Following the IFP/CISI merger, members now have access to an even greater range of benefits and development opportunities, many of which will be highlighted in Financial Planner magazine in forthcoming issues.
Branch meetings are a core benefit of membership and 2016 will be a transition year for them. Of the previous IFP branches, 15 correlate exactly with existing CISI branches. The IFP’s former Bristol and Bath branches are merging with many new branch regions available for members as shown on the map below.
All branches previously run under the IFP will continue to run their own programmes until the end of March 2016 and you will continue to receive email updates of local meetings from the CISI. For those branches that are merging, from April 2016 the IFP Branch Chairman will join the existing CISI branch committee.
For those branches that will be new to the CISI, a new committee will be formed for each, which will come into effect on 1 April. As well as receiving your regular copy of Financial Planner, members can also elect to receive the CISI’s two other journals, the Securities & Investment Review and the Investment Management Review. These are also available via the online platform, where members can access them at a convenient time and place.
Professional Refresher is the CISI’s online training solution. It can help you to remain up to date with technical information as well as to maintain regulatory compliance and demonstrate continuing learning. There are currently more than 60 modules available, which address UK and international issues in areas including financial planning, wealth management, compliance, operations and corporate finance. Modules include topics such as behavioural finance, pensions and provisions and insurance. Over the past month, many new e-learning modules have been added which are likely to be of interest to financial planning professionals. These are:
- Principles of Financial Planning
- Introduction to Paraplanning
- Retirement Planning
- Investment Planning
- Estate Planning
- Pensions Advice
Practitioners review modules frequently and new topics are added to the suite on a regular basis. At the end of each module there is a voluntary test, which will help you to determine how much knowledge you have gained.
When you use Professional Refresher, your activity is automatically added to your CPD record as Active Learning under the CISI CPD scheme. The test can be used to satisfy firm and regulatory requirements and counts as Structured Learning. CISI CPD time will be awarded once you have successfully passed an end-of-module test.
MyCISI is your personal online portal to all things CISI. If you’ve not already done so, members are encouraged to take the time to explore all the opportunities which this presents. You can find all the details via www.cisi.org/mycisi.
Members use MyCISI for a whole range of purposes, for example to access professional and personal membership benefits and view progression to achieving their yearly CPD target. Others include finding out about your local CISI branch, booking a place at CISI events, recording CPD, and updating and changing your personal information.
Members can review past events attended, qualifications taken and workbook purchases made and find out the latest CISI news. Finally, members are reminded of the option to also join other professional forums, which include risk, operations, European regulation, corporate finance, compliance, financial technology, wealth management and training and competence.
