Record turn-out for FPSC Professional Proficiency Exam

More would-be CFP licensees than ever before recently wrote the Financial Planners Standards Council's (FPSC) biannual professional proficiency examination.

"This increasing interest in pursuing the CFP designation is a direct result of the industry's recognition that it is the mark of the professional. The Certified Financial Planner is to whom more and more Canadians should be looking for financial planning advice that meets their needs with the level of competence and ethics they are entitled to expect of any professional," says Don Johnston, President of FPSC.

The 1,262 students who passed the November Professional Proficiency Examination (PPE) were subjected to "the most demanding and most relevant examination of its kind in Canada," says Johnston. "The examination is a rigorous test of the knowledge and skills necessary to competently offer financial planning advice to the consumer.

The successful CFP candidates represent 59.73% of the 2,113 students who wrote the fourth offering of the PPE set by the FPSC.

This fourth PPE was held on November 14,1998 in 60 centres across the country. Of the 2,113 students who wrote the exam, 1,056 qualified to write it on the basis of academic qualifications and experience rather than the approved course of study. Of these, 642 were Chartered Accountants, 231 were Certified General Accountants, 100 were Chartered Life Underwriters and 83 were Certified Management Accountants.

One thousand and fifty-seven qualified to write the exam by completing an approved course of study. Of these, 502 studied with the Canadian Securities Institute, 276 with the Canadian Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, 244 with the Canadian Institute of Financial Planning, 30 with the British Columbia Institute of Technology and five with the Institute of Canadian Bankers.

The next PPE will be held on June 12,1999. Exams are offered in June and November of each year.

Financial Planners Standards Council was incorporated on November 10, 1995 to benefit and protect the Canadian public by establishing and enforcing education, examination, experience and ethics requirements for financial planners who choose to be licensed by the FPSC. Currently there are 7,700 CFP licensees in Canada and over 45-thousand worldwide.

FPSC is made up of seven associations whose members deal with the personal finances of individuals. The members are the Canadian Association of Financial Planners, the Canadian Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, the Canadian Institute of Financial Planning, the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada, the Credit Union Institute of Canada and the Society of Management Accountants of Canada.