I don't think Financial Planning is a profession at this time. I think we are in a transition period moving from a job, to a career and now towards a profession. Until we can eliminate all the various titles in the Financial Services sector and work with educational institutions around the world to make it part of their curriculum we are at times nothing grander than educated sales people. The standards of other professions, engineering, law, medicine have a rigorous educational policy and even though there are multiple disciplines represented in each field usually a strong association putting forth a common front. We as planners have let our "profession" be besmirched and questioned because of multiple issues and perceived lack of values. I believe many times this is not done by CFPs but others who hold them out to be "Advisors" or "Brokers". We need to go to government and lobby for a distinction of "investment sales" versus Financial Planning and require that minimums are set to advise clients.

Only when the educational qualifications/ standards globally are on a par with the legal and accountancy professions can we truly call ourselves a profession. The dilemma of course lie in the fact that we are, at the core, a sales industry and the type of person who has the intellectual capacity to go through the above, is likely unable to have the social/ interpersonal skills to go out and vie for business. Or indeed have the capacity to explain things in layman’s terms so that the ‘man-in-the-street’ can understand the solutions. The logical solution to the above may well be that the industry needs to move away/ reinvent itself away from 'sales' and more advice. Human nature tells me that all things need to be sold.

The FPI in South Africa has a huge task to change the mindset of both the intermediaries (whether product supplier-advisors/sales people, independent brokers or financial planners striving for a fee-based business) and the consumers (used to the "old way" of commission-based products sold by advisors/brokers). Being new to the industry and being a qualified CFP I am exited about the way the industry develops as a profession. We personally as financial planners have to set the standard and lead by example to show colleagues in the industry and the clients/consumers in our community that we operate as professionals with integrity in order to further the trust in our developing profession. Klaus von Pressentin

I am currently registered for an MBA degree and have selected topic of marketing the financial planning service. YOu will notice the word "service", which I think is very important. My experience with the so called financial planners in SA is that anyone call call themselves financial planner. It is very interesting to note that there very little awareness of this service in the country, there is still a huge misunderstanding of intermediaries (brokers/sales rep/advisors).