The Financial Services Skills Council (FSSC) has confirmed that financial advisors will be able to become accredited as professional financial advisors (PFA) if they take the ifs School of Finance's level 4 Diploma for Financial Advisers (DipFA).
The level 4 DipFA will allow those who pass it to remain able to refer to themselves as a PFA, and could become a critical examination since the Financial Services Association's Retail Distribution Review decided that PFA's must pass level 4 of the QCA's qualification framework.
Anne Kiem, dean of further education at the ifs School of Finance said: "DipFA will help to ensure that advisers are able to present and explain their findings in a logical, clear, concise and coherent manner.
"It is not about the acquisition of more and more technical knowledge per se - although the process requires candidates to extend their technical knowledge beyond that contained in level 3 qualifications - it is about the skills needed to effectively address new situations with the consumer in mind."
The decision to raise the standards of education involved in becoming a PFA comes as many accountancy graduates may be looking to further education as a means of improving their value while simultaneously avoiding the need to enter the currently-difficult jobs market.
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