National body tells WP why it’s ready for a completely new financial advice industry
When Cary List heard the news that Ontario would start regulating the terms “financial planner” and “financial advisor”, a goal he’d been working towards for a decade, he said to himself: “now the real work begins”.
To List, president and CEO of FP Canada, 2019 was so much more than just one change in the law. FP spent the last year in flux, preparing itself for the future of the financial planning industry. FP rebranded, expanded its mandate, and launched an institute providing professional education for planners and advisors. Now FP Canada is looking at 2020, as it launches a new streamlined professional certification, works with government to hash out new regulations, and prepares advisors for an industry that’s been fundamentally altered by the advent of AI and tech-driven advice.
List and his board started planning their changes three years ago. They asked themselves where all professional services were going, where the financial services industry was heading, and what disruptors might be shaking up the industry?
“The single biggest thing we looked at was the advent of technology and the potential that artificial intelligence really may start shaking the notion of what a human professional should be about,” List told WP. “So we started looking at a crystal ball and saying, we really need to get out ahead of this because if we don't, you know, we may be irrelevant, financial professionals may be irrelevant, and we don't believe that consumers are going to be well enough served just by computers.”
“We believe we are the benchmark and the standards for what a professional certification body should look like”
The solution wasn’t a novel one. List and his team saw how a range of professions are staying relevant to clients in the algorithm age: by providing trusted, holistic, human advice. Shifting financial advice away from technical know-how towards human connection, though, is a monumental task. To List, it meant no less than redefining what it means to be a professional planner. That’s why they rebranded and expanded their mandate to launch the FP Canada Institute.
Courses at educational institutions were already providing FP-certified technical training. What was missing, though, was an understanding of behavioural psychology, behavioural economics, and a holistic understanding of clients’ lives. Nobody was providing Canadian financial planners an education in those crucial soft skills. List decided that FP had to provide it.
“The first 18 months developing the program has been a huge challenge,” List says. “People have been working very, very hard. We’ve had to bring in the skillset and expertise that we didn't have within ourselves.”
FP brought in corporate consultants and e-learning experts to show the certifier how to build courses that will be flexible, engaging, and leading-edge. They brought in a volunteer team of CFPs who put in hundreds of hours working through what had to be taught in the courses. They set up an advisory council from major financial firms to give feedback, and they launched a pilot course for 100 students. “The feedback has been absolutely phenomenal,” said List, “In the 90-plus per cent range saying how relevant it is, how it's going to actually help them be better planners.”
Alongside their courses, FP rolled out a whole new certification in 2019. The Qualified Associate Financial Planner (QAFP) offers a streamlined course with less focus on in-depth technical skills, and a greater emphasis on those soft skills List sees as the future for financial planners. They launched the QAFP partly to offer a quick solution for a raft of financial professionals who, thanks to forthcoming regulations in Ontario, will have to obtain a certification to start calling themselves advisors.
Schedule 25 of Ontario’s 2019 budget states that the titles “financial planner” and “financial advisor” cannot be used by an individual unless they’ve obtained an approved credential from an approved credentialing body. FP Canada spent ten years lobbying and building relationships at Queens Park with Liberal and Tory finance ministers to see this law passed. Now the “real work” of regulation writing is underway, and FP Canada is playing a key role in that process.
“We believe we are the benchmark and the standards for what a professional certification body should look like,” says List. “Now, it's the hard work of working in Ontario with the Financial Services Regulatory Authority to make sure that the standards that they build for assessing what is a legitimate professional, credentialing body lives up to our standards.”
FPs changes in 2019 were driven by a fear that the profession might fall into irrelevancy. Now, after the changes he’s instituted and his ongoing work with Ontario regulators, List sees the keys to success for advisors in 2020.
“Embrace what the technology can bring and let go of the old notions of your value add being based on the ability to pick better investment products than the next guy,” List said. “Embrace platforms that are going to free you up to be that human trusted advisor, think more holistically and know that there's now a program to guide you. It's fun, it's exciting and it opens up a whole new world of greater value added to your clients. And get certified.”
