FPSC LAUNCHES LEARNING CENTRE Learning is year-long, life-long and, like financial planning, has no seasonal boundaries
Toronto, April 16, 2004 — Financial Planners Standards Council (FPSC) launches Learning Centre - an online resource for Canadians seeking information on all aspects of financial planning. FPSC launches the Learning Centre this month to help support Investor Education Month, but sends the message that learning is an ongoing activity with no seasonal boundaries.
"Learning - like financial planning - should be a life-long pursuit," says FPSC Vice President Communications & Corporate Relations Ann Bowman. "The FPSC Learning Centre is part of our ongoing efforts to empower Canadians to learn more about financial matters so they can make more informed financial decisions.
FPSC launches this new online resource during Investor Education Month to help Canadians understand that investing without a plan is like taking a journey without a road map. You may not like where you end up," says Bowman.
Citing a recent FPSC consumer survey, Bowman says 75 per cent of Canadian adults admit good financial planning is very important to their future wellbeing. "Unfortunately, too few - less than one third - actually have a financial plan and too many are unclear about what financial planning entails. Empowering people with the know-how to seek the right sources and the right qualified professionals for advice, products and services will enable them to make appropriately informed decisions about all their financial affairs, including their investments," says Bowman. The Learning Centre - available at FPSC's website www.cfp-ca.org - is a digest of all FPSC's current consumer educational tools and materials plus new and expanding content on every aspect of financial planning. The information is relevant to Canadians in all life-stages. The content is developed by volunteer Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP™) professionals and other experts in the financial services industry. Like the website hosting it, Learning Centre will evolve and expand with new articles, tips, book reviews and links added each month.
The Learning Centre includes information on topics such as investment planning, estate planning, tax planning, retirement planning, education savings, debt management, charitable giving and life events like marriage or becoming a snowbird. The Learning Centre will continue to host the popular FPSC tools and resources such as:
FPSC believes Learning Centre will be of value to the thousands of Canadians interested in learning more about managing their personal financial affairs. Last month, nearly 60,000 browsers visited FPSC's website. "FPSC's website is very popular because our information is offered for educational purposes only. As a not-for-profit standard-setting body independent of specific product or service providers, FPSC is the acknowledged authoritative voice in financial planning standards," says Bowman.
Financial Planners Standards Council (FPSC), established in 1995, is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to benefiting Canadians and the financial planning profession by establishing and enforcing education, examination, experience and ethics requirements for individuals who choose to earn the CFP designation. Currently, there are more than 16,000 planners licensed to use the CFP marks in Canada and approximately 80,000 CFP professionals in 18 countries around the world. See www.cfp-ca.org for further information.
Contact:
Eileen Chadnick/Chadnick Communications at 416.631.7437 or eileen@chadnick.com; Reed Hilton/FPSC at 416.593.8587 ext. 235 or rhilton@cfp-ca.org.
CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® and are certification marks owned outside the U.S. by Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd. (FPSB). Financial Planners Standards Council is the marks licensing authority for the CFP marks in Canada, through agreement with FPSB.
are certification marks