Competency Guide for F.Pl.

In 2023, the Institute of Financial Planning adopted a Competency Guide for F.Pl. This document allows us to define the profession. It also ensures that the training required for financial planners – both professional training and professional development – will serve to develop the knowledge, know-how and social skills required for the practice and to protect the public.

A Competency Guide is not a one-size-fits-all recipe for developing a unique, ideal financial planner. It is a guide to invite financial planners to develop a tailor-made route based on their strengths, needs and interests in order to improve their professional competencies and the quality of the services they provide.

The President and CEO of the Institute, Chantal Lamoureux, LL.B., CPHR, explains (video in French).


What is the purpose of the Competency Guide for F.Pl.?

The Competency Guide for F.Pl. serves a number of purposes, such as:

  • Establishing the competency profile required to enter the profession
  • Influencing the content of university programs to allow students to acquire the foundational knowledge required to pass the Professional Training course
  • Establishing competency profiles for specialization programs, to accurately determine the level of competency proficiency to be developed by them
  • Analyzing the Institute’s current training offer for affiliates with greater accuracy


Competency categories

The Competency Guide for F.Pl. describes two categories of competencies:

  • Competencies associated with the seven areas of financial planning expertise
  • Transversal competencies, which reflect various capacities that the financial planner uses across all situations, in the various steps of the financial planning process and in complement with the competencies associated with the areas of expertise

The transversal competencies may be technical or relational.

We decided make integration the heart of the financial planning practice and the distinctive aspect of the profession. The transversal competency of global vision is the pillar of the financial planner’s integration capacity.

Competency proficiency scales

There are 3 levels of proficiency, but they differ for the competencies associated with areas of expertise and the transversal competencies.

 

View the guide