The International Association of Registered Financial Consultants (IARFC), currently operating in eight countries, has expansion plans that include operating chapters in 35 countries by 2034. So, when a delegation from Canada approached the association asking to establish a chapter, the board of trustees sprang into action.
Following a vetting process and an application process, the group which approached the IARFC is expected to establish a chapter in a little over 90 days. The Canadian application for a chapter is currently being reviewed by the IARFC’s board of trustees, Barry Dayley, the organization’s Chair, told Insurance Portal in an interview.
“They’re very high-quality people. I can’t imagine that we wouldn’t proceed establishing a chapter in Canada,” Dayley says.
The association issues its own credentials: The registered financial consultant (RFC), the registered financial associate (RFA) for less experienced agents and the master registered financial consultant (MRFC), which Dayley says is comparable to obtaining the certified financial planner (CFP) designation.
Master designation
Dayley says to have the master designation, those obtaining it must have four years of experience and take an exam. “It's a very difficult exam to prove that you know what you're doing,” he says.
To be an RFC, meanwhile, requires the agent or advisor to have completed one of several education options, have a minimum of three years of experience as a full-time practitioner, be licensed, abide by the IARFC’s code of ethics and complete 40 hours of education every two years. To maintain a MRFC designation, agents and advisors must complete 40 hours of training every year.
Credentials aside, however, Dayley says what the association brings to the country is a new community with its own unique culture. “I think our culture is really powerful. And I think the financial professionals in Canada will really like the opportunity to be part of that community,” he says. “The mission of all of this is to raise the level, raise the standards of how the public is served in the financial planning business, be it life insurance or investments. Our objective is really to raise the level of quality and professionalism of the industry.”
Growing demand for professionalism
Challenges in the United States that Dayley says are similar in Canada, challenges which the association hopes to help address, include aging advisors and growing demand from the public for professionalism and quality advice.
“There is a growing demand by the public for high quality financial planning guidance and services. It's a challenge because we have an aging and shrinking number of professionals, but yet there's a growing demand,” Dayley points out. “That is a big challenge. We know that artificial intelligence and those types of services will play a role, however there's also a growing demand for interaction with a person.”
To engage younger professionals, an annual collegiate financial plan competition, conducted with universities throughout that country which offer financial planning as a major is among the programs the U.S. chapter of the organization runs, for example. Establishing such a program in Canada will be the responsibility of that chapter’s new board of directors, with the help of the larger organizations’ board of trustees.
Before they can get there, however, the association must convene a board, the members of which must all be RFCs.
25 members required to form chapter
“Normally when we establish a chapter, it's established by people who are already in the financial services industry and they generally already meet the requirements to receive their RFC certification,” Dayley says. “In addition, they have to have at least 25 members to be an operating chapter and of course we give them some time to do that. We don't expect that to happen overnight, but typically it happens pretty quickly when a new chapter is established.”
He adds that he anticipates a swift establishment of the chapter given the group involved. (The association is tight-lipped about who those individuals might be, citing confidentiality.)
“I would anticipate probably in 90 days, maybe a little longer, we'll have an operating chapter. It's going to take them a while to identify members, people who will serve on their board of directors and so forth, but it happens pretty fast,” Dayley states. “We have had an interest in Canada for some time. We actually have a few members that live in Canada; they already have our certification. They're just operating under the U.S. chapter. We'd like to change that and really expand the program.”
