Financial Planning Week is set to return this summer, the CISI has revealed.

The national initiative, which will start on 6 June, aims to highlight the importance and practice of Financial Planning to consumers.

The IFP ran the campaign for seven years before the merger with the CISI late last year.

Financial Planning firms will again be offering free consultation surgeries, online question and answer sessions, and speaking to schools across the country about the merits of the Financial Planning profession.

The CISI urged all Financial Planning firms to get behind the initiative to “demonstrate to the nation that flexibility and freedom to a fuller life can be ever closer through true Financial Planning”.

More than twice as many firms ran free Financial Planning surgeries during the last Financial Planning Week, which took place in November 2014, compared to the previous year. The IFP reported at the time that over 75 firms opened their doors to provide sessions.

The campaign that year also attracted thousands of consumers to search for planning surgeries on the IFP’s Wayfinder website as well as using the Ask a Planner tool.

A Buckinghamshire-based Financial Planning firm reported eight potential new clients were lined up as a result of its first Financial Planning Week surgeries after the November 2014 campaign.

Jane Smith Financial Planning in Olney ran free surgeries for the public for the first time, with the firm's director Nicola Watts CFPTM Chartered MCSI telling sister website Financial Planner Online at the time: "We have been very pleased with the interest from potential new clients.”

Elizabeth Holt, managing director of Holt PR, which has worked in the past with the IFP to promote the campaign, has previously spoken to sister website Financial Planner Online of the benefits for planners speaking to the media during this period.

She said: “Financial Planning Week can provide the ideal springboard for an ongoing relationship with local media – so as many firms and individuals as possible should seize the opportunity.

“The power of PR should not be underestimated. Your current and potential clients should be shown that your firm is an active campaigner on financial education issues and that you and your colleagues are recognised spokespeople for the financial services sector.”

Firms wishing register interest in participating in Financial Planning Week can visit cisi.org/fpw2016