from the merger between CISI and IFP.
It is fair to say that, despite considerable planning, some aspects of the transfer were a little bumpy. However, we are continuing to meet both the letter and the spirit of the merger agreement because we want to grow financial planning.
Financial planning team
We realised that financial planning is more of a specialist area than we first thought, which is why, in May 2016, we appointed a former IFP President, Campbell Edgar CFP™ Chartered FCSI, and Jacqueline Lockie CFP™ Chartered FCSI to head up a new financial planning team.
Qualifications
Last month, we delivered on one of our key aims, to provide a pathway to the main CFP™ qualification. We now have a live, FCA-approved, Financial Planning and Advice unit for both existing financial planners and those new to the profession. We expect to launch a second new qualification module, on retirement planning, next year.
Membership and CPD
One of the first changes we made was to pay for regional events centrally and remove the requirement for local branches to find sponsors. We have also introduced a number of financial planning e-learning Professional Refresher modules, and we make many of our events available to watch on CISI TV – a membership benefit that many of the conference delegates we spoke to said they find particularly useful.
Advertising
During the last eleven months, we have expanded our national advertising campaigns to include both financial planning and paraplanning, and we had the most successful Financial Planning Week ever in June. Your past President, Becky Taylor CFP™ Chartered FCSI, now a CISI board member, and I have also met with a number of key journalists, resulting in good coverage for financial planning, particularly in the FT.
People are the Institute’s secret ingredient. Over 750 practitioners voluntarily help us every year - to help with our exam panels, run our Professional Forums, write articles and run our regions - and we have a global community of 40,000 members in 116 countries. We would like to welcome back former IFP members who have not renewed their membership to our community.
