If you want my contemporary take on the designations, I think both CFP and Chartered are impressive as far as they go. With great respect for each, my personal preference is toward the CFP with its dedication to actual planning and its more holistic approach.

We asked George Kinder, the founder of the global Life Planning movement, for his views on key topics facing planners and his thoughts on the challenges ahead:

Five years ago today, I launched an online petition calling for fairer funding of the FSCS.

When I first became a Financial Planner in 2002, professional development was fairly straightforward. I would pick the most interesting sounding product provider seminars, turn up at a couple of these each month, and that would be enough to satisfy my continuing professional development needs. How things have changed.

A general election makes my blood run cold, but a snap general election makes me just want to hide under my desk until the fall out has settled.

Pensions are at the mercy of many areas of legislation and the unintended consequences of this seems to be hitting areas of pensions more and more and things get even more complicated.

Have you ever thought about how your firm would look if you started again now from scratch?

We're a tough breed in journalism but the death of Succession founder Simon Chamberlain shocked and saddened me deeply recently - as it did many readers who contacted us. Despite this I believe Simon's death teaches us all many lessons but perhaps not the obvious ones.

Two years on from the introduction of Pension Freedoms, a new report finds many SME owners have unrealistic expectations of how much their pensions and businesses will contribute to their retirement, writes Clifton Asset Management’s Anthony Carty.

The CISI's Financial Planning Week, which gets under way today, is by far the best campaign of the year in terms of encouraging consumers to learn more about the benefits of sound, long term Financial Planning in its widest sense.