In an effort to clarify the various rules and standards subject to Certified Financial Planners, the Financial Planning Standards Council has launched a new document summarizing the full scope of ethical and practice responsibilities of CFP professionals.

The Standards of Professional Responsibility for CFP professionals and candidates, launched this week, encompasses four sets of standards applicable to CFP professionals: the FPSC Code of Ethics, the FPSC Rules of Conduct, the FPSC Fitness Standards and the FPSC Financial Planning Practice Standards.

The package aims to summarize all of the professional and ethical responsibilities of CFP professionals and candidates, and helps Canadians understand what they can expect when working with a CFP professional.

“When developing the Standards of Professional Responsibility, we aimed to provide a guide that would clarify and explain the spectrum of professional responsibilities of CFP certificants and FPSC Registered Candidates,” said John Wickett, senior vice president of standards and certification at FPSC.

High standards of ethics and competence are critical to earning client trust, according to Wickett.

“Canadians deserve to be served by financial planners they can trust — for competence, professional and ethical service,” he said. “In an unregulated environment where anyone can call himself a financial planner without possessing any qualifications, Canadians are not protected from unqualified, unethical individuals.”

The Standards of Professional Responsibility incorporates revitalized versions of the CFP Code of Ethics and the CFP Financial Planning Practice Standards, which the FPSC reviewed and updated earlier this year following extensive consultations. The FPSC revalidates its core resources every five years to ensure their continued relevance.

A key purpose of the new document is to serve as a guide for CFP professionals to refer to, and to ensure their actions are continually in line with their obligations.

The Standards of Professional Responsibility will become enforceable on April 1, 2012, until which time CFP professionals will continue to be held accountable to the previous versions of the Code of Ethics, Practice Standards and Fitness Ethics. However, FPSC urges CFP professionals and candidates to review the standards immediately.

Separately this week, the FPSC launched the revalidated CFP Professional Competency Profile, which details the abilities of a CFP professional and clearly outlines the skills, knowledge, attitudes and judgments required for competent performance.