A former president of the Institute of Financial Planning (IFP) has voiced his disappointment at the way the body has been integrated into the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments (CISI).
Alan Dick, who became president of the financial planning body in 2015 and oversaw its takeover by its rival later in the year, said CISI had not given the IFP sufficient backing, leading to widespread disappointment among former members.
Critical voices emerged soon after the proposal of a merger had been tabled, with IFP members speaking out about their concerns the investment-focused CISI would overshadow IFP-style financial planning.
Mr Dick had previously defended the merger, saying positive steps had been taken to ensure financial planning was properly communicated and supported.
Now, two years after the deal was done and the dust has settled, he has changed his mind.
He said: “I am disappointed and I am sensing disappointment from a lot of members."
He said he felt the events being organised by the merged body were London-centric and CISI's work on financial planning was too heavily focused on investments.
He said: "I don’t think it is working. As a broader organisation I don't think they are getting financial planning."
The CISI had established a financial planning forum following the merger, as part of its winding up process of the IFP, which Mr Dick chaired.
It also created a permanent head of financial planning position to promote and grow the financial planning profession, including raising greater awareness of the certified financial planner (CFP) designation.
But in September this year it was forced to admit the route towards Certificate in Financial Planning had not been “fit for purpose” and had to be redesigned after the UK had the lowest pass rate of any country taking the qualification.
Campbell Edgar, a former IFP president who was appointed the CISI's first head of financial planning in April 2016 retired in October this year and was succeeded by former deputy head Jacqueline Lockie.
Mr Dick said: "Jacqui is absolutely the right person to do the job, she understands financial planning but I just don’t think she gets the support behind her from CISI."
He added: “These things take time. So I hope I am wrong.”
Fellow former IFP member Steve Martin, chief executive of Smart Financial, said many people have left the CISI to join other organisations.
He said: “When the IFP dissolved very quickly it became apparent that CISI wasn’t going to do anything for the community or to enhance financial planning more broadly.
“So people made alternative arrangements, they voted with their feet.”
According to the CISI, 341 former IFP members have left the body since the merger.
Immediately after the merger 12 firms resigned from the new body, FTAdviser reported at the time.
However, the organisation said membership figures have in fact recovered to higher levels than before the merger.
The IFP membership pre-merger was about 1,900 and it now has 2,058 financial planning members.
Ms Lockie said: "In April 2017 we had close to full renewal in the financial planning community membership, which is a good barometer of our financial planning community sentiment towards CISI."
Mr Martin also expressed frustration about the events created by the IFP/CISI regional branches, although those can differ quite widely from branch to branch.
“People are coming out for IFP style content and are mostly being given investment and tax events,” Mr Martin said.
He attended the CISI's annual conference, formerly the IFP conference, last year but wasn’t convinced by the content so did not return this year, he said.
He claimed it had been poorly organised and was given the impression the CISI was shifting responsibility onto the members to make the merger between the two organisations work.
Mr Martin is still a member of the CISI because it is currently the only place that issues the Certified Financial Planner designation, which he holds.
Despite believing the IFP has effectively “disappeared” within the CISI, he said its ethos was living on in other places.
He himself was involved in setting up a financial planning training academy coaching other advisers on how to communicate financial planning.
Other organisations devoting themselves to financial planning were a new organisation called NextGen Planners and increasingly the Personal Finance Society (PFS), Mr Martin said.
The PFS said it has seen an influx of people attaining their Statement of Professional Standing (SPS) through it but was unsure whether that meant they had left the CISI.
Between 2015 and 2017 PFS membership gradually increased from 35,114 to 37,826 (+7 per cent), while the number of advisers holding SPSs from the body increased from 21,761 to 22,823 (+5 per cent).
Chief executive Keith Richards said: “Although the PFS has seen some transfers from other bodies, adviser growth is predominantly down to new entrants to the profession.
"This is encouraging, given the importance of succession planning and the need to meet the continuing demand from consumers, which is set to increase even further in the coming years.”
But fellow former IFP member David Hearne, director of Satis Asset Management, thought the merger had gone well.
“The CISI was always London centric, and the IFP always relied on regional volunteers to keep the local branches going,” he said.
“Members now have the benefit of additional CISI events in London, but it remains up to them to support the local events they want to see.”
Mr Hearne also said he was “very impressed” by a recent launch of materials to support the CFP designation. “It is very welcome and shows their commitment to the CFP,” he said.
The CISI said it was working hard to ensure financial planning was represented in its programme and was using feedback from meetings with past IFP presidents, its forum, a financial planning steering group and targeted events.
Of its 24 branches across the country nine branch presidents were financial planners while the other branches had at least one financial planning representative on each branch committee, it added.
Ms Lockie said: "We have listened to our member feedback and worked hard to improve our membership programme.
"Financial planners do need to keep up to date technically as well as develop their planning, questioning and business skills.
"We have had half day planning sessions recently in Yorkshire where the planners who attended fed back that it was a classic financial planning event. It was therefore a pity that not more planners attended."
She also maintained CISI was committed throughout its organisation to supporting the growing financial planning community and had done a lot to reach out to communities outside of it.
She said: "We have had excellent support with financial planning week with the FPSB commending us for our engagement and marketing for this campaign, which had over 88 firms involved in activities for their local communities and offering free, one hour sessions all around the UK.
"We’ve also had many and varied financial planning specific marketing activities with ICAEW, The Law Society and others to attract professional connections to our planning community.
"Whilst we have the financial planning membership support, we have a clear mandate, so we will continue to support the financial planning community."
carmen.reichman@ft.com
