CISI chief executive Simon Culhane, Chartered FCSI, says that expanding the CISI’s Financial Planning membership and international growth will be the two key strategic aims for the body in the coming year.

In a strategic update on the CISI’s plans, he told delegates at the CISI-IFP Financial Planning Conference at Celtic Manor Resort in Wales that Financial Planning was one of the institute’s main priorities.

However, he admitted that the pathway to the CISI's key Financial Planning qualification, the globally-recognised CFP designation, had not been good enough and needed reform. The CISI and the previous CFP provider in the UK, the IFP, have both struggled to increase CFP numbers and the UK is well down the international league table of CFP holders.

He said: “We’re going to make our revised qualification much more acceptable.”

He said the CFP qualification in the UK had been “over engineered” with 126 learning objectives. This will be reduced to 56 core learning objectives.

Incoming head of Financial Planning at the CISI Jacqueline Lockie CFP told the conference yesterday that the pathway to CFP designation would be significantly reformed in 2018 to encourage more people to take it.

Mr Culhane said there were great opportunities to grow Financial Planning in the UK with strong demand coming from traditional wealth managers, such as Brewin Dolphin and others, who wanted to be “one-stop” shops for all aspects of clients’ financial affairs by adding Financial Planning to their offering.

A key driver of advice demand, he believed, would be pensions freedoms including pension transfers. He said a whole generation were growing up to find out that the pension pot which would be used to provide their £20,000 a year pension could be worth £750,000. The size of pension pots meant that good advice was needed.

He said: “People are finding that their pension pot is worth £750,000, they are waking up to the fact they need advice.”

He said the CISI had launched its own Level 6 Pension Transfers and Planning Advice exam recently because of the growth of pension transfers and the likely demand for advice.

Overall he said: “It’s a good time to be a Financial Planner in the UK.”

Mr Culhane said the CISI was proud to maintain the IFP heritage and would continue to focus on good Financial Planning qualifications and good outcomes for clients, as the IFP did.
In terms of the longer term globally, as longevity increased around the world more people would need more financial advice and the CISI was planning to grow further internationally.

It is represented in 47 countries and 50 of its 160 staff are already based overseas.