The Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) says it will soon offer financial planning courses as the peak body supporting planners, the Financial Planning Association (FPA), moves away from offering education. Interestingly, the FPA will not recommend the ANZIIF course.

ANZIIF says it plans to offer an Advanced Diploma of Financial Services (Financial Planning) to coincide with “the FPA’s recent decision to outsource the provision of education”, but an FPA spokesman told Sunrise Exchange News ANZIIF hasn’t been named as the chosen education provider.

“ANZIIF is not working alongside the FPA on their new financial planning course, and nor are we recommending it,” she said.

ANZIIF CEO Joan Fitzpatrick says that positioning the institute in the financial planning sphere “is a logical progression… that has been eagerly anticipated by the wider financial services industry,” she said.

The FPA spokesman says the association will continue to