Calgary will play host to the Canadian Institute of Financial Planners’ annual conference from June 10 to 13.

Now in its fifth year, the conference is bigger than ever. Meanwhile, the CIFPs has been growing too, and amid preparations for the conference it announced its acquisition of the Canadian Institute of Financial Planning from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

The change, announced Thursday, is due to an educational reorganization within IFIC, whereby mutual fund and life insurance advisors will deal with a newly created, not-for-profit company, while the CIFPs will take on all IFIC’s financial planning assets and intellectual properties.

“This is the last major step to grow to what we want to be,” says CIFPs president and CEO Keith Costello, who feels the CIFPs can now offer a full spectrum of services to its members.

The CIFPs has had a focus on growth since its inception and started to build what has now become a go-to event for financial planners in 2003.

“We felt there was a need for a national conference for financial planners to advance planning,” says Costello. “Everything out there was more geared towards products. We look specifically at financial planning as it is specified by our charter.”

The conference, which will be opened by Alberta’s minister of finance Lyle Oberg, followed by a performance by Rick Mercer, has stuck to its guns, catering to the needs of today’s financial planners. While not in sessions, attendees will get a decidedly Calgary experience, with events planned for Cowboys and the new Flames Central grill.

However, it’s not the social calendar Costello is so excited about. This year the conference will cover such varied topics as critical illness insurance and ethics in financial planning, although focusing on three educational streams: risk management, financial planning and estate planning.

“We’ve got a substantive agenda, this year,” says Costello. “We think it’s the best program ever put together and that there’s really something for everybody.”

With attendance growing, the conference has swelled, this year bringing in nearly 35 sponsors, who’ve brought more to the table than funding.

“The sponsors are standing up and bringing good speakers,” says CIFPs vice president member services Shirley Myers. “The keynote speakers are top guys.”

Drawing larger crowds and addressing a more ambitious agenda, this year’s conference will be unlike previous years. But, despite its growth, those at the CIFPs haven’t forgotten why they started in 2003, and the 2007 conference promises to live up to those standards.