The Financial Planning Standards Board UK has developed a new distance-learning course on ethics to help with CPD requirements.
FPSB UK is the qualification arm of the Institute of Financial Planning and offers CFP^CM certification, Fellowship of the IFP and the Accredited Paraplanner qualification.
'Putting Principles into Practice: Clients First' offers two hours of structured CPD on ethics for Financial Planners.
The content is based on the FPSB's Code of Ethics which is similar to the IFP Code of Ethics that all members must adhere to. The FPSB code is used by almost 150,000 CFP^CM professionals worldwide.
The four subjects included in the course are:

• Stages of ethical development and factors that influence growth.
• What consumers expect from their financial adviser- trust.
• The eight principles of the FPSB's Financial Planner Code of Ethics and Responsibility.
• How unethical behaviour affects client relationships.

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The course consists of a presentation outlining specific ethical dilemmas, a workbook and a quiz and costs £12.
Ethics is a key topic for the IFP and it regularly holds ethics CPD workshops and ethics sessions in its branch programme. Members are required to complete at least 2.5 hours of ethics CPD each year as part of their annual 35 hours CPD requirement. This increases to 50 hours annually for CFP^CM professionals and Fellows.
The next issue of Financial Planner magazine, out mid-August, will feature an Ethics and Financial Planning article by Professor Roger Steare from Cass Business School.

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