Review of Chartered standards

News that the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) is set to review the standards for obtaining the corporate Chartered Financial Planners status is welcome here at Informed Choice.

Since we became the 99th firm of Chartered Financial Planners back in 2007, we have seen a big increase in the number of Chartered firms.

There are now 500 firms with this status in the UK market.

The open consultation set to be launched by the CII next month aims to ensure customers’ expectations of a chartered firm continue to be met.

Corporate ‘Chartered Financial Planners’ status allows firms to demonstrate their professional commitment to raising standards of knowledge, capability and ethical practice.

As things stand, firms need to meet a robust set of standards to obtain and annually renew the corporate Chartered Financial Planners status.

Firms applying for the standard need to satisfy three principal requirements:

· meet the definition of an organisation carrying on business as a financial planner;

· satisfy the eligibility criteria required of a Chartered firm both at application and on an ongoing basis. This is achieved through a combination of compulsory and discretionary criteria;

· pay an admission and annual renewal fee.

Because Chartered is such a valuable and important status which consumers trust, it is important that the CII regularly reviews these standards to restrict the status to only those firms which represent the very highest standards.

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