For far too long now we have been talking about financial planning becoming a profession in SA…sadly, we are not even close yet because it still remains an industry dominated by the need to sell products and by the suppliers of those products.
Consider the following: a medical professional (doctor) requests information (a report) from another medical professional about a patient. It is supplied – there is no need to send a letter of consent or something similar justifying why the doctor requesting the information is entitled to it – it is implicit in the profession that the requester is entitled to the information and it is given! Not so in the financial planning profession…if we are not the “broker on record”, it is implicit in our “profession” that we are not entitled to the information and that when we request it we are therefore trying to obtain it illegally.
Or imagine going to see a new doctor/dentist/lawyer/accountant for the first time and before you get going they pull out a multi-page document that they need to take you through to first explain to you why they can be your doctor/dentist/lawyer/accountant. It’s insane – their ability to act is implicit in their title which is a function of their qualification. Not so in the financial planning “profession” – we have to take clients through a disclosure document – who made this stuff up?
I am tired of the talk of a profession and tired of being treated with suspicion by every single insurance company when I request client information. I am tired of being treated like a criminal trying to obtain information illegally. I am a professional and it should be implicit that any information I request is done so with all the necessary “permissions” in order.
Who are you, Liberty, Sanlam, Old Mutual, Momentum, Discovery et al to decide that I am not entitled to information? Or that the letter of consent supplied is out of date or that you won’t act on the letter of consent and will only send the information directly to the client? Who are you to decide that despite the fact that I submitted the death claim that you will not tell me how much was paid or when it was paid because I am not the “broker on record”? Who are you to reject a General power of attorney just because you don’t like it?
Imagine if a pharmaceutical company refused to service a doctor because he or she did not move enough of its drugs in any given year? You are a bunch of dinosaurs and it is time to change your model – you are ripe for disruption! The sales model is obsolete and in complete contradiction with a financial planning profession.
Or consider the following:
If I set up a service that provides factual advice only and clients pay me directly – no products are sold nor intermediary service provided then I seem to fall outside of the scope of the FAIS Act. Or if I just do a financial plan for a client (which contains factual advice only) then I also appear to fall outside of FAIS…FAIS only applies where there is advice related to product and/or intermediary service…How is it possible that we have significant legislation such as the FAIS Act and it does not cover the very profession we are seeking to establish – it seems to only apply when there is a product involved?
Yes, I am having a rant but it is time that the Financial Planning Institute stood up for its professional members and stopped protecting the interests of the financial service providers first! It is time that the FPI insisted that for its corporate members, that when they deal with a CFP® then there is no need to treat them with suspicion – information requested should be supplied directly to the CFP® without delay!
It is also time that the FSB made a ruling that anyone who wants to do financial planning needs to be a Certified Financial Planner®*. Imagine if you could practice as a doctor/dentist/lawyer etc with a matric only? The industry only has its self to blame for the suspicion with which we are treated by the public at large. It is time to stop selling products and time to start doing financial planning first and properly. Products, if needed, only come at the very end of the process.
*yes I know that there are some very good people out there who have been in the industry for many many years who are not CFP’s – this criteria should be a minimum requirement for any new entrants!
