On the road to one-stop shopping – includes chart

Among professional designations, the certified financial planner, granted by the Financial Planners Standards Council, and the personal financial planner designation, offered through the Institute of Canadian Bankers, are the favourites of account managers. The CFP is held by 47% of those surveyed, while 45% had a PFP designation.
This represents a significant increase from last year, when 38% had a CFP and 34% had a PFP.

Other designations are less sought after by account managers. After the CFP and PFP, the most popular designations are the Canadian investment manager (CIM) and the financial management advisor (FMA), both of which are granted by the Canadian Securities Institute.

Adding licences and designations may well be the result of the banks placing more emphasis on giving advice. Having a designation is a good way to demonstrate to a client that the advisor has a recognized level of knowledge.

Bank of Nova Scotia says it wants its personal bankers to be advice-givers. “To provide the right advice, you need to have the correct training and accreditation,” says Sue Graham Parker, senior vice president of retail and small-business banking, Ontario region, for Scotiabank in Toronto.

Adds a Scotiabanker in Alberta: “The banking industry as a whole expects each individual, especially in a sales position, to know everything — to be a jack of all trades.”

Last year, Scotiabank launched “My learning centre,” an interactive Web-based learning platform created so its staff can learn at its own pace, including during working hours.
“We also have face-to-face training [and] CD-ROMs, and we’re constantly encouraging and, in many cases, requiring our staff to get outside accreditation. We support them through intensive courses, and provide financial support as well,” Graham Parker says.

Scotiabank account managers acknowledge the need for qualified personnel and one expressed support for the bank’s courses and financial aid. But another Scotiabanker from Alberta couldn’t help but sing a common refrain: “There is too much to know and too much to be an expert on.”

At Scotiabank, the designation of choice is the PFP — almost half of its bankers surveyed hold the designation. The CFP designation seems to find little favour.

At CIBC, however, the CFP is the most popular designation. Of CIBC account managers surveyed, 74% have a CFP. As well, more than half of the CIBC advisors surveyed hold the PFP designation, indicating a significant number hold both.

One CIBC banker from Central Ontario says the opportunities for training at the bank have been improving; a CIBC banker from New Brunswick says the support CIBC gives for training is excellent.

Advisors in CIBC’s Imperial Service commit to earning a CFP and are licensed through the Investment Dealers Association of Canada, so that they can advise on and sell securities such as fixed-income products.

“We support our employees through ongoing training, learning material and support groups, as well as helping them achieve a balance in terms of work, home and study,” says Steve McNair, executive vice president of Imperial Service and private wealth-management services in Toronto.
“We want them to stay with us, and to keep that loyalty we have a great continuing education program. We want them to feel supported in their education.”

Royal Bank of Canada is following a similar path in that it requires all advisors to have, as a minimum, a mutual fund licence and the PFP designation.

To support that, Royal Bank will provide
compensation for certain accreditation training, says Matt Varey, senior vice president and director, RBC Investment Financial Planning, in Toronto. The company wants to be known as an organization that makes a commitment to education.

“At RBC Financial Planning, it’s absolutely an underlying premise of our strategy that all of them have a mutual fund licence and as a minimum a PFP designation. That’s mandatory,” he says.