The Oxford Dictionary defines alphabet soup as “a confused or confusing mixture of things”, so what relevance does this have to expat finance or finance in general ?
I am referring to the alphabet soup of titles that appear after financial advisers’ names. In most professions titles are clear-cut and help the public understand what qualifications a person has, and to what level, thus bringing clarity.
Would that it were so simple in financial services, the public is certainly on the back foot when it comes to sorting out who is qualified to do what. Not only that, the titles do not help the public understand the level of expertise that such titles confer.
A quick search on the internet for expat financial advisers will bring up ‘’Fully Qualified” or “Qualified to UK Standards”. Unfortunately, those that have higher level qualifications generally aren’t the ones that use these phrases. All kinds of titles can be found and, unfortunately, some are not allowable or don’t even exist.
I am really looking at those advisers that are ex-UK, i.e. not under the watchful eye of the Financial Conduct Authority- The UK regulator. Outside of the UK the correct use of titles is dependent upon the adviser’s own integrity. I cannot cover all the bases in a short blog, but here is a very brief summary of some of them (not all- apologies to those that I miss out) :
CISI (Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment)
There are investment qualifications and the titles are- ACSI, MSCI and FCSI.
CII (Chartered Insurance Institute)
A range of pension, tax and investment papers- Qualified is CertPFS, DipPFS, APFS/FPFS
To be UK qualified, the adviser must be at least DipPFS (Diploma).
Institute of Financial Planning
A range of pension, tax and investment papers- AIFP, CFP and FIFP
AIFP and above meets the UK standards.
So, these are the main titles. These can only be used if the members are signed up members of the relevant institute and a code of conduct.
CISI and CII are not titles- but are often used by offshore advisers to give the impression of qualifications. Student or corporate membership does not mean that the person is qualified. We can all buy season tickets for a football club, it does not get us on the pitch!
CII (Award) and FAIQ are just introductory papers to finance and in no way can be seen as a professional level qualification. The Financial Planning Certificate (often referred to) is no longer accepted in the UK and has been scrapped, as was well short of the UK minimum standard anyway.
To sum up , however, qualifications are not the be all and end all. Having a certificate does not prove professional competence in the field , ethics or experience. But the public have to start their due diligence somewhere.
Mind you, if someone is using a title that does not exist or without having passed the exams or without permission then people owe it to themselves to walk away- very quickly.