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Chartered Financial Planner

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The title Chartered Financial Planner is the most widely accepted "gold standard" qualification available for financial advisers/ financial planners in the United Kingdom. As at the start of 2010, there are approximately 1,700 people holding the title Chartered Financial Planner, just over 1,000 of which are practising Financial Planners (the rest being a mixture of support staff, compliance staff and people who work for insurance companies and similar).

The title of Chartered Financial Planner was granted to the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) by the Privy Council in 2005. Thus, a Chartered Financial Planner carries equivalent qualifications and professional standing as, say, a Chartered Accountant, a Chartered Surveyor, etc.

Holders of Chartered Financial Planner status are entitled to use the letters Chart FP after their name. They may not, however, abbreviate to CFP, as this refers to a different qualification and title (see below).

The qualification fits into the National Qualifications Framework at Level 6, equivalent to a Bachelors (first) Degree.

Requirements

To attain Chartered Financial Planner status as an individual, one must study for and pass approximately 10-12 exams in various aspects of financial services and related subjects. Each exam offered by the Chartered Insurance Institute carries a certain number of "credits" in their qualification scheme. Credits can also be granted for equivalent exams passed form other awarding bodies. A total of 290 credits is required before Chartered status can be applied for. This generally takes several years to achieve.

One is also required to have five years relevant professional experience, and to demonstrate ongoing learning by completing a certain amount of Continued Professional Development each year. In addition, one is required to be a member of the Personal Finance Society, the professional body for Financial Advisers/Planners run/owned by the CII.

Corporate Chartered Status

In addition, firms can apply for Corporate Chartered Financial Planner status. Only one person in the firm, at director/partner level, needs to be a qualified Chartered Financial Planner in order for a firm to get this. Such a firm can have any number of non-Chartered advisers.

Retail Distribution Review

This is a still-in-progress review of the financial advice/planning profession begun by the UK regulator, the Financial Services Authority, in 2006. Among other aspects of the financial advice profession being reviewed is the level of qualifications historically and currently held by practising financial advisers. For about 25 years, the minimum standard has been only the Certificate in Financial Planning, formerly called the Financial Planning Certificate, which sits at only level 3 in the National Qualifications Framework, equivalent to an A level.

After various discussion papers and consultations, which are still ongoing, the FSA have stopped short of requiring advisers to obtain a Level 6 (degree level) qualification such as Chartered Financial Planner, and are to require advisers to obtain only a level 4 qualification (equivalent to the first year of a degree), and not until 2012.

Other Gold Standard Qualifications in the Financial Advice Profession

The main other such qualification is Certified Financial Planner, or CFP, an internationally recognised title, administered and awarded in the UK by the Institute of Financial Planning. Unlike Chartered status, which is based on technical knowledge, CFP is a practical assessment of one's ability to put together a financial planning report of a certian standard.

Certified Financial Planner is often confused with the Chartered Financial Planner title, given the similar name. However, Certified Financial Planner has been classified only as Level 4 in the National Qualifications Framework, and so should be seen as a slightly lesser qualification.

In practice, many advisers see Chartered and Certified stati as mutually complementary, and aspire to both, although to date only about 200 advisers in the whole of the UK have managed this feat.

Another gold standard recently launched is ISO22222, certified by Standards International. Only a handful of advisers have applied for and been granted this certification, not least because it is much more expensive than Chartered and Certified stati.

Equivalent titles Abroad

In the United States, the equivalent title to Chartered Financial Planner is Chartered Financial Analyst.

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