Johannesburg: The CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® (CFP) professional designation continues to grow globally as relevance and demand for the designation is at an all-time high. The Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd. (FPSB), the standards-setting body for the global financial planning profession and owner of the international CFP® certification programme outside the United States, has reported that the number of CFP® professionals worldwide has surpassed 213,000 – which has, among other things, highlighted the increased desire among financial professionals in South Africa to attain the designation.
In an environment where most people tend to begin planning for retirement much later in their lives, many South Africans are approaching their financial future ill prepared. This makes professional financial planning necessary – where South Africans can be empowered to adopt a lifestyle that makes it possible to secure a better future for themselves and their families. Professional financial planning is beneficial because this enables South Africans to enhance their standard of living, work towards realising their dreams and achieving comfortable retirement.
The Financial Planning Institute of Southern Africa (FPI) is responsible for overseeing the CFP® professional designation in South Africa. Membership is for financial planners who have completed a level NQF8 qualification, have three or more years of financial services experience or completed an FPI mentorship programme, have completed the professional competency examination and have agreed to abide by the FPI Code of Ethics and Professional Standards.
The increasing number of financial professionals who register for the FPI’s CFP® Professional Competency Examination shows that financial professionals in South Africa recognise the value of attaining the CFP® professional designation as it comes with a number of invaluable professional benefits. Membership comes with the entitlement to use the FPI professional designation, which ensures that members always remain relevant as finance professionals. The high FPI professional and training standards ensure that members’ skills remain up to date as the industry keeps evolving. Furthermore, through the FPI’s community networking structures, members are able to benefit from interacting with other FPI professionals and also attend Continuous Professional Development (CPD) events where they can exchange ideas among each other.
In addition, as the FPI represents the collective views of its members through its Advocacy and Public Policy arm to bodies such as the Financial Sector Conduct Authority, National Treasury, South African Revenue Service, Reserve Bank, South African Qualifications Authority and the Insurance Sector Education and Training Authority.
Members also get access to CPD programmes and activities, Competency Profiles, and FPI Code of Ethics & Practice Standards enabling them to obtain CPD verifiable hours across Technical, General and Ethics and practice standard categories.
With a gain of 9,690 CFP® professionals last year, the FPSB and its global network of organisations grew the number of CFP® professionals worldwide by nearly 5% to reach the total of 213,002, as of 31 December 2022.
The robust global community of CFP® professionals makes it possible for people around the world to have access to financial planning from professionals who have committed to rigorous standards of competency, ethics and practice. With the FPI driving the profession in South Africa, South Africans can also increasingly benefit from this service.
By the Financial Planning Institute of Southern Africa
