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Lelane Bezuidenhout was appointed as the new CEO of the Financial Planning Institute of Southern Africa earlier in 2019, a welcomed move that brought back structure after some rough waters in 2018.  David Kop is the Executive Director of Relevance, a critical new role and he works closely alongside Lelane. 

In this interview, we discuss a variety of topical issues as well as the future (as far as 2050!), where things are headed, how financial planners must position themselves and what the FPI is doing to help guide them in the right direction.

We discuss the 4 areas that must be addressed:

1. Regulator or Policy Maker
2. The Consumer
3. The Practitioner
4. Employers of Financial Planners

David discusses some interesting statistics about consumers and the trust they have in the financial services industry and in financial planners.

An important aspect that is coming to the fore, is the regulation of FPTech (Financial Planning Technology).  We talk about who will be regulated and the importance of changing the current curriculum to incorporate the new way of working and how to harness the benefits of FPTech.

There are three designations offered by the FPI.  We discuss the roadmap for each designation as well as changes made since May 2019.

Financial Literacy is a crucial aspect that must be addressed, not only in South Africa but on a global level.  We discuss the newly proposed framework, standards, and designation that will be introduced to ensure financial literacy facilitators adhere to the same levels of competence and standards.  The aim is to create a new industry that will benefit everyone.

We end off with talking about the FPI's vision, their focus for the next 12 months and some of the learnings that Lelane brought back from the recently held FPSB global meeting which was attended by 25 affiliated territories.