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the IQPF is a member of, and our partner, the Financial Planning
Standards Council, have voiced their support for a professional order
for financial planners, in the name of increased public protection.
Stay tuned for further developments!
Pilot professional development activities
The task of recognizing our expertise and the expertise of the
financial planner is a crucial part of positioning the IQPF on the
provincial, national and international stage. That said, the IQPF is first
and above all an institute of learning. We are continually developing
new tools and the best possible training activities to meet the needs
of financial planners.
To that end, we have started offering pilot sessions for each new
in-class course. Before any new course is officially given, it is first
presented to a group of financial planners at our offices. Then we
hold a round table with them to gather comments about what they
liked and disliked in the activity.
This approach will allow us to break the course in, so to speak, to
adjust the content and ascertain the quality before we put it on
the professional development calendar. For example, we might
decide more time should be focused on a concept that is harder to
understand or that the order of the material should be changed to
balance the instructors' presentations.
Professional development cycle: the final sprint
Since the end of the professional development cycle is just around
the corner, I want to remind you of the date: November 30, 2015. By
then, you have to have earned all your professional development
units. As I am writing these lines, very few financial planners are in
compliance – only 23%. For the others, in October and November
the IQPF will be offering nearly a dozen two-day in-class workshops
worth 15 PDUs in IPFP. Courses are also available online: right now
there are fifteen courses on offer, in SC-FP and IPFP, in English and
in French. And finally, with La Cible, you can earn your PDUs in SFPA.
Enjoy your magazine!
Nathalie Bachand, A.S.A., F.Pl.
Chair of the Board of Directors of the IQPF
