The hunt is on to find a replacement for the founding president of the Financial Planners Standards Council. Donald Johnston, 67, says he will step down once the Toronto-based organization’s board of directors has found a suitable replacement.

A search firm is interviewing candidates, he says, and the board of directors expects to have successor in place by June.

Johnston founded the FPSC in 1995 with the objective of developing a “made in Canada” certification based on uniform requirements. In 1996, he secured the rights for the FPSC to become the sole licensor of the internationally recognized certified financial planner designation in Canada.

He says establishing the CFP as the standard in financial planning is his most notable achievement as FPSC president.

“It has become established that way because the consumer really has faith in working with CFPs,” Johnston says. “They realize that the CFP is the designation based on the finest standards, so it is something they can rely on.”

Getting a new organization off the ground in 1995 was his biggest challenge as FPSC president.

“As a start-up organization, that’s where you face your toughest challenges,” he says. “When we first started, we had to impress the CFP Board of Standards in the U.S. that the group we had put together was the group that they could put faith in. And that took a lot of selling.”

It was also challenging getting the industry itself to rally behind one designation and one set of standards.

“As we got the processes in place, the standards developed and the examination format ironed out, things got easier,” Johnston adds.

At the time, he had to get a long list of organizations onside in order to advance the CFP proposal. They included the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, the Society of Management Accountants, Certified General Accountants, the Credit Union Central of Canada, the two Advocis predecessor organizations, the Institute of Canadian Bankers and the Canadian Securities Institute (now CSI Global Education Inc.).

“In the early going, everybody had an interest in financial planning,” he says. “But the trouble was each was pushing a different educational platform, leading to all kinds of designations — which just caused so much confusion for the public. There was a lot of faith riding on those people coming together and saying we can make this easier for Canadians if we just band together.”

Johnston is optimistic about the future of the FPSC. He sees the organization as being close to its goal of establishing financial planning as a true profession. He says the organization is also committed to educating the public on the financial planning process.

“On the consumer side of things, there’s a lot more we have to do,” he says. “Financial literacy, particularly as it relates to financial planning, is really just in its early stages. On the other side, developing the profession, developing practice standards, developing our new competency profile — these are ongoing stepping stones to establishing professional recognition.”

Before joining the FPSC, Johnston spent 25 years in academia, as dean of studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., and at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ont. He joined Clarkson Gordon, which become Ernst & Young, and ran its national education program for 10 years. At age 55, he left Ernst & Young to embark on the new FPSC project.

Johnston’s retirement announcement coincides with the tenth anniversary of the FPSC’s administration of the CFP designation in Canada.

Reflects contribution

The FPSC marked the event in January with a gala dinner in Toronto and the unveiling and presentation of a new award. The Donald J. Johnston Award was created by the board to “inspire outstanding contributions to the advancement of the profession of financial planning in Canada,” according to a news release.

The criteria for the award were designed to reflect the accomplishments of Johnston, who was named as the annual award’s first recipient.

“The purpose of the award is to recognize and honour in perpetuity the spirit, imagination, dedication and contribution exemplified by FPSC’s first and founding president in establishing and leading FPSC through its first successful decade as the standard-setting organization for the emerging financial planning profession in Canada,” the FPSC board says.

Johnson was presented with the award at the “surprise” dinner.

@page_break@“The main goal of setting up the FPSC,” Johnston said in his address, “was to bring some harmony to the financial planning arena, with a cohesive effort around one designation — one that would represent one set of standards designed to protect the public and advance financial planning toward becoming a true profession.”

The award consists of a trophy, a formal award presentation and the engraving of the recipient’s name on a plaque that will sit at the FPSC offices in Toronto.

FPSC’s board of directors will make a financial contribution to a charity chosen by the annual recipient.

This year, FPSC will contribute $10,000 to a charity to be chosen by Johnston. IE