Consumers are currently facing many challenges managing their personal finances. Responsibility for retirement planning is shifting from the government and employers to the individual. Job security is no longer guaranteed, the variety and complexity of financial products is increasing, and the Asian crisis combined with volatile global stock markets have left many consumers feeling confused. The need for professional advice in such an atmosphere is great, but greater still is consumers' need for assurance that the professionals they choose for financial advice are qualified and competent.
As consumer demand for qualified advice grows, the field of financial planning, in which poor performance on the part of the practitioner can lead to significant harm to the consumer, must embrace professional certification if it is to be taken seriously as a profession. Professional certification connotes competency, occupational experience, and adherence to standards of practice.
For consumers to accept financial planning practitioners as qualified, trustworthy professionals, they must be provided with an easily-identifiable, objective means of measuring the practitioners' experience, education, professional competence and ethical standards. The CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERCM certification process serves that purpose by defining what a financial planning professional is, establishing standards of professional practice and creating a "mark of quality" that consumers can recognise and to which practitioners can aspire.
FPAS will therefore seek to provide the certification framework for the financial planning industry in Singapore. FPAS will oversee the administration of the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERCM and Associate Financial Planner certification process, and grant to qualified individuals the right to use the marks CFPCM and AFPCM .
The CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERCM or CFPCM certification will be gained by certain individuals who have demonstrated technical competency, combined significant practical experience, enabling them to write (to international standards) a comprehensive and detailed financial plan for an individual.
The Associate Financial Planner or AFPCM will be competent to recommend general financial planning strategies and to advise on the appropriate selection and use of various financial products for individuals, e.g. insurance, unit trusts, and a broad range of securities and banking products.
The CFPCM/AFPCM Certification Requirements
In order to be certified, a CFPCM candidate must meet all four requirements of the certification process described below, while an AFPTM candidate must meet the education, examination and the ethics requirements:
Education
Before applying for the Certification Examination(s), a candidate must complete academic coverage of the financial planning curricula including: foundations in financial planning (AFPCM course), risk management and insurance planning, tax planning and estate planning, investment planning, retirement planning, and financial plan construction and professional responsibilities. Completion of the academic requirement is available through three educational paths, namely self-study or distance learning, part-time course, or full-time course.
Examination
Upon successful completion of the academic requirement, the candidate is eligible to apply for the Certification Examination(s). The Certification Examination is designed to assess the candidate's ability to apply his/her financial planning education to financial planning situations in an integrated format, thereby protecting the public by assuring that he/she is at the appropriate level of competency required for practice.
Experience
This centers on work which involves personal financial planning-related experience. It is designed to provide the public with the assurance that the candidate understands the counseling nature of personal financial planning. The requirement is three years, performed before or after the successful completion of the Certification Examination. Experience requirement is defined as the supervision1, direct support2, teaching3, or the personal delivery of all or part of the personal financial planning process to a client4. Qualifying experience must be able to be categorized into the six primary elements of the personal financial planning process summarised below: - Establishing the cleint-planner relationship. - Gathering client data. - Determining the client's financial status. - Developing and presenting a client-specific financial plan tailored to meet the goals and objectives of the client. - Implementing the financial plan. - Monitoring the financial plan. This experience may be gained in the following areas: Account Insurance Planning Banking/Trust Law Portfolio Management Retirement/Pension Planning Estate Planning Securities/Managed Funds Financial Planning Taxation FPAS reserve the right to conduct interview(s) to determine the suitability of experience disclosed. Decision made thereafter by FPAS is final. *If you perform some or all of the functions listed, you are considered to perform the primary element. All levels of supervision are acceptable if the chain of supervision eventually leads back to the planner. Must be directly responsible for information that is provided to the planner/client and have reasonable liability for the client. Credit for teaching is limited to the instruction of the CFPCM educational curriculum in a FPAS Registered Program. Teaching finance-related classes (for college credit) full-time at any non-FPAS Registered Program university is given two years worth of experience credit, but the third year of experience must be personal-financial planning experience or teaching the CFPCM educational curriculum courses full-time at a FPAS Registered Program. "Client" denotes a person who engages a practitioner and for whom professional services are rendered. Pro-bono experience is accepted as long as (1) there is a client and (2) you are acting as a financial planning professional who is capable and qualified to offer objective, integrated, and comprehensive financial advice to or for the benefit of individuals to help them achieve their financial objectives using the financial planning process. Timeliness of Experience Qualifying work experience can be earned prior to, concurrent with, or subsequent to your education and examination requirements. Experience earned more than 5 years prior to the certification examination, however, will not be accepted. When the experience is earned subsequent to the examination, you must complete the requirement within five years of the date of the successful completion of the examination. (Note: candidates who qualify through the challenge status must have three years experience earned prior to writing the Certification Examination ie Module 6 of the CFPCM Programme).
