Licensing and other Regulations Related to Financial Planner

The name of 'financial planner' is mostly an unregulated term in many countries. Lack of regulation has permitted financial services personnel in these countries to use the title randomly. Often, financial products intermediaries, like life insurance agents and unit trusts agents, use the title to project a professional image to clients even when they are not trained in the professional characteristics of financial planning. This has sometimes led to mistreatment. Clients may be misleaded to receive financial planning services that are unprofessional, from unethical providers.

To protect the industry, financial planning professionals and practitioners from across the globe have started to form trade organizations to provide self-regulations and to maintain some orderliness in the industry. Organizations such as the FPA (Financial Planning Association) have begun to organize high-level training programs and certify members who successfully completed these programs.