Feature article needed on: Valentine's Day gifts — from a financial planning perspective

Learning Centre is FPSC's online resource for consumers seeking relevant and unbiased information on financial planning. Here you'll find, among many resources, articles written by CFP professionals. Each month we ask you to submit your original articles on a specified topic. From these submissions, we chose the "Feature Article of the Month."

Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner, we're looking for an article on what might make a good gift from a financial planning perspective. Send your articles expressing your original ideas that offer readers insight into the expertise of our community of talented and skilled CFP professionals to communications@fpsccanada.org by January 21. We'll consider them for selection as FPSC's online Learning Centre's February Feature Article of the Month. There's a $500 award for the author of the winning submission, so ladies and gentlemen, start your pencils — but not until after you read our writer's guidelines. We consider all Feature Article submissions for possible posting on the Learning Centre and we also review any written submissions on financial planning topics of broad interest for posting at any time during the year.

While you're at the Learning Centre, take a look at the other resources your clients might find helpful. Resources include:

• A digest of books
• Links to other websites of value
• Financial Planning Self-Test
• Ask an Expert
• Event and Seminar Calendar
• Educating youth
• Consumer brochures

Canadian MoneySaver wants CFP professionals
who can write

Canadian MoneySaver magazine offers Canadians financial management and investment advice from experts in the field. Now the print and online publication is expanding its coverage of financial planning issues. CFP professionals interested in writing for this magazine can benefit from writing tips provided by FPSC Communications Consultant Eileen Chadnick.

You can check out the magazine's publication guidelines on FPSC's discussion forum and contact editor Dale Ennis at moneyinfor@canadianmoneysaver.ca for more information.

We're advertising in January and February

Look for:

• The ¾ page ad listing all the successful candidates from the November CFP Examination in The Globe and Mail, January 17.




• The full-colour insert on financial planning and what CFP professionals have to offer in The Globe and Mail, some time in February.



• The special insert on the new MBA (Financial Services) Certified Financial Planner Stream in Investment Executive, February 29.

You and your CFP mark

CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER®, and the CFP(with flame logo)® are certification symbols designed to readily identify CFP professionals to the public. They also distinguish CFP professionals from other financial advisors and intermediaries.

Knowing and upholding the rules about their use is part of your obligation as a CFP professional. You'll find everything you need to know about proper Marks use on the FPSC website. There have been a few changes, so visit soon.

Deadline for Donald J. Johnston Award nominations extended to January 21

The national award inaugurated two years ago at FPSC's 10th anniversary recognizes and celebrates the unique achievements and outstanding service that continue to advance the financial planning profession in Canada.

Achievements recognized are among those that contribute to the profession's capacity to serve Canadians seeking qualified financial planning services, and/or those that build the respect and recognition the financial planning profession is afforded by regulators, legislators, industry, other professions and/or in the marketplace.

Visit our website to review the criteria for selection and how to make your nominations. Help us acknowledge those individuals or groups of individuals who have turned good ideas into realities, those who have acted to benefit all stakeholders of the profession.

Good help is hard to get. Use FPSC's new Job Site for Student Associates launching in February '08

The Student Associate (SA) program was developed last fall. Its mission: to generate an appreciation of the rewards of a career in financial planning among students in financial-planning related courses. The program already has 400 participants.

Keep this pool of talent in mind when you need people in 2008. In February, FPSC will be launching a new job site where you can list employment, internships and co-op opportunities. Student Associates will be able to connect with you to pursue those special opportunities available for those would-be CFP professionals seeking relevant work experience. If you'd like to have one of the first listings on the new job site, email FPSC Communications Specialist Will O'Neill at woneill@fpsccanada.org.

Student Associate Program seeks your input

We're also looking for more organization profiles for the Student Associate exclusive web section on our site. Give Student Associates a better sense of what the industry has to offer by posting your company's profile. E-mail Heather Mills at hmills@fpsccanada.org for more information on how.

Know someone who might benefit from the Student Associate program?

Send them to the promotional page in the CFP Candidates section of the FPSC website. Here they'll learn about the many exclusive resources that, for an annual fee of $27.36 plus tax, could set them on a pathway to success.

Please make it one of your New Year's resolutions to remember:

1. FPSC offices have moved. While we still receive mail addressed to our former location, we won't for much longer. FPSC's offices are now located at 375 University Avenue, Suite 902, Toronto, ON, M5G 2J5.



2. Speaking of moves, if you've made any recently, please update your personal profile on FPSC's Online Services so that FPSC can stay in contact with you. It's your responsibility to keep FPSC's records of your personal information accurate and up-to-date.



3. You must renew your licence to use the CFP certification marks annually. The CFP certification licensing period is from April 1st to March 31st. For current information visit FPSC Licensing Policies.

