CPD tips for Financial Advisors
posted 15 Jul 19
In today’s fast-changing Financial Services market, knowledge gained through qualifications can quickly become dated. Continuous professional development (CPD) demonstrates your commitment to keeping your knowledge current - helping you develop new skills and adapt to change, while allowing you to build credibility and new clientele.
With CPD now a compulsory requirement across all conduct regulators and professional bodies, such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Chartered Institute of Insurance (CII), we outline five tips to help you effectively plan, execute and reflect on your CPD.
Five CPD tips for Financial Advisors
When completing continuing professional development, Financial Advisers should aim to identify their learning needs and build a plan to fulfil their career ambitions. Get started with our five CPD tips:
1. Identify your learning and development needs
​ ​Planning your CPD begins with an honest assessment of your current situation to determine your professional development goals. When evaluating your learning and development needs, ask yourself the following questions:
- What do I want to achieve?
- What do I need to learn?
- How will I learn?
The next step is to create a plan of action to achieve these goals.
2. Plan your continuous professional development around your learning needs
When you have answered the questions above, you can lay out your learning objectives. Learning objectives are what you are expected to know or the skills you need to further your career. As a Financial Adviser, you may identify a need to update your technical financial knowledge or understanding of market changes, legislation, and investment products.
3. Balance structured and unstructured learning activities
​Industry bodies such as the FCA and CII typically require members to complete 35 hours minimum of continuous professional development per year, including 21 hours dedicated to structured CPD activity.
Structured CPD is the undertaking of any formal learning activity designed to meet a specific development need. Activities include but are not limited to:
- Studying for and sitting an examination
- Participating in seminars (web-based or in-person)
- Lectures
- Conferences
- Workshops
- Courses
- eLearning
Unstructured CPD is any activity an individual considers has met a learning objective but has not been specifically undertaken for that purpose, for example, reading a trade publication that happens to include a technical article on a topic for which you have a development need. Be mindful of this when submitting your annual record for evaluation.
4. It's not just about the hours
​If you have spent 60 hours studying for one exam, you may have (in theory) exceeded the minimum CPD hour count per year set by professional bodies such as the CII. However, will one single exam subject cover your learning and development needs?
When logging your CPD activities for year-end submission, you need to continuously reflect and ask yourself whether the hours you have put in have addressed your specific development needs.
5. Thoroughly reflect before submitting your record for assessment
Reflection is the most important part of CPD reporting since it makes you think of the value of your work for yourself, your colleagues, your clients, your company, and the wider community. If reflection is missing, then CPD becomes less beneficial and meaningful as a tool. Before you submit your record, ask yourself the following questions:
- What did I get out of this?
- What did I learn?
- How did I learn?
- How will I apply it in practice?
- What is the resulting change?
- Does this flag up any additional development that would be helpful for me to undertake?
- What benefits will it have for my clients and/or your service?
- How will this help me prepare for a new role?
Getting this section of CPD writing correct is a key element of professionalism and successful career management - this is the time to harness the value of what you have learned by bridging the gap between theory and practice.
Do you want to continue your professional development in a new role?
Financial Advisors who regularly record continuous professional development and are good at reflecting what they have learned tend to soar up the career ladder. Are you undertaking CPD with a specific career objective, such as finding a new role? Search Financial Services can help appoint you to a range of suitable roles. Contact us to discuss or browse our current financial roles.
