IFA looks to Asia for inspiration

The Institute of Financial Advisers (IFA) has looked at Hong Kong’s professional development courses and would consider developing its own says president Nigel Tate.

Tuesday, February 8th 2011, 7:05AM

by Jenha White

He found in a visit to institutions in Hong Kong, China and Korea that membership fees were substantially higher than in New Zealand and that they do a lot of work in terms of providing continuing professional development (CPD).

Tate says The Institute of Financial Planners of Hong Kong (IFPHK) is generating revenue outside of membership fees by providing professional development opportunities, both within their institute and outside, by commercially marketing their courses.

"It's a clean, tidy model, but they also have reasonably high numbers and a lot of supporting corporations so they can provide those courses economically, efficiently and effectively."

Tate believes CPD courses for members and non-members need to be considered going forward by the IFA as it has experience, knowledge of what constitutes best practice and CPD and it can provide structured credits.

"It's an opportunity for us to try and stem the increases that would be likely in membership fees.

"You always have to have a balance between funding initiatives and keeping subscriptions down at a realistic level."

He says the cost of operating can rise, especially if the IFA wants to continue to develop further so it needs to look at other sources of revenue.

However he does not know if the IFA would be successful in providing CPD courses because of resourcing and whether there is a market for it.

Tate says the IFA Board is having a strategic planning meeting this week where this idea amongst others will be discussed.

Jenha is a TPL staff reporter. jenha@tarawera.co.nz

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