Blue Chip Issue 81

FPI
Life begins at 40
The FPI celebrates 40 years of financial planning excellence this year!
The Financial Planning Institute was founded as a nonprofit
organisation called the Institute of Life and
Pension Advisors (ILPA) in 1981. Despite the name
change, it has always had one primary aim: ensuring
high professional standards in the vital field of financial advice.
In the 1980s, the life insurance industry in South Africa suffered
from a poor public image and a lack of trust in its frontline
personnel. While there was a general recognition in the industry
that something had to be done, it took a few individuals with the
necessary passion and commitment to bring ILPA into being. They
had a vision of creating a professional body along the same lines as
those of which already existed for accountants, actuaries, lawyers
and doctors.
A global trend
Although it was formed as an independent South African
initiative, the ILPA was not conceived in isolation. On the
contrary, its birth was part of a worldwide trend towards
professionalising the financial advice sector. The increasing
complexity of financial support and investment mechanisms
and the scandalous behaviour of a small minority of ruthless
rogues who robbed people of their life savings had made
professionalisation a priority.
This global movement was born in America, but it wasn’t long
before other professional financial planning bodies sprung up
across the globe. The early pioneers of the profession in South
Africa looked to the US, the UK and Australia for inspiration.
Through travel and research, they were able to establish a
professional standards body to rival the best in the world.
One of the results of this research was the introduction of the
Certified Financial Planner® mark to South Africa. The “three most
important letters in financial planning” are reserved for financial
planning professionals who have attained an internationally
benchmarked standard of knowledge that is backed up with
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