When the Financial Planning Standards Council underwent its name change to FP Canada about a year ago, one of its goals was to create an educational designation that would service all Canadians, not just those with complex financial planning needs.
“We have an obligation and purpose to try to reach as many Canadians as possible to make sure they have access to professional planning in the image of CFP,” says Cary List, the organization’s president and CEO.
To do that, FP Canada launched its Qualified Associate Financial Planner (QAFP) certification in January aimed at reaching a broader market with planners who may have less technical knowledge than CFPs, but still have a grounded professional education that allows them to deal with the level of holistic financial planning necessary to reach a broader population, build trusted relationships and understand human behaviour, says List.
The QAFP will provide Canadians with true financial planning, not just good mutual fund or good insurance advice, he says.
“We think there should and will and can be in five years or so, thousands if not tens of thousands of QAFP professionals who are true financial planners and have the technical knowledge and the skills necessary to serve average Canadians with typical financial planning needs as opposed to clients with the most complex needs.”
At the same time, the QAFP certification replaced FP Canada’s Level 1 certification in January. Originally, says List, the Level 1 certification was meant to be a stepping stone to the CFP. Now, candidates will no longer have to get their Level 1 or QAFP certification to be eligible for their CFPs.
Going through the CFP education program generally takes three years, but List says the QAFP should take about six months less. Once candidates write the QAFP exam they will have 12 months to go through a professional educational program, which will be announced in the spring.
The QAFP program is fully online and will also include webinars and opportunities to question the instructor.
The cost for the CFP program is about $1,500 while the QAFP is about $750.
List says he hopes that the QAFP is recognized as a financial planning designation under the Ontario government’s proposal to restrict the use of “financial advisor” and “financial planner” and similar titles in the province. But he says the legislation was not the impetus behind the QAFP.
“It’s fortuitous to have it because it does provide another option for people who are going to be financial advisors,” says List. “But the QAFP wasn’t designed specifically to address [that] legislation.”
