Sally Plant is Head of Financial Planning at the CISI and is also seeing change ahead – in the types of clients seeking advice as well as changes in the make-up of practitioners. As we look to the future, according to Plant “the most important element is to stay in touch with the needs of our changing consumer. Linkedin Business Talent blog states that generation Zers ‘tend to look for employers who can offer stability, security, and opportunities for growth’ Could this mean they are naturally more inclined to make lifetime plans?
“Over the next ten years, the need for advice from a broader consumer base will require our planning firms to innovate their products and services to meet their consumers’ needs and support the advice gap. The emergence of new websites, tech and communications tools need to continue to be embraced, facilitating ways to reach the new clients of tomorrow.
“As a profession, learning from each other and encouraging a more diverse community of planners into the profession will be essential to ensure we understand our clients’ needs, risks, fears and aspirations. The FCA Consumer Duty consultation paper is supporting the organic shift towards client centric, outcomes- based planning, which is actually where the CFPTM learning outcomes lie.”
Supporting the profession
As a blossoming profession, advisers and practitioners need the guidance and support of appropriate and effective professional bodies and trade associations. Damian Davies doesn’t beat about the bush as he shares his thoughts on the subject: “If we are on a journey from industry to profession, the beating heart of achieving this has to be a representative body for those working within it. Over the last 10 years, the two bodies I felt closest to this have always been the IFP and the PFS. When the IFP merged with the CISI in 2015, it felt like the end of an era. CISI didn’t seem a natural home for the IFP accreditation. Our clients in the Republic of Ireland have a proportionately much higher take up of the CFP than in the UK, despite not having had an RDR there (yet). Now, there are concerns over the future of the PFS, who have had huge success with their Chartered status, which they launched in 2005. Will the PFS spin out as an independent body? Is Next Gen a more appropriate solution?”
One thing is for sure, for the representative bodies to provide effective support, they need engagement from their members to ensure that standards are not only maintained but rise in response to the need to provide an increasingly valuable service for clients.
Looking to the future, Barry Horner sums up exactly what it is that he believes is needed going forwards, in four clear categories. They are:
- For financial planning firms and academic institutions to work together to create a new pipeline of young talent into the profession.
- For financial planners to embrace ‘coaching’ and recognise that much of what we have charged for historically is now freely available on the web.
- For better tech solutions to be made available that will allow talented financial planners to do what they do best, in the knowledge that at the touch of a button the financial analysis that clients require will be available.
- A thriving, strong and well supported professional body that genuinely gets ‘financial planning’, that can deliver great value to its members.
In summing up, we’ll leave Keith Richards with the final words as he comments, “When I speak with financial professionals and regulators in other regions, the common interest is how UK advisers have managed to succeed in a market without commission and with so many regulatory demands and hurdles. The answer is always simple – the sector is resilient, passionate and where advisers have won the trust of their clients, it is almost impossible for anyone to break that bond.
