The Institut québécois de planification financère and the Financial Planning Standards Council are forming a tighter relationship in an effort to achieve their common goals collaboratively.

A new memorandum of understanding sets out plans for the IQPF to become a member organization of the FPSC by the end of this year.

The groups said they have concluded that IQPF’s membership in FPSC will provide both organizations with greater opportunity to understand and recognize their mutual purpose, and better enable them to leverage their respective strengths towards ensuring the financial planning needs of all Canadians from coast to coast are well served.

“IQPF’s membership in FPSC will enhance the notion of co-operation between our two organizations as we work towards a true singular Canada-wide set of standards for financial planning,” said Cary List, president and CEO of FPSC.

FPSC’s current member organizations include Advocis, the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada, CMA Canada, the Credit Union Institute of Canada, the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Canadian Institute of Financial Planners.

“We are pleased to join the ranks of FPSC’s current member organizations,” said Jocelyne Houle-LeSarge, president and CEO of IQPF, “to help ensure the financial planning needs of Canadians are well served.”

Added Houle-LeSarge: “The IQPF and FPSC are natural allies and leaders in promoting financial planning as the cornerstone of sound financial management.”

FPSC and the IQFP have been working together for some time to address common issues that will further the public interest. These include working towards greater consistency of standards across Canada, undertaking public interest research, and establishing financial planning as a profession.

In 2009, the two organizations signed a memorandum of understanding to simplify the process for Certified Financial Planner professionals who want to practice in Quebec and for financial planners from Quebec who want to practice outside of the province.

The IQPF and the FPSC have similar mandates related to ensuring that consumers’ financial planning needs are well served, and both offer financial planning certification programs.

IE