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E-Blast News

  March 29, 2004

Table of Contents

1. Licence Renewal Deadline Just Days Away
2. Important New Research Initiative
3. Spread the Word! April is Investor Education Month
4. Launching the Learning Centre
5. Educating Youth
6. Advisor of the Year Nominations
7. Membership Organizations
8. Professional Financial Planner Competency Analysis
9. Canadian CFP Professionals Now Number 16,000
10. Upcoming Advertisements
11. Conferences & Seminars

1. Licence Renewal Deadline Just Days Away

Don’t forget that the regular fee deadline to renew your CFP licence for 2004-2005 is March 31. After this date, you will be subject to the late fee. To renew online, visit http://www.cfp-ca.org/licensees/licensees_onlinelicencerenewal.asp. To date, more than 5,300 renewals have been submitted online, far surpassing last year’s number.

April 2004 is the seventh annual Investor Education Month public awareness campaign. During this month, the Council for Investor Education (the Council) concentrates its efforts to encourage the public to take an interest in their financial affairs. This year’s theme, “Knowledge is Your Best Investment,” will be explored by a variety of public seminars and events across Canada.

To support the 2004 initiative, FPSC, a member of the Council, developed and is hosting the Investor Education Event Calendar. Get involved in Investor Education Month – it’s a win-win strategy for your organization and your clients. Use the Investor Education Month logo. Visit http://www.cfp-ca.org/aspcalendar_iem_eng/index.asp for a calendar of Investor Education Month 2004 events and list of Council members. For further information, please contact communications@cfp-ca.org.

The Council for Investor Education is a forum of industry organizations and securities regulators interested in empowering Canadians with the knowledge to make informed financial decisions. Council members work together to raise financial awareness through information sharing and partnership initiatives.

4. Launching the Learning Centre

We launch our Learning Centre for consumers in mid-April as part of Investor Education Month. The Learning Centre is a digest of all the consumer educational materials and features currently on our website, plus new and expanding content on every aspect of financial planning relevant to Canadians in various life-stages.

Volunteering CFP professionals developed much of the content on the new Learning Centre ensuring this new feature will be of tremendous guidance to our website browsers, which last month numbered 60,000. We are always looking for more content providers and more information about other good sources of educational information. Interested in helping us out with this initiative? Contact communications@cfp-ca.org and enter “Learning Centre” in the subject line.

The Learning Centre is also the new home for the Consumer Calendar of Events that is available for you to tell your community of the educational seminars and events in which you are involved.

Over 100 volunteering CFP professionals are set to talk up financial planning and introduce the Learning Centre’s Financial Planning Tool Kit to secondary school students and teachers across the country. This tool kit, available as a PDF, introduces basic financial planning concepts relevant to students preparing for post-secondary education. Contact Hilton at rhilton@cfp-ca.org to see how you can become involved in our youth outreach program.

6. Advisor of the Year Nominations

The Advisor of the Year Awards honour Canada's most outstanding financial advisors for professionalism and dedication in serving the needs of their clients. This is the sixth year for the awards, and each year, CFP professionals dominate the winners list. The deadline for this year's Advisor of the Year Awards is June 25, 2004. For more information, visit the advisor.ca website.

CIFPs
“CIFPs is Canada's only membership association specifically for the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional. As a member of the CIFPs, you’ll have benefits such as an Information Resource Centre, a comprehensive E&O program for both fee-for-service only and licensed sales agents, as well as continuing education courses. The national conference will be held in Ottawa from June 13-16. For more information, visit www.cifps.ca.”

ADVOCIS
“Advocis is the largest professional association of your peers in Canada. With 16,000 members in 50 chapters across the country, Advocis is well positioned to offer a wide range of membership benefits to CFP-designated members.

Advocis offers a $225 credit on membership fees for CFP-designated advisors, along with access to Advocis’ popular CFP Annual Update program, the Canadian Journal of Financial Planning, a comprehensive and competitive E & O program, a comprehensive Best Practices tool kit (download a 30-page sample here), and as a special offer to CFP professionals, Advocis is offering you a complimentary one-year subscription to FORUM magazine.

To join Advocis, submit the following membership application form or visit www.advocis.ca.”

8. Professional Financial Planner Competency Analysis

FPSC is in the process of redefining the knowledge, skills and abilities required of professional financial planners in Canada. The Professional Competency Analysis project has involved numerous committees that included CFP professionals in the academic community and from within the industry, FPSC staff and professional consultants. In the next phase of the project, we will ask practicing planners across the country to evaluate the statements of competency and the job knowledge requirements developed by the various committees. An electronic survey that will take approximately 60 minutes to complete but may be done in stages will be distributed in June 2004. This is a great opportunity for CFP professionals to contribute to the shaping of the future of the financial planning profession. If you receive a request to complete the survey, we hope you will take the time to offer your opinions. If you know you want to participate, e-mail competencyanalysis@cfp-ca.org with your contact information.

9. Canadian CFP Professionals Now Number 16,000

With the latest group of CFP candidates moving into the ranks of CFP professional, there are now more than 16,000 licensed to use the distinguishing CFP™ marks in Canada.

10. Our Advertisements

Watch for FPSC’s series of magazine ads running during April and May and notice that we are now in Maclean’s.

April

enRoute
MoneySense (Apr-May)
Style at Home
Maclean’s (Apr 26)

May

Canadian Gardening
Readers Digest
Today’s Parent

FPSC has launched its co-affiliating ad campaign that communicates the extent to which the CFP brand is embraced by the industry. The first appearing in the April-May issue of MoneySense and the April 26 issue of Maclean’s features a CIBC Imperial Service CFP professional and is co-branded with the organization’s logo.

To see all 13 ads that we have been running in various magazines, go to http://www.cfp-ca.org/licensees/licensees_ouradvertising.asp.

11. Conferences & Seminars

Getting through: Effective communication with clients who have hearing loss

Toronto Stock Exchange, Broadcast Centre, Exchange Tower
April 7 – 4-5:30 PM

Workplace Safety and Insurance Board
200 Front Street West
April 8 – 11:30 AM-1 PM

First Canadian Place, FCP Gallery, Toronto
April 20 – 4-5:30 PM

Mississauga City Hall, Committee Room A
April 21 – 4:30-5 PM

Independent Financial Brokers Education Summits 2004

Sheraton Guilford Hotel
Surrey, B.C.
April 15, 2004

Carriage House Inn
Calgary, AB
April 19, 2004

Advocis National Conference

Telus Convention Centre
Calgary, Alberta
May 26–29, 2004

CIFPs National Conference

Westin Hotel
Ottawa, Ontario
June 13-16, 2004

Canadian Securities Institute

The Canadian Securities Institute offers single-day, weekend and weekly in-class seminars.

Institute of Canadian Bankers

The Institute of Canadian Bankers offers seminars throughout the year on a variety of topics.

Morningstar Training

Morningstar Canada offers a series of training sessions that may be eligible for continuing education credits.

Strategy Institute

The Strategy Institute conferences identify challenges and provide expert solutions for business leaders in targeted topic areas.

Advocis

The CFP™/CLU annual update program has been developed under the guidance of leading professionals in the financial services industry.

Want to add an event to either the professional or consumer calendars? You will need a username and password. Contact FPSC Communications.