There is a wealth of professional bodies, networks and trade organisations available for advisers. It is just a question of which one (or more) suits your personal needs and interests. Whether your priorities revolve solely around ongoing professional development or you want to be part of groups that lobby on your behalf, there are a number of options.
While professional groups will almost always be useful and relevant for qualifications and certification, the power of trade organisations is being called into question with regards to what impact they really have on the regulator. The necessity of continuing education and development also requires the framework of professional groups with a trusted examination and assessment structure, as well as the accreditation that goes with them. Trade organisations, on the other hand, theoretically perform an important role in their own right, but is membership money well spent for advisers?
PFS
The Personal Finance Society (PFS), part of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), is the largest professional body in the UK for financial planners and associated roles with 34,000 members (as shown in Table 1, alongside the industry’s other leading trade bodies). It focuses on supporting its members in the financial services industry to gain the appropriate professional qualifications. The organisation also works on securing and justifying consumer trust in its membership and the profession in general. The PFS produces the Financial Solutions magazine which covers technical and regulatory news, and members receive discounts on exams, study support materials and revision classes. They can be issued with a statement of professional standing (SPS) through the PFS, which became essential for all retail investment advisers under the RDR. The PFS is also the only body that can issue advisers with chartered status.
“We are engaging more with the regulator and the government, and we have a key role to play in raising awareness of the relevance and importance of financial advice,” says Keith Richards, the society’s chief executive. “We want to collaborate more with other organisations across the profession.” “People have often commented that we’re a very fragmented and disparate sector and it’s very difficult to pull that unity together.”
IFP
The Institute of Financial Planners (IFP) produces a range of different training schemes, workshops, branch meetings in 22 regions of the UK, e-learning opportunities and conferences. It considers itself to be an organisation encouraging the development of personal and professional skills rather than a lobbying group, and the IFP is the UK affiliate responsible for co-ordinating the Financial Planning Standards Board’s qualifications. It offers a level six certificate, which it sees as being a way for advisers to set themselves apart from the level four benchmark enforced by the RDR.