This centers on work which involves personal financial planning-related experience. It is designed to provide the public with the assurance that the candidate understands the counseling nature of personal financial planning. The requirement is three years, performed before or after the successful completion of the Certification Examination.
Experience requirement is defined as the supervision1, direct support2, teaching3, or the personal delivery of all or part of the personal financial planning process to a client4. Qualifying experience must be able to be categorized into the six primary elements of the personal financial planning process summarised below:
- Establishing the cleint-planner relationship.
- Gathering client data.
- Determining the client's financial status.
- Developing and presenting a client-specific financial plan tailored to meet the goals and objectives of the client.
- Implementing the financial plan.
- Monitoring the financial plan.
This experience may be gained in the following areas:
FPAS reserve the right to conduct interview(s) to determine the suitability of experience disclosed. Decision made thereafter by FPAS is final.
*If you perform some or all of the functions listed, you are considered to perform the primary element.
All levels of supervision are acceptable if the chain of supervision eventually leads back to the planner.
Must be directly responsible for information that is provided to the planner/client and have reasonable liability for the client.
Credit for teaching is limited to the instruction of the CFPCM educational curriculum in a FPAS Registered Program. Teaching finance-related classes (for college credit) full-time at any non-FPAS Registered Program university is given two years worth of experience credit, but the third year of experience must be personal-financial planning experience or teaching the CFPCM educational curriculum courses full-time at a FPAS Registered Program.
"Client" denotes a person who engages a practitioner and for whom professional services are rendered. Pro-bono experience is accepted as long as (1) there is a client and (2) you are acting as a financial planning professional who is capable and qualified to offer objective, integrated, and comprehensive financial advice to or for the benefit of individuals to help them achieve their financial objectives using the financial planning process.
Qualifying work experience can be earned prior to, concurrent with, or subsequent to your education and examination requirements. Experience earned more than 5 years prior to the certification examination, however, will not be accepted. When the experience is earned subsequent to the examination, you must complete the requirement within five years of the date of the successful completion of the examination. (Note: candidates who qualify through the challenge status must have three years experience earned prior to writing the Certification Examination ie Module 6 of the CFPCM Programme).
Ethics
Once the education, examination, and work experience requirements are satisfied, the CFPCM candidate will receive a Declaration Packet, which includes an ethics statement form and his/her licence application with a bill for the initial licence fee. The AFPCM candidate will also receive a Declaration Packet on completion of the education and examination requirements. Prior to certification, the CFPCM or AFPCM candidate will be required to disclose past or pending litigation or agency proceedings and to acknowledge the right of FPAS to enforce its Professional Standards and Code of Ethics through due process described.Once certified, CFPCM licensees must fulfill a biennial continuing education requirement of 30 hours to stay up-to-date on planning strategies and financial trends affecting their clients. In addition, the FPAS monitors compliance with its Professional Standards and Code of Ethics by requiring an annual disclosure statement and by investigating consumer complaints and licensees' periodic disclosures of investigations or legal proceedings. AFPCM licensees will also have a continuing education requirement, although it is less onerous.
