FP Canada’s CE requirements go beyond maintaining technical competence. They are designed to support the maintenance and ongoing professional development required to continue meeting client needs. CE requirements include the following category: Professional Responsibility
The Professional Responsibility requirement is designed to support and enhance your understanding of your professional and ethical duties and to provide approaches for identifying and addressing common ethical dilemmas and challenges. Qualifying CE requires practical application of the principles and rules in the FP Canada Standards Council Standards of Professional Responsibility to ethical dilemmas that financial planners commonly encounter. CE should include the use of scenarios and/or practical examples to illustrate the situations. CE activities that focus on direct knowledge or rote recall of the Standards of Professional Responsibility without demonstrated understanding and application will not qualify.
ILScorp has launched 2 new courses based on the application of the FP Standards of Professional Responsibility. Each new course has been evaluated and approved by FP Canada for Professional Responsibility CE Credits.
New Courses FP Approved for Professional Responsibility CE
Choosing ILScorp’s FP Canada’s approved courses provides you with the following benefits:
- You will be assured that the CE activities have been evaluated as meeting FP Canada’s requirements.
- You will be assured that CE activities in the category of Professional Responsibility focus on the application of FP Canada Standards Council™ Standards of Professional Responsibility.
- You will not need to assess or calculate CE credits for any CE activities approved through the CE Approval Program.
Examples of Qualifying Professional Responsibility CE:
- In-person workshop where participants consider ethical dilemmas that financial planners may encounter and how the Standards of Professional Responsibility may apply.
- Online, self-directed course where learners are asked to consider ethical dilemmas that financial planners may encounter and are asked to contemplate, through interactive online activities or assessment, how the Standards of Professional Responsibility may apply.
Examples of Non-Qualifying Professional Responsibility CE:
- In-person workshop that provides an update on the regulatory environment and outlines mutual fund and securities regulation for advisors but does not apply the Standards of Professional Responsibility to examples or scenarios of ethical dilemmas.
- Online, self-directed course that presents the Standards of Professional Responsibility but does not include a discussion regarding the application of the principles or rules to ethical dilemmas that financial planners may encounter.
STANDARDS OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
Financial planning is a disciplined, multi-step process of assessing an individual’s current financial and personal circumstances against their future desired state and developing strategies that help meet their personal goals, needs and priorities in a way that aims to optimize the allocation of their resources.
Financial planning takes into account the interrelationships among relevant financial planning areas in formulating appropriate strategies. Financial planning areas include financial management, insurance and risk management, investment planning, retirement planning, tax planning, estate planning and legal aspects.
Financial planning is an ongoing process involving regular monitoring of an individual’s progress toward meeting their personal goals, needs and priorities, a re-evaluation of financial strategies in place and recommended revisions, where necessary.
FP Canada™ is a national professional body working in the public interest to foster better financial health for Canadians by certifying professional financial planners and leading the advancement of professional financial planning in Canada.FP Canada awards the internationally recognized CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® marks in Canada to those who meet, on an ongoing basis, FP Canada’s requirements for CFP® certification. These individuals have been certified to use CFP, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER and certification trademarks (collectively, the CFP Marks). The CFP Marks are symbols of professional distinction entrusted to individuals who have successfully completed a specialized program of study, standardized national examinations and financial planning work experience.
FP Canada also awards the QUALIFIED ASSOCIATE FINANCIAL PLANNER™ marks and certification in Canada. QAFP professionals are equipped to provide financial planning strategies and solutions for clients who have less complex financial planning needs.
A division of FP Canada, the FP Canada Standards Council™ establishes and enforces financial planning standards, sets the certification requirements for professional financial planners and develops and delivers certification examinations. The Standards Council ensures FP Canada certificants ― CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professionals and QUALIFIED ASSOCIATE FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals― meet appropriate standards of competence and professionalism through rigorous requirements of education, examination, experience and ethics.
CFP professionals and QAFP professionals must abide by the FP Canada Standards Council™ Standards of Professional Responsibility (hereinafter referred to as the Standards of Professional Responsibility). The Standards of Professional Responsibility represents the compilation of four sets of standards (FP Canada Standards Council Code of Ethics, FP Canada Standards Council Rules of Conduct, FP Canada Standards Council Fitness Standards and FP Canada Standards Council Financial Planning Practice Standards) to which FP Canada certificants must adhere. Each set of standards serves its own distinct purpose and can be read and interpreted independently; however, since these standards represent the totality of professional responsibilities for financial planners, they are compiled in one document for ease of reference.
Throughout the Standards of Professional Responsibility, wherever “Certificant” is referred to, it should be taken to read “CFP professionals and QAFP professionals”. The entirety of the Standards of Professional Responsibility applies to both CFP professionals and QAFP professionals.
Information on lodging a complaint against a CFP professional or QAFP professional, as well as information regarding procedures followed by the FP Canada Standards Council with respect to complaints handling, investigations and hearings can be found at fpcanada.ca. To ensure you are reading the most current version of this document and each section, please visitfpcanada.ca/resources/fp-canada-standards-council-policies-procedures and download the electronic copy.
CODE OF ETHICS
FP Canada Standards Council Code of Ethics (the Code of Ethics) represents the moral mandate by which the FP Canada Standards Council (the Standards Council) assesses the conduct of Certificants. The Code of Ethics reflects the standards of ethical conduct that Certificants must demand of themselves and their peers.
Application of the Code of Ethics
Each principle of the Code of Ethics presents the expected behaviours of all Certificants. Each principle is followed by a directive and description that clearly defines the standards of appropriate conduct. The Code of Ethics is designed to guide Certificants in their practice and to serve as a primary reference for the Standards Council in investigating complaints against
