Keynote Address
From Standards to a Profession
FPSC Chair, Garry Duncan's Opening Remarks
Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen.
I'm getting ready.
I've got my CFP pin right here, proudly displayed on my lapel. I've had my shoes shined. I'm getting ready to put my best foot forward.
Today, Ladies and Gentlemen, on behalf of Financial Planners Standards Council's Board of Directors, I invite you to do the same. I invite you to get ready to take the next step in this journey that, so far, has resulted in the development of the most relevant and rigorous standard for financial planning - a standard met by all current CFP professionals. It is a journey that continues to lead to the establishment and recognition of financial planning as a profession in Canada and throughout the world - a profession that is being led by the CFP designation and all those who bear it. It's a journey we must continue to take together. Because each one of us plays an integral part in making sure this important life-enhancing service is the mandate of a profession - a profession we can all be proud of - a profession every Canadian can count on.
It's a journey toward certainty that Canadians have access to the financial planning assistance they seek and they deserve. It's a journey toward professionalism that MUST deliver the promise of CFP certification - a promise that, at its very core, is a commitment to the highest uniform standard of competence and ethical behaviour every time, with every client.
I'm inviting all of you here today, and I'm inviting all of you who are listening on the web cast, to get ready. I'm inviting all of you who embarked on this journey with the Council eight years ago and those of you who joined us in mid-stride - and I'm inviting all of you who are about to join us - to get ready. I'm especially inviting those of you who are still sitting on the fence waiting to see how far we go, to get ready. Get ready. Because the next step in our journey will be a giant one. It's the one that will take us from Standards to a Profession.
But while it will be "giant" in its ultimate effect, and while it will follow very deliberate and "giant" efforts, it will probably go unnoticed when it happens. Because it will be one more step in a journey of many, because financial planning will never stop evolving - as a service - as an emerging profession. And because even when financial planning IS a recognized and established profession, the standard that defines it will have to stay relevant and practical. The champions and guardians of the profession - all those who constitute it - will always have to be ready to respond to change, always be capable of meeting new challenges. And the standard that is up to the task of establishing and protecting the integrity of the emerging financial planning profession today - the CFP standard - can never stop evolving, must never stop being relevant and practical.
This journey has been and will continue to be evolutionary. And like most evolutions, it's hard to know the exact moment it began. What we do know is eight years ago the industry decided some thing, some organization, had to take control of it, begin to shape it, direct it and lead it in a direction that would serve the best interest of everyone - the financial services industry and the Canadians this industry serves. That organization is Financial Planners Standards Council, and that "thing" is CFP certification. Eight years ago, with the support of many industry partners, the Council forged, and has since continuously calibrated the made-in-Canada version of the internationally-recognized CFP certification process. Today, the Council, through CFP certification, has locked the direction in which the evolution of financial planning MUST TAKE if it is to become the profession it MUST BE to serve the industry, to serve Canadians.
Our success has and always will be measured by the trust our stakeholders place in CFP certification to lead the way. It's the same trust that is the foundation of every planner / client relationship. By this measure, we have come a very long way, in the right direction, in a very short time.
Right now, in communities across this country - in banks, credit unions, insurance companies, small and large financial services firms of all stripes - in virtually every segment of the financial services industry - Canadians can find and can count on one of more than 15,000 individuals to help them form financial strategies to meet their life goals. Canadians can now count on one designation to define for them the largest body of professional financial planners in this country - CFP designated planners who have voluntarily stepped-up to the highest bar, and who continue to meet the highest standard of financial planning competence and ethical behaviour: the CFP standard. Today, CFP is shaping a profession that CAN and WILL deliver on the "trust" that the words "financial planning," "financial planner" and "financial plan" invite. The kind of trust that the word "professional" invites. The kind of trust every professional, every profession, must earn and continually work to preserve.
Ladies and Gentlemen: all of you who support our work at the Council, who support the ongoing evolution of CFP certification, are building this TRUST in financial planning today - so that financial planning emerges as a profession in which we can continue to place our trust tomorrow.
This is what we invite you to help us get ready for: Tomorrow. Tomorrow, when Canadians have a full understanding of the value of professional financial planning, because professional financial planners in all provinces in all businesses in all segments will offer uniform and consistently valuable guidance that always serves their clients' best interests.
