IS FINANCIAL FITNESS ONE OF YOUR NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS?
CFP® Professionals available for insight, comment
Toronto, January 5, 2005 - Join a gym. Quit smoking. Be nicer. These are some of the more traditional New Year's Resolutions. But after the holiday splurge, many of your readers/audience may also be vowing to get on track financially.
Good for the wallet - and also one's well-being! A Financial Planners Standards Council (FPSC) consumer survey revealed that 75 per cent of Canadian adults said good financial planning is very important to their future well-being. But when asked if they have a written financial plan, only about a third said they do - fewer (27%) when you exclude those who wrote their plans themselves.
So how about a few financial planning tips and strategies to help your readers/audience start their year off on the right foot?
Take stock of where you are and what you want in life. Financial planning is about much more than retirement planning - it is about meeting life goals. What's important to you? Are you saving for a new home? Getting ready to transfer the cottage? Or planning a trip around the world? Talk to your planner about your life goals. He/she will then work with you to craft the right strategies for you.
Make sure you hire the right planner for the job. Interview a few candidates and, for starters, make sure they have the proper credential. When it comes to financial planning, the CFP designation is the gold standard and signifies competence and ethical standards. With 16,000 CFP professionals across Canada, there is bound to be one right for you. See www.cfp-ca.org for questions to ask a prospective planner.
Get a plan in writing and review it regularly. Life changes. Your financial planning will evolve to keep up with your own personal circumstances.
WANT TO HEAR MORE? FPSC can put you in touch with experts - CFP® (Certified Financial Planner®) professionals from regions across Canada - who can provide insight, comments and quotes. Trained and licensed to provide financial planning advice, CFP professionals can answer questions on topics related to retirement, investment, insurance, tax and estate planning, education savings, budgeting and more. Many offer additional areas of specialization including financial planning for life transition, divorce settlements, gay unions, charitable giving, elder care, alternative investing - and other topics.
Financial Planners Standards Council (FPSC) is a not-for-profit organization established in 1995 to foster professionalism in personal financial planning. FPSC develops and enforces the highest standards in financial planning competency and ethics for individuals who hold the CFP® (CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER®) in Canada. There are currently about 16,000 CFP professionals in Canada and more than 90,000 individuals who have earned the CFP designation in 18 countries around the world. See www.cfp-ca.org for more information.
TO ARRANGE INTERVIEWS, CONTACT: Eileen Chadnick/Chadnick Communications at 416.631.7437 or e-mail at Eileen@Chadnick.com or Reed Hilton/FPSC at 416.593.8587 ext 235 or by e-mail at rhilton@cfp-ca.org.
CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® and are certification marks owned outside the U.S. by Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd. (FPSB). Financial Planners Standards Council is the marks licensing authority for the CFP marks in Canada, through agreement with FPSB.
are certification marks