The Financial Planning Coalition is urging provincial governments to recognize financial planning as a distinct profession and introduce restrictions on who may call themselves "financial planners".

The coalition, whose members include the Canadian Institute of Financial Planners (CIFPs), the Institute of Advanced Financial Planners (IAFP), the Institut quebecois de planification financiere (IQPF) and the Financial Planning Standards Council (FPSC), released a proposal on June 15 which recommends, among other things, that there be restrictions on who can hold themselves out to the public as "financial planners" and that there be a single, unified set of standards that would apply to planners regardless of what products or services they may be licensed to offer.

Cary List, president and CEO of the Financial Planning Standards Council, says that the proposed regulatory framework would be self-funded and would create no additional regulatory burden other than to require that all who claim to be financial planners meet the competency and ethical requirements already established as part of the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation in English Canada and the Planificateur Financier (Pl. Fin.) title in Quebec.

"Canadians deserve to know that when they work with someone who claims to be a financial planner, that they will be working with someone who has met strict, enforceable standards of competence, practice and ethics, who is committed to ongoing professional development, and who is accountable to a professional body that represents the public interest," says List.