Five years after the Financial Planning Standards Council (FPSC) established its Vision2020 goal, the financial planning profession has improved but there is still much work to be done, according to Cary List, president, CEO, FPSC.
List spoke at the Financial Planning Vision2020 Symposium in Toronto on Wednesday.
Established in 2009, the FPSC’s goal for the Vision2020 campaign was to help create an environment in Canada by the year 2020 where financial planning is valued, there is a shared sense of responsibility to ensure the financial planning needs of Canadians are being met and a viable financial planning profession providing Canadian investors with access to ethical and competent financial planners.
The FPSC set out the following five key components for meeting that vision: all high school students must have some kind of financial planning lessons before graduation; regulatory restrictions on who can be called a financial planner; the promotion of financial planners as a profession; Canadians must understand the difference between investment product advice and financial planning; a sufficient number of duly licensed, competent and ethical financial planners who can offer all Canadians professional financial advice.
One component that has seen a fair amount of progress in the past five years is the growing number of individuals seeking a financial planning designation. Currently there are over 22,000 individuals who hold either the certified financial planner (CFP) designation or the Quebec planning designation (Pl. Fin.). Furthermore, there are also roughly 1,200 registered candidates on their way to becoming financial planners. “This combined number,” said List, “is in fact by far the highest per capita of any affiliate country in the world.”
List also noted that there has been some slight movement towards recognizing financial planning as a profession. Specifically, the recent announcement by Charles Sousa, Ontario Minister of Finance, of the government’s decision to investigate the merits of preceding with more tailored regulation of financial planners, said List, has left the Coalition for Professional Standards for Financial Planners feeling “cautiously optimistic.”
“[The coalition and the FPSC] are committed to working with all stakeholders including the Ontario government as we develop proposed solutions that will best protect the interest of Canadians,” he said, “while at the same time ensuring the long term sustainability and credibility of a vibrant financial planning profession.”
The coalition includes the FPSC, Canadian Institute of Financial Planners (CIFPs), Institute of Advanced Financial Planners (IAFP) and Institut québécois de planification financiére (IQPF).
One area where much work remains, however, in List’s opinion, is in the education system. “I believe there’s insufficient focus on shaping behaviours and attitudes towards money and youth,” he said. “I suggest that the acceptance of financial literacy and sound financial behaviour as core life skills equal to other life skills, like literacy and numeracy, is a long, long way off.”
The issue is that while there has been some incorporation of financial planning into school curriculums the extent of its inclusion varies widely from province to province. List said he hoped the federal government’s soon-to-be appointed financial literacy leader will focus on this issue in future.