The Canadian Securities Institute has undergone vast shifts in how it has offered education to the industry over the past several years. It once simply managed entry-level licensing requirements for the securities industry, but it now reaches across the broad swath of financial services and is deeply embedded in all the major players, including banks, insurance companies, financial planning companies and mutual fund companies. “Our vision today is to be the leader in financial learning, not just in the investment area,” says its president and CEO, Roberta Wilton.

The educational arm of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada, the CSI has evolved to such an extent that it is now up for sale. Wilton says its mandate is very different from that of its regulatory parent and that has created a complicated relationship. In fact, she says, it makes little sense for the IDA, intent on focusing its energy on the regulatory landscape, to be in charge of overseeing a business that focuses on education.

The CSI offers four designations, with the fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute being the highest. With requirements that include experience, education, endorsement and a code of ethics, about 350 individuals earn the top designation each year, Wilton says. There is a payoff to the commitment needed to earn such a designation.
According to a 2004 study, the 5,000 or so advisors who hold the FCSI designation across Canada make more money than other advisors. “Research shows FCSIs are $60,000 -$70,000 ahead of CFPs,” Wilton says.

The institute also offers what it calls a “blended” learning approach, adding the Internet and classroom tutorials to the dry textbook method of learning many advisors will remember from a decade or so ago. Today, almost every CSI course is available online. The CSI will offer a “podcasting” component to its courses by the end of the year. Students will be able to download to their computers or MP3 players 10 of the more complicated lessons in the Canadian securities course as podcasts, Wilton says.

Down the road, the CSI plans to increase its focus on its designation programs. To that end, it is running an ad campaign this fall for its FCSI program.

The CSI is keen on forming more strategic partnerships, Wilton says. Its current relationship with the Professional Risk Managers International Association means students who have completed the CSI’s financial risk-management course or attained its derivatives market specialist designation are exempt from having to write the first exam of four to earn their professional risk manager designation, which enjoys high recognition in the U.S., she says. The CSI has also partnered the Canadian Grains Institute for its agricultural risk management course and, about a year ago, it signed off on a joint MBA program with Dalhousie University.

The Canadian Institute of Financial Planning has also undergone significant changes.
And for good reason, says Keith Costello, vice president of education for the Investment Funds Institute of Canada, which oversees the CIFP, of which Costello is also managing director. The cookie-cutter environment that is financial education means that, in order to stand out, the CIFP has to emphasize quality, customer service and customization. This is especially true because the CIFP doesn’t have any monopolies on any particular course, he says: “In any of our offerings, you can go down the Street and get it from someone else.”

To ensure that it stands out, the CIFP has introduced an online learning portal. Most of its financial planning, mutual fund and life insurance courses can be found on this portal, with little need for paper support. In addition, it has turned much of its focus on training both the corporate and individual audience, Costello says. Programs can be customized for a particular client: “We are now moving into training anyone and everyone.”

In October, the CIFP launched its certified financial planner preparatory training program. The one-week course, which will be available twice a year, is open to anyone in the industry interested in topping his or her knowledge before writing the Financial Planners Standards Council exam. Armed with the fact that its graduates boast a higher first-time pass rate than the industry average (Costello says it’s between 76%-80%, compared with the average of about 60%), the CIFP hopes its refresher course will give even students from its competitors the chance to do well on the exam.

@page_break@Another area of growth for the CIFP has been insurance licensing education, which it moved into three years ago. The organization is now one of the biggest providers in the market, he says, although he won’t divulge any figures.

An offshoot called the Canadian Institute of Financial Planners, of which Costello is president and CEO, is in its third year. This group, which has 2,300 members, provides continuing education and best practices standards tools for CFPs. For an annual fee, all necessary CE courses are included. Costello says it’s important that there is a membership body in Canada that exclusively meets the needs of financial planners.

Advocis, which awards the chartered life underwriter and registered health underwriter designations, and also offers a program leading to the CFP designation, has also changed with the times. The CFP program, once six courses long, was cut down to four courses with the help of publishing partner CCH Canadian Ltd. about three years ago, says Donna Muirhead, vice president of sales and marketing for Advocis. The shorter program provides more value for students, she says.

Partnerships have been critical to providing quality programs to members in the past six years or so, says Muirhead. Besides CCH, which brings IT platforms to the table that would be prohibitively expensive for Advocis to develop on its own, it has a partnership with Foran Financial Institute for its life licensing and the life licence qualification program licensing program. Foran offers seminars, workbooks and practice exam questions for students interested in additional assistance. Muirhead says the association plans to pursue more partnerships with various education providers as it sees fit.

Advocis is still a strong proponent of continuing education, but it has decided, over the past year, to hand over the delivery of these programs to its 49 local chapters. To that end, it developed a CE-in-a-box program that it licenses out to chapters. According to Muirhead, each module of the program is developed as a turnkey solution with everything required by a chapter, including speaker’s notes, PowerPoint presentations and even student handouts. The chapter is in charge of choosing speakers (although Advocis will make recommendations), deciding how much time is needed for each module and the cost it will charge for the program.

“It allows the chapters to determine its own delivery method, its own pricing and its own details around the setting,” she says.

The advantage of this system is that chapters know what members want and can design programs to complement or augment the national CE programs, she says. IE
Schools turn to Internet-based learning, strategic partnerships and marketing campaigns to ensure they stand out as quality learning