FPSC consumer brochures serve the public well

Consumers need straight talk when getting answers to questions like: What is financial planning? or Why do I need it? These and other questions are compellingly answered in FPSC's consumer brochures. The brochures are available for download directly off our website or in print in bulk orders by using the order form on the site. Consider slipping them in with your New Year's letter, or distributing them at your next promotional event.

Got your tickets to the Financial Forums yet?

Free tickets are available to all CFP professionals and student associates to the Financial Forum and Wealth Management Expo. The Expo brings together industry leaders, top practices, new ideas, key issues and innovative tools. It is delivered in forums that are coming to Toronto (January 24-26), to Calgary (February 1-2), Vancouver (February 8-9) and to Montreal (February 15-16). Visit Financial Forum registration and write in the invitation code: FPSC. You'll find FPSC staff at our booth and CFP professionals at several break-out sessions as featured speakers. In Toronto, Ted Rechtshaffen CFP and Frank Wiginton CFP will be speaking on: Age 55+? Access your registered funds, tax-free; Sucheta Rajopal CFP on Green is the Colour of Money; and John de Goey CFP on Optimizing the Client-Advisor Relationship. In Calgary look for Peter Ficek CFP speaking on How To Control your future — don't leave it to chance and Martin DeArtola CFP encouraging the audience to Discover the benefits of smart tax planning. In Vancouver Brad Roulston CFP will be telling his audience to Put your money where your heart is and Anthony Windeyer CFP will speak on How to live forever and pay less tax. If you're interested in volunteering to help man the booths at any of these locations, please contact Heather Mills at hmills@fpsccanada.org.

FPSC and CFP professionals in the news

In the communities you serve, you are all brand ambassadors for the profession. Through the public media, some CFP professionals expand their reach and influence on everyone's behalf. They share their views in articles and broadcasts on a variety of topics. And when they do, they showcase the breadth and depth of the expertise of the professional community of which they are a part.

Following are just a few examples of how CFP professionals are putting their best foot forward in very public ways in the last quarter of 2007. Please continue to send us e-mails about your participation in media interviews or any other ways in which you are reaching a broader audience. We want to acknowledge and celebrate your efforts.

December

Teaching your children financial skills over the holidays

Jeanette Brox CFP is featured on CTV Television on Canada AM (December 10).

Trisha MacLennan CFP tackles the subject on News 660 Radio in Calgary (December 5) and CJCI Radio in Prince George, British Columbia (December 5).

Francine Thivierge CFP addresses the issue on CBC Radio in Whitehorse, the Yukon (December 7).

Regulation and financial planning

FPSC President and CEO Cary List is featured in the December's issue of The Bottom Line discussing regulatory models in financial planning.

November

Too little - too latte. Retirement savings start young.

Al Nagy CFP gives advice to Gen X and Y on the value of starting to save at an early age. Edmonton Journal/Canwest network - appears in several papers.

More on retirement….

Cynthia Kett CFP addresses a reader's questions on retirement planning, on their on-line Chatelaine Money Maven Club — Ask an Expert.

October

Making sense of an adviser's various qualifications is an important step in assessing competence. A special October 15 Toronto Star report on financial planning and choosing competent advice featured CFP professionals Doug Lamb, Howard Kabot, David Bruce and Frank Wiginton. FPSC President and CEO Cary List and VP Communications and Corporate Relations Ann Bowman were also quoted, specifically on the rigor and relevance of the CFP standards.

New changes will affect CFP professionals in IDA member firms

Many CFP professionals work in firms that are members of the Investment Dealer Association (IDA). Changes are now proposed to the Client Complaint Handling Rule. To view the reply of FPSC's John Wickett, VP for Standards and Certification, to the proposed amendments see FPSC comments. For background on the issue visit www.osc.gov.on.ca/MarketRegulation/SRO/ida/rr/srr-ida_20071109_client-comp-hand.jsp.

Hear what was talked about on the recent FPSC road trip

Highlights of the conversations FPSC senior management had with local CFP professionals during a fall series of informal gatherings in four different cities are now up on the FPSC website. Enjoy.

Thought leaders wanted for Financial Frontiers Awards

Are you an innovator in financial planning? Then you may want to enter the Financial Frontiers Awards. Co-sponsored by the US-based Financial Planning Association and Janus Capital, the Awards promote research and innovative thinking on wealth management and financial planning topics. Winners are published and receive cash prizes. Last year Lindsay, Ontario's Shawn Bravman, President of PlanPlus Incorporated, won an award for his work on a popular statistical tool called Monte Carlo Simulations. For more info on the awards visit www.financialfrontiersawards.org.

Financial Planning Connections keeps planners informed

Stay abreast of the latest financial planning ideas, issues and events from around the globe. Financial Planning Connections is a quarterly newsletter from the US-based Financial Planning Association. It features material from all affiliates of the Financial Planning Standards Board. There are articles on practice management, investment planning, professional issues and more. To get on the mailing list, contact rdoust@fpsccanada.org. To see a sample click on this PDF.