I am not sure that Phil McGovern is being entirely fair (MM, October 4) to Julie Lord in respect of her recent article about certified and chartered financial planner status.
I actually don’t think it is a competition between the CII and IFP as far as these exams are concerned. In fact, quite the opposite because they seem pretty much complimentary.
Of course, there is bound to be competitive tension between these two professional bodies and their advocates but that seems to me to be quite healthy. Both Julie and Phil are correct to emphasise the importance of these higher standards of qualifications and at least neither of them falls into the trap of pretending that experience without tested qualifications is somehow more valuable.
The danger, it seems to me, is that either body takes on some kind of fundamentalist role, attacking the other because their belief system is somewhat different. We have enough problems in the world without the two main professional bodies making it worse. I, for one, am proud to be a chartered financial planner and I will be equally as proud when I complete the certified financial planner.
Let’s expend our energy encouraging those who have not yet embraced higher qualification standards rather than bickering about which is best.
Nick Bamford
Informed Choice
Cranleigh, Surrey
