SAI Global launches industry certification program
Greg Miller
Standards and compliance solutions firm SAI Global has developed and launched a new certification program for financial planners in conjunction with dealer group MLCAdvice Solutions.
SAI’s Financial Planning 9000 — Quality Management for Financial Planning Practices program will complement MLC’s existing internal Quality Advice Accreditation Program, which has been available to MLC aligned financial planners for the past five years.
The SAI program, which utilises the global ISO 9001 Quality Management System Standard, is designed to assess key financial planning practice issues, including business and practice management, risk management and planning processes, client file management and qualification for planners.
MLC Advice Solutions general manager Greg Miller said the new SAI program will “better align the management practises of financial planning businesses with the international best practise requirements of ISO 9001”.
Miller added it would give customers “a level of comfort that the financial planning business they are dealing with is a quality endorsed practice”.
“Undertaking external assessment by a reputable organisation is an important next step in helping our financial advice practices to be independently recognised as having international best-practise systems and processes that support the delivery of quality advice.”
MLC aligned financial planners will have an exclusive 12-month period to seek certification through the program before it is opened to the broader industry.
“We hope to have around 30 of our financial planning practices assessed within the next 12 months,” said Miller.
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