Next week is Canada’s third annual Financial Planning Week (Oct 17-23) and Financial Planning Standards Council (FPSC) challenges Canadians to take action and get their personal finances on track by taking advantage of a cross-Canada network of public presentations about financial planning delivered by Certified Financial Planner professionals.

“Procrastination is one of the greatest challenges that Canadians must overcome in regard to their finances. During Financial Planning Week, we encourage Canadians to learn at least one new thing about their finances, or to simply take action to get started improving their financial wellbeing,” says Tamara Smith, VP, marketing & consumer Affairs, FPSC.

To help Canadians get moving on their financial fitness, FPSC issued its own challenge to CFP professionals across Canada and invited them to submit ideas on how they could host events in their communities to inspire and help educate Canadians about personal finance.

While all FPW events are posted on its Financial Planning Week Calendar, 12 submissions from CFP professionals were chosen as “Challenge Winners” and awarded $500 each. In the spirit of helping people — which is what CFP professionals do, every day — many Challenge winners are donating their $500 to a local charity, hospital, library or educational institution.

The 12 winners are:

  • Carien Jutting – Stratford, Ontario
  • Christiaan Vandergrift – Guelph, Ontario
  • Delores Moskal – Yorkton, Saskatchewan
  • Heather Holjevac – Brampton, Ontario
  • Kelley Doerksen – Edmonton, Alberta
  • Kenneth Seibel – Toronto, Ontario
  • Lynn Okanski on behalf of Fanshawe College Financial Planning Students – London, Ontario
  • Nathalie Lagacé-Albert – Campbellton, New Brunswick
  • Phyllis Wang – Vancouver, British Columbia
  • Tina Tehranchian & Janine Purves – Richmond Hill, Ontario
  • Tom Markham & Dave Petrie – Delta, British Columbia
  • Richard Hobbs, – Victoria, British Columbia

To learn more about the winners and their events, click here.

“Our hope was to have CFP professionals engage Canadians with different needs, from all walks of life and from various regions. They delivered on this expectation. In fact, we had more submissions than we could support. We congratulate the winners and acknowledge all the planners who are holding events in their communities. Everyone will be a winner this Financial Planning Week if they get involved and inspire themselves or others to bring more financial fitness into their lives,” says Smith.

Now in its third year, FPSC and the Institut québécois de planification financière have jointly declared October 17-23, 2011 as Canada’s Financial Planning Week.