Continuous Professional Development: Planning for Your Ongoing Success

No matter which sector of financial services you work in, you need to keep up to date with changes in regulation, legislation and industry best practice as it applies to you, your business and your sector of the industry. We call this Continuous Professional Development (CPD).

It enables learning to become a conscious and proactive activity, rather than passive and reactive. In accordance with the TC Sourcebook, financial services professionals in the investment sector must undertake at least 35 hours CPD per year, of which 21 hours is formal structured learning.

Those in the insurance sector are required to undertake 15 hours per year. An investment adviser who advises clients in relation to products covered by the Insurance Distribution Directive, which includes term assurance and investment bonds, must undertake 15 hours of the 35 in this area.

Training & Competence and Continuous Professional Development

The key is the word continuous. Learning and development should be an on-going activity designed to maintain and improve knowledge, improve skills and add to your professionalism. An integral element of Training & Competence (T&C) is personal development. Your T&C Supervisor will discuss your aspirations as an adviser and build a personal development plan around agreed development needs. CPD will form the key component of your personal development activities.

The CPD Cycle

When planning CPD activity, consider:

What do I need to know or be able to do better?

what impact are changes in regulation going to have or have had on industry best practice?
what other areas do I want to advise in and what do I need to know?
are there any other qualifications that would benefit me and my business?

How can I acquire the additional knowledge or skills?

are there training courses available online or face-to-face?
would I benefit from a further formal qualification or additional module?
how might informal self-study fit into the programme?

Undertake the learning

attend the training
attain the qualification
study the articles

Was the learning worthwhile

what have I learned?
how am I able to apply the learning when working with my clients?
how will I measure the value of the learning?

Apply the learning

acquire new clients and retain existing ones
offer new services
run your business more effectively

When reviewing the activity, ensure that you record:

the activity you undertook;
why you undertook it; and
the benefits you derived from the activity.

SMART Goals and Objectives

When setting objectives, managers are encouraged to use the acronym SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound. Your T&C Supervisor should use this acronym when discussing your personal development plan. When advising your clients, can you apply the same principles? This diagram illustrates how you can make SMART work for you and for your clients.

Here are some questions to ask your clients to help bring their objectives to life.

Specific:

What do you want to achieve or accomplish?
Why do you want to achieve this objective?
Who is involved in making this happen?
Are there any barriers to prevent you from achieving the objective?

Measurable:

How long will it take to achieve your objective?
How will you monitor progress – how will you know if you are on track?

Achievable:

Do you have the resources to commit to achieving this goal?
Do you need to commit a smaller amount on a monthly basis and increase your savings or investments over time?
How does this fit with your client’s risk profile?

Realistic:

Is the objective realistic compared to other commitments your client may have?
Are they going to over-reach themselves by striving for this?

Timebound:

This is set by the date your client wants to withdraw the capital, or to retire and will be linked to the questions about the timeframe being achievable and realistic.

Your client wanting to retire at age 60 is simply timebound and a wish. By asking the questions above, you can turn a wish into a SMART objective.

Your client’s age and other factors you collect from your ‘know your client’ activity will tell you how achievable and realistic the objective is. You will then be able to use your professional skills to help your client achieve his goal.

SMART objectives will assist you write more meaningful financial plans for your clients. As Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote:

“A goal without a plan is just a wish”

Skillcast

Compliance Matters UK Limited is proud to partner with Skillcast to provide a quality online learning platform to assist create a blended personal development plan to help you achieve your professional goals and objectives.

How can we help?

It is important that you have robust policies and procedures that enable you to meet the FCA’s four Consumer Duty outcomes. If you would like Compliance Matters UK Limited to review your compliance systems and controls, schedule a free, no-obligation consultancy call with us today.

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To learn more about our T&C Support, including access to the Skillcast platform, click here.