Eligibility criteria - Financial planning
Principal requirements
To be eligible to apply for Chartered Financial Planners status, your business must meet the definition of a financial planning firm.
You must also satisfy the eligibility criteria detailed below, at the application stage and on an ongoing basis. There is an annual fee to be paid by all Chartered firms to maintain their Chartered title.
Criteria
These criteria must be met:
- A minimum of one of the firm’s board* members must hold the individual Chartered Financial Planner title.
- One of the firm’s board* members, who satisfies the criteria above must take on the role of Responsible Member. The Responsible Member is the firm’s principal point of contact regarding their Chartered status, and is responsible for the application and renewal stages, along with any related issues. The CII may, at its sole discretion, allow a Responsible Member of a larger firm** to hold a comparable Chartered title. In all cases, the Responsible Member must be a CII member.
- The entirety of the firm’s board*, together with 90% of customer-facing staff, must be members of the CII.
- A minimum of 50% of the firm’s advisers must hold the Chartered Financial Planner title.
- A full financial planning service and a Chartered Financial Planner must be available to customers. In the case of a specialist advisory firm, a satisfactory referral procedure must be in place.
- Evidence of three years pre-application trading as an authorised and regulated business.
- Firms must have in place a core values and business practices statement, and a diversity and inclusion policy that align with the CII Code of Ethics.
- The firm must have an appropriate professional development programme in place.
*Or Appropriate Management Team (AMT). Where the principal business of the company or partnership is not financial planning and a specialist division has been created for the purpose of managing this part of the business, the CII may at its sole discretion, recognise a suitable qualified AMT member as complying with this provision.
**Large firm – the definition will generally be consistent with that of the UK government (i.e., a company with 250+ employees).
Applications for corporate Chartered status cannot be accepted from:
-
Sole traders
- Limited liability companies with one director only
- Firms outside the UK, Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands, or the Isle of Man.
Fees for corporate Chartered status
Fees apply on application and renewal and reflect the cost to the CII in administering, monitoring and enforcing the Chartered scheme. Once your application has been approved, we will confirm the fee that applies.
|
Number of employees |
Annual fee |
|
Up to 10 |
£500 |
|
11-50 |
£1,000 |
|
51-250 |
£1,500 |
|
251+ |
£2,000 |