brokers were trained on product features and sales techniques with revenue closely tied to commission.” These products addressed real needs in
people’s lives, such as protection in the event of death or disability, and pensions and annuities for old age. But there was also an incentive to sell products inappropriately and a culture that encouraged it. “The 2000s saw the insurers’
dominance challenged by a growing numbers of asset managers,” continues David. “Wrap platforms (platforms that allowed users to access a broad range of investments) encouraged open architecture and increased the use of investment funds over insurance contracts.”
Training and competence Financial advisers restyled themselves as investment managers, building portfolios of best-of-class funds with varying degrees of success. However, commissions could still encourage wrong behaviour and several scandals and business failures drove the regulator to completely rethink the distribution of financial services which, ultimately, resulted in the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) in 2012. This was squarely aimed at raising the educational standards and the professional
CISI FINTECH FORUM Chaired by: Michael Imeson, Chartered MCSI, director, Financial & Business Publications, and senior content editor for Financial Times Live
“Fintech forum events are educational for younger participants but are also useful for more experienced practitioners to keep themselves up to date on current developments,” says Michael. “An important aspect of each event is ensuring that the topic is communicated in such a way that less
knowledgeable participants are able to follow the discussion.”
Of the skills highlighted in the FSSC Future skills framework, Michael says artificial intelligence – and its various elements including machine learning – is the area that will have the greatest influence on fintech in the coming years. “There will also be advances in other areas such as cloud services, but that is more of a current development that is evolving whereas AI is at a much earlier stage of adoption,” he adds.
standing of advisers to a level equivalent to other highly qualified professions. Significantly, commission as a means of remuneration was taken off the table. “For the CISI and the Institute of
Financial Planning that was merged with it, the focus was always on raising educational and ethical standards and encouraging the widespread adoption of
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CISI FINANCIAL PLANNING FORUM Chaired by: Amyr Rocha-Lima CFP™ Chartered FCSI, partner and financial planner at Holland Hahn & Wills
The forum strives to encourage CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals to engage stakeholders on the value of financial planning, promote the CFP certification, and encourage the next generation’s enthusiasm for a career in financial planning.
Amyr points out that the ultimate role of a financial planner is to care for the emotional as well as the financial needs of their clients. For this reason, he feels that empathy is a key skill.
“We have fulfilled our role in a hugely empathetic way over the past few years, spending a lot of time since the onset of the pandemic with families who lost loved ones to Covid-19 as well as other age-related illness,” he says.
Amyr acknowledges that adopting new technologies is vital and highlights the importance of younger financial planners in particular being aware of the opportunities around machine learning and AI, and the emerging threats to cybersecurity.
Financial planners also need to “continually educate their clients about the principles of long-term investing
that have most reliably yielded favourable results over time – financial planning; a rational optimism based on experience and history; patience; and discipline,” he says.
“These will continue to be the fundamental building blocks of how we serve our clients in 2022 and beyond.”
Financial planners should also keep their own skills up to date through continuing professional development, says Amyr, pointing to the full day’s CPD that can be earned through attending the annual Financial Planning Conference – held this year in Liverpool (
cisi.org/FP22).
“After all, we are the only professionals that can cover the myriad of personal financial issues – and how those issues interact with each other – to be of unique service to our clients,” he says.
“Over the next 30 years I believe the nature of successfully investing towards one’s goals will be established as the practice of rationality under uncertainty rather than ‘good fund selection’,” he says. “Successful investors are acting continuously on a financial plan – tuning out the fads and fears of the moment – while failing investors are continually (and randomly) reacting to economic and market news.”
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