Blue Chip Issue 81

FPI EXCLUSIVE
age how to work with money to address the poor savings culture
in South Africa.
What are the latest trends, developments and innovations in
this sector?
The latest developments speak to the digitalisation revolution that
we are experiencing. We have seen robo-advisors developing in
the past few years to such an extent that a definition had to be
written into FAIS regulations (BN 194 Automated Advice).
Advisors and planners are increasingly making use of
technology to improve their practices and relationships with
their clients. More and more, clients prefer to meet online via
platforms such as Zoom, MS Teams and Skype. The pandemic
has accelerated the development of digital strategies within
the industry. This led to the need for skills development in the
use of technology, understanding AI and its risks as well as
behavioural finance.
Please share the FPI’s recent milestones and celebrations.
Milestones: The FPI celebrated the launch of our first integrated
report since adopting the King IV principles. We increased our
social media following and digitalised our FPIMYMONEY123
programme to ensure that consumer education would still
continue throughout the lockdown levels when face-to-face
numbers were restricted.
The FPI is involved in setting a national consumer education
curriculum at regulatory level and continues to be involved in
ongoing discussions around incoming regulations.
The FPI had a fantastic virtual professional conference in
2020 and will have another one in 2021. We took our PCE,
which has always been a face-to-face exam, completely online
by incorporating AI and learning management systems to
ensure security.
Celebrations: The FPI achieved good results despite 2020. We
met all our targets and managed to keep costs down. We are also
turning 40 years old this year!
One of the FPI’s missions is to provide financial planning for
all. How can the FPI grow the pro-bono programme so that it
provides advice to all South Africans?
We need more of the FPI’s professional members to give back to
the community by participating in the pro-bono programme.
Members can claim CPD hours for the pro-bono work they do.
Access to advice and financial inclusion are quite high on the
agenda of FPI as well as the regulators. We need to make it easier
for all South Africans to have access to advice. It would be great if
a tax incentive, such as a tax deduction for paying for advice/fringe
benefit see the light of day.
We also need corporate South Africa, especially the FPI
corporate partners, to contribute financially to the profession via
sponsorships that will enable us to do so much more with our
consumer education outreach and financial literacy programmes,
which are available at no cost to the public.
How does the current pro-bono scheme work?
The FPI developed the material needed for members to present
the FPIMyMoney123 programme to a group of people. Members
of the public, schools, churches and employers, etc that want the
FPI to present the programme can visit www.fpi.co.za to book a
session with a professional in their area.
The FPI professional members that present FPIMyMoney123
may claim CPD points.
In 2021, the FPI celebrates 40 years of financial planning
experience. What does this mean to you personally?
Confirmation that the FPI is part of the greater global community
when it comes to the financial planning profession. It also means
we are a professional body that the members can be extremely
proud of. We have reached many milestones over the past 40 years.
For me personally, it means that we are an agile, young but
robust profession that has so much more to give back to the public
at large as well as being involved in the career journeys of young
upcoming professionals.
In the 1980s, the FPI’s focus was solely on professionality in the
industry. What is the FPI’s focus now?
In the 1980s, the FPI as it stands today, did not exist. The FPI those
days was called the Institute for Life and Pension Advisors (ILPA)
and focused predominantly on the life and pension space. When
we became the FPI we started to focus more on advice-led activities.
We participated in the global job analysis survey earlier this
year and will soon be updating our competency framework and
curriculum to include learning outcomes that include financial
planning technology and behavioural finance.
Our focus is on the professionalisation of the industry at
large, especially the financial planning profession. This will
remain our focus for as long as we have consumers that make
use of the financial advice and planning services delivered by
our professional members.
Please share with us, the importance of the FPI’s strategy and
vision of “Professional financial planning and advice for all”,
against the backdrop of our current disruptive world.
Professional financial advice and planning go together. It is
not possible to separate the one from the other. It is of critical
importance that the FPI, as the standard setter of financial planning
and professional financial advice, continues to set relevant
standards for the profession in the face of the current disruptive
world, always taking our members into consideration.
Since the start of the global pandemic, people lost their
jobs, or had to take salary cuts. Families have lost loved ones,
often with no valid will or life insurance in place, sometimes not
even a funeral policy. The current times that we live in have no
doubt reconfirmed the FPI’s vision and highlighted the critical
importance of speaking to a professional financial advisor. People
can visit www.letsplan.co.za to find a FPI professional member
in their region.
www.bluechipdigital.co.za
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