Members Optimistic for 2010 – PFS Membership Survey 2009

Thank you once again to all of you who took the time to participate in our annual member research. This research is important as it guides our focus and drives new initiatives. The results show that PFS members are optimistic about the economy and their own business prospects for the year ahead; 58% feel economic prospects are good (26% stable) and over 60% feel that the prospects for their own businesses are good or excellent. Other key research findings include:

Value of membership

• 50% of members regard their professional body membership of the Personal Finance Society as offering good or excellent value for money. However 39% of you felt that is was becoming quite expensive. As you should be aware the Board committed to freeze membership subscriptions in September 2009 and subscription rates will remain frozen throughout 2010.
• More than half of you believe that you are able to command a higher salary or income because of your PFS qualifications or designatory letters; more than half feel that this benefit brings them a 20%-30% premium on their income. A further 30% believe that this differential will increase over the next year or two.

Member benefits

• Awareness of the PFS regional meetings remain high and feedback from those attending was very positive during 2009. These quarterly events will remain free to members throughout 2010 and are an excellent source of technical training, networking, best practice and idea generation.
• Awareness of the PFS website also remains high. Our online bookings facility and the RDR micro site were particularly valued by members during 2009. Watch out for new content throughout 2010 as we will be responding to your requests for more technical content to be delivered in podcast and vidcast format via www.thepfs.org during 2010.
• Learning statements continue to be highly valued and enable members to plan their pathway to higher qualifications.
• Financial Solutions magazine itself is also rated highly by members and many feel that the quality has improved significantly over the last year. For many of you the editorially linked FS Xpress enewsletter also offers excellent support and links to much valuable web content.
• Our one-day technical conferences were rated as offering very high quality. However, some of you consider that they are expensive. We have therefore made efficiencies enabling us to slash costs for 2010 to give more members greater value in attendance. The first, Investment Advice for a Fragile Economy’, will take place in March in Leeds, London and Marlow and will be priced at just £95 including VAT (reduced from £146.80 in 2009) for PFS members.
• The Diploma Study Groups that we piloted in 2009 to help members meet the requirements of RDR were well received by members and many of you are asking for more subjects in more locations. We surveyed members to help us choose appropriate new locations and as a result will be offering Study Groups in 5 ‘J’ subjects and 20 locations in March ahead of the April exams.
• The feedback from the 2009 Annual PFS Conference in London was excellent, with terrific speakers and valuable technical content. However, many of you felt the costs of getting to and staying in London were high. We have therefore secured the excellent (and cost effective) facilities of Warwick University Conference Park for 20 & 21 September, with a return to the full two day format. Members will be able to take advantage of an early bird rate of just £245, which includes two full days conference, 1 night accommodation and Gala Dinner.
• Some members have been disappointed at the number of referrals received through our consumer facing adviser search website www.findanadviser.org. As you may have read in the November / December magazine, 2010 saw the launch of a significant promotional campaign (see page of this issue xx for more). Targeting both on-line and national press, the campaign aims to increase awareness and drive traffic to the site, resulting in more adviser searches and more member referrals. On top of the campaign we will see a growing number of third party weblinks go live throughout 2010 which will also increase the number of consumers using www.findanadviser.org to search for a local financial adviser that they can trust. To ensure that you benefit from this promotion please ensure you are registered and that your details are up to date.
• Email remains our main method of communication with our members and there was certainly a lot to tell members about and get their opinions on during 2009. However, some of you felt that we were sending too many emails, so we will be sending fewer, better targeted and more relevant emails thoughout 2010. Make sure you receive our monthly FS Xpress eNewsletter as this contains links to all of the latest important developments and technical information.

Qualifications and RDR

• Most members felt that qualifications are the least difficult aspect of implementing RDR, with the recruitment and replacement of advisors, capital and regulatory costs, and the transition to advisor charging being more difficult. The PFS will be running transition workshops throughout 2010 to enable advisers to better understand the practical approaches that they can take.
• It is reassuring to see that 2/3rds of members currently at Certificate level have already made some progress towards completing the Diploma in Financial Planning.
• It is also significant that progress beyond the new minimum qualification continues. 40% of members are definitely or considering studying for the Advanced Diploma and 46% share an ultimate ambition to become Chartered.

As always we value feedback from members. If you have additional comments, ideas or suggestions please email them to us at feedback@thepfs.org.