FPA passes on research to boost CFP
The Financial Planning Association (FPA) has passed on research and marketing materials to its sister organisations around the world to assist them in promoting the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation.
FPA chief executive Mark Rantall said at the recent Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB) meeting in Sydney that the association had passed on ‘professional dividend’ research exploring why planning firms should hire a CFP qualified planner.
He said the FPA also passed on consumer promotion information and information around building a professional framework and codes of practices to 12 members of the 25 member FPSB.
“Australia is a long way down the track of developing the profession and the CFP designation with established requirements around continuing professional development (CPD) and education standards,” Rantall said.
“With this information we were able to reinforce the FPSB approach to the CFP designation including the expectation that CFPs would be members of a professional body and uphold standards. We were also able to emphasise that the Certification Program was not a one-off but had CPD components, and this was the structure of the profession for FPSB members.”
Rantall said neither the FPA nor FPSB could dictate what professional frameworks would look like in different areas due to language, culture, regulatory environments and industry evolution.
“Our aim was to give concepts and tools to take away and modify for their own local uses, not to tell them how to do it the way we do in Australia.”
FPSB chief executive Noel Maye said the board would focus on the CFP designation as a global standard but with localised applications.
He said in 2014 the board would launch a global push to media, regulators and consumers, using the communication resources of members to promote financial literacy with the aim to get the public to act on financial information and engage with a financial planner.
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