Financial Planning Educator Urges Financial Planners to Develop Body of Knowledge, Career Path for Financial Planning
TAIPEI – 27 April 2010 – At FPSB’s World Financial Planning Summit in Chinese Taipei, the director of the Centre for Financial Planning Law at the University of the Free State challenged financial planning leaders to support the formation of a global financial planning body of knowledge with sustainable career-path development opportunities. Wessel Oosthuizen, CFP, said that for financial planning to be recognized as a distinct professional practice and a global profession, the financial planning community must establish a universal body of knowledge that’s supported by applicable in-depth research. Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd. (FPSB), the preeminent international standards-setting organization for financial planning and owner of the CFP, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER and CFP Logo marks outside the United States, hosted the one-day event.
“FPSB’s Financial Planner Competency Profile describes the body of knowledge for financial planning, but we need to establish how professional bodies should work with academia to integrate a more competency-based education and training environment that combines theory with practice,” Oosthuizen said. “Fostering and promoting comprehensive research in financial planning topics is another key challenge that must be addressed in order to develop a tertiary knowledge framework for the financial planning profession.”
Oosthuizen, who is also chairing four FPSB expert panels to guide the global CFP certification program and provide consistent and rigorous education and assessment tools for financial planning in 2010, said that a bachelor’s degree also should be a compulsory minimum requirement for practicing financial planners.
Addressing the learning curve between the academic and work environments in the financial planning profession, Oosthuizen commented, “Implementing a career-path model that supports a more structured approach to apprenticeships and supervised practice would complement a specialized financial planning body of knowledge and provide entrants to the profession with the necessary theoretical knowledge and practical experience to offer competent and ethical financial planning.”
The World Financial Planning Summit engaged global leaders in the financial planning sector in a dialogue about the steps needed to gain recognition financial planning as a distinct, global profession. The event kicked off with a keynote address by Sean C. Chen, chairperson of the Financial Supervisory Commission in Chinese Taipei. Other speakers at the World Financial Planning Summit included:
• Corinna Dieters, 2010 chairperson of FPSB’s Board of Directors;
• Ian Johnston, deputy chief executive and managing director for Dubai Financial Services Authority in the United Arab Emirates; and
• Gautam Chikermane, executive business editor for the Hindustan Times in India.
The World Financial Planning Summit included small-group discussions on the topics of regulation and professional oversight, building the body of knowledge for financial planning and consumer advocacy. Attendees included the leaders of more than 17 financial planning standards-setting bodies, as well as regulators, financial planning educators and other invited guests. Video highlights of the event and speech transcripts are available at WorldFPSummit.org.
About FPSB
Host of the World Financial Planning Summit, FPSB manages, develops and operates certification, education and related programs for financial planning organizations to benefit the global community by establishing, upholding and promoting worldwide professional standards in financial planning. FPSB demonstrates its commitment to excellence with the marks of professional distinction – CFP, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER and CFP Logo mark. FPSB has 23 member organizations around the world that together have certified more than 126,000 CFP professionals globally. For more, visit fpsb.org or follow the organization at twitter.com/fpsb or facebook.com/fpsb1.
# # #
CFP Certification Global excellence in financial planningTM |
