Success! Delivering professionalism with British Standards/ ISO22222 for another year

As you may have noted in my previous blog, I recently undertook my third annual assessment for ISO22222 Personal Financial Planning. This is the British Standards for Personal Financial Planning and assessed by Standards International. As before, I would like to thank Standards International for their support and guidance for the assessment and the past three years we have been working together.

I felt that the assessment went well, and this morning I received confirmation that I had passed the assessment well. I am obviously delighted.

One point that I did not know is that Standards International have been working closely with Which?(The Consumer Association) who have always been extremely supportive of those advisers that have achieved ISO 22222 certification. As such they will add my contact details onto their database which is given to Which? members who require assistance and information relating to financial advice. This agian demonstrates the benefits of undertaking this rigourous assessment.

But what does the assessment undertake and why blog about it?

The details were mentioned in my previous blog, however, the reasons are that, in my opinion, this is one of the most important qualifications that can be achieved in the financial advice industry. The difference with the ISO22222 Personal Financial Planning assessment is that they look at the nitty gritty of what has actually been delivered, at the coal face if you like, to the clients you have seen and helped over the last year’s period. So the assessment is about what has been delivered, what the client receives, the structured format that they receive it, allowing full two way communication and not what you can remember from your text book studies.

The improvements that have been made to service over the last 3 years can be attributable in part to the processes that they recommend and implement to ensure that our clients, the most important individuals in any financial planning process, are served in an ethical, profession and timely fashion to make sure that their expectations are met and exceeded when planning their finances for their futures.

Obviously delighted with the news this morning and I look forward to continuing to meet the standards into the furture.

Keith Churchouse, Director of Churchouse Financial Planning Limited in Guildford, Surrey

Author of Sign Here, Here and Here!…Journey of a financial adviser

Churchouse Financial Planning Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.