Today, we are thankful for the support you have given us. We are thankful for your support of the CFP standard of education, examination, ethics and experience.
You've encouraged us in our development of a professional certification process that is continually evolving to meet the challenges of a dynamic and growing industry.
You've supported and assisted our efforts to keep relevant the curriculum that forms the basis of the CFP Examination. You've supported our fieldwork in assessing what planners have to know and what they must be able to do to serve their clients.
You've supported our efforts to continue to guarantee the integrity of the CFP Examination by keeping its development independent of institutions that offer courses leading to it.
You've supported us as we have continually encouraged more universities and colleges to develop high-quality courses that prepare students for successful and rewarding careers in financial planning.
You've supported our efforts to ensure each CFP professional is held to the CFP promise of the highest standard of competence and ethical behaviour. You've supported our development and implementation of annual CFP licensing policies and disciplinary rules and procedures that are fair and effective - that can and have resulted in the revocation of an individual's right to use the CFP designation if that individual has been determined to have broken the CFP promise.
You've supported the Council's efforts to educate the public and regulators about the worth of financial planning: to educate everyone about the unique value financial planning professionals bring to the industry they represent: to educate everyone about how CFP professionals, in offering financial planning to Canadians, benefit our society as a whole.
You have all helped the CFP designation grow in recognition as THE professional standard in financial planning in Canada.
Thank you for your support. Thank you for coming along on this journey with us, this far.
Now we are asking you to get ready to take another step with us. We're inviting you to support the development of the Financial Planning Practice Standards. These Practice Standards will provide the guidelines that, like a crystal prism, will tease out the full spectrum of the responsibilities of the financial planner during the financial planning engagement. By using these Standards in your practices and organizations, by dovetailing them with your own existing policies and compliance standards, by discovering and then sharing with us how you believe we might refine them to make them work for you - for the profession, and most importantly of all, for the consumer of financial planning services - you will help us all journey forward. By accepting our invitation to do this for a year, we can all, together, ensure that the Practice Standards we are introducing to you today, will help us all work better tomorrow - help us all put our best "collective foot" forward all the time.
Ladies and gentlemen, I invite you to use the Standards Cary List, our Vice President of Standards and Certification, is going to walk you through today. Use these standards to guide you in your financial planning activities. Use these standards to determine whether you ARE or ARE NOT engaged in financial planning. Use them to guide your supervision of financial planning activities. And then, let us know how they fit, how they are working or where they might need breaking-in.
Work with them now, to help us all get ready for tomorrow.
With your help, tomorrow will be a time when every individual offering financial planning will have the skills and competence, and the professional commitment and attitude that is required of all CFP professionals today. Tomorrow, with all our efforts, will be a time when all financial planners will collectively provide financial planning consistently and uniformly in the client's best interest, every time, in every engagement. Help us get there. Help us get ready for a time when, in this country, financial planning is a recognized profession. Because this time will come. It MUST. Because if financial planning does NOT continue to evolve, if it does NOT become a recognized profession, financial planners may never be held to standards that ensure the level of service Canadians want, deserve and have every right to expect.
Help us get ready for the time when CFP professionals and the organizations they represent, not only shape the evolution, but also define and constitute the Canadian financial planning profession.
We're not there yet, but we're getting there, step-by-deliberate-and-well-planned step. It's the only way to ensure we won't stumble, to ensure we stay focused. It isn't, after all, a foot race. There isn't a finish line. There is only the journey. Straight and forward toward building a better understanding of financial planning: what it is and what it isn't. Straight and forward toward deeper trust in the individuals who offer financial planning as a professional service. Straight and forward to a clear distinction of who is and is not qualified to invite that trust. Because if we can't define what financial planning IS so that everyone understands what to expect from it, we can't hope to ascribe to financial planning the value it deserves. If we can't clearly determine who is qualified and who can be trusted to deliver that value, we can't call financial planning a profession.
And we must. Because the ultimate beneficiary of this journey from Standards to a Profession is, as it has always been and always must be, the Canadian public.
THANK YOU.
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