Continuing professional development (CPD) CPD for financial advisers

Continuing Professional Development is essential to maintain professional standards. It provides your clients and your employer with the reassurance that, as a banking and finance professional, you continue to maintain and expand your knowledge and skills.

Our CPD guide offers you a wealth of information regarding the CPD requirements and offers best practice ideas and assistance with record keeping.

In force from 1 October 2018, the Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD) introduces the need for firms to ensure anyone dealing with insurance related products have appropriate knowledge and ability to complete their tasks competently. To help meet this regulatory requirement, “firms” must ensure employees carry out a minimum of 15 hours of CPD every 12 months. The content of the CPD needs to meet certain conditions set out in the FCA handbook SYSC 28 28.2.3

These 15 hours can be included in our 35 hour SPS, CPA or Chartered requirement. 5 hours of IDD related CPD can be included towards CeMAP® Professional status. Firms, not us as an Accredited Body, are responsible for ensuring the IDD CPD is carried out correctly.

With effect from 1 October 2020 Pension Transfer Specialists will need to carry out 15 hours of CPD in addition to any of their other regulatory or employer led CPD requirements.

• 9 hours of this need to be carried out as Structured CPD

• 5 hours of the CPD needs to be obtained from an external source independent of your firm. Examples are: accredited / professional bodies; training firms; third party events (online or face to face) industry press or industry product providers.

Your firm, not us as an accredited body, are expected to ensure this is carried out and verified.

The regulatory requirements can be found in TC 2. 1.23A of the FCA Handbook.

Yes – the FCA had made some special CPD arrangements where advisers could not obtain sufficient CPD in their CPD year. We extended this arrangement to all our cohorts who were required to carry out CPD. It applied to everyone whose CPD year ends before April 2021.

Your firm will need to keep records of anyone carrying over CPD into their next year and the reasons for doing so.

Please see our CPD guide for detailed information defining Structured and Unstructured CPD.

Your CPD year will be the same as the validity period of your SPS, CPA, CeMAP Professional or Chartered Designations.

When you make an application for an SPS, CPA, CeMAP Professional or Chartered Designations we will ask you to declare that you have carried out the required CPD.

CPD can include a number of different activities which need to be relevant to your role in all cases. For those with an SPS, the CPD needs to be relevant to your role as a retail investment adviser. Please see our CPD guide for full details on the activities which can be included.

Yes. A retail investment adviser's firm is permitted to suspend the CPD requirements for the period of time where an adviser is continuously absent from work if the absence is due to: maternity, paternity or adoption leave; long-term illness or disability or caring responsibilities for a family member who has a long-term illness or disability. We extend this suspension to all CPD carried out as part of our professional services requirements.

No. We don't require you to log your CPD with us. You can log your CPD activity in any way that you choose – provided you do so in a way that gives sufficient information for the CPD to be appropriately verified by us. Our members have access to a CPD logging tool specifically designed with the SPS in mind but its use is not compulsory.

Your employer or network may provide a CPD log for you to use. Alternatively we offer an online CPD log (myCPD) for members or a downloadable template which may be of assistance. We do not expect you to use more than one log for your CPD records unless you wish to do so. You can find further information in our CPD guide.

Yes - you must be able to substantiate all the CPD activity that you used to meet your annual requirement by retaining suitable supporting documentation. You will find help with the type of documents you can include in our CPD Guide.

Firms must make / retain the CPD records for their retail investment advisers. Any firm which prevents an adviser from obtaining a copy of their CPD records, for any purpose, would be in breach of FCA regulations.

You can read the FCA’s CPD regulations and requirements in the FCA handbook and, with regard to the Insurance Industry, in the FCA Policy Statement – 17/21 issued in September 2017.

We don't require you to submit your CPD record when you make your application for an SPS, CPA, CeMAP Professional or Chartered status.

Only those selected for CPD auditing need to submit their CPD records. We make our audit selection after the SPS, CPA, CeMAP Professional or Chartered status is processed in order not to delay your new certificate or membership.

Use our table to calculate how may Continued Professional Development (CPD) hours you need to do to hold your professional service/s.