President's comment

I consider it a significant honour to be elected President of the Society for the coming year and I approach the year with a mixture of fear and excitement. Fear, because running a financial services business in the current business and economic environment is challenging and I forecast continuing uncertainty during 2010. The excitement arises from what I believe could become a golden age for financial planners and the work of the PFS will I believe be the foundation stone of this process.

I have spent some 35 years in the financial planning profession and the last opportunity I can recall for building a professional financial planning community was in the late 1970’s with the creation of the Maximum Commission Agreement (MCA) which as many of you will know was then squashed by the Department of Trade. Almost 30 years later the guiding principles of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) are not in my view too far away from what was envisaged when establishing the MCA.

We must as a profession grab the opportunity presented to us by the RDR with both hands as in my view this will lead to a well capitalised marketplace with all parts of the value chain operating sustainable business models. The major winner in all of this will be the end user of our services – our client.

In this context, could I make one plea for all those involved in providing financial planning advice and that is that we must think of ourselves as we would wish our clients to think of us. In this context, I am amazed that we still refer to the delivery of professional advisory services as an industry rather than a profession and we hopefully with the assistance of financial journalists must take every opportunity to push the case for professionalism.

I am now in my third year as a Board member of the PFS and having spent the last year as Vice President I believe the PFS has a key role to play in developing the professional brand in financial services which is the key theme for my year in office. I am supported by an excellent Board which I think is representative of most areas of our membership and have a very able executive and support team led by Fay Goddard who in her own inimitable manner has demonstrated over the last year what a huge asset she is to the Society. I am very pleased that she will be there to support me during my Presidential year.

The next year is of course a critical phase in the evolution of the RDR and as a professional institute I believe our key objectives must be to ensure that our exams whilst fully meeting RDR requirements are entirely relevant to the needs of our members in terms of their day to day activities as well as sympathetic to the needs of their businesses in terms of issues such as exam dates. Clearly this is key in helping ensure that advisers are given every opportunity to meet RDR requirements within the projected timescale.

As members of a professional society I believe we have a duty to help others building their career in our profession, particularly those who are making the ascent towards Diploma status and beyond. Impressing upon them the code of ethics we have agreed to comply with as members of the PFS, which are no more than common sense and professional integrity, is always a good start!

From a national perspective our regional network continues to strengthen and prosper and I would urge all members to take an active role in events within your region. I have attended a number and found them immensely valuable in terms of sharing problems and ideas as well as picking up useful technical information.

In summary I am very much looking forward to the challenges ahead as President of your Society and hope that I will prove a worthy successor to Paul Lothian who has worked tirelessly on your behalf during his year in office. I would also like to welcome our two new member nominated Directors, Jonathon Everill and Garry Hale to the Board where their energy, enthusiasm and support will be welcome in my year in office.

Finally, could I also take this opportunity to thank on your behalf two outgoing members of our Board, namely, Robert Reid and Carole Nicholls who will be well known to most of you. They are both of course ex-President’s of the PFS and I cannot stress how much effort they have put in to the development of the Society over many years. You will be pleased to know that I have all their contact details so I will be in regular contact with them during my own term of office to seek their wise counsel !

Mike Fosberry
November 25, 2009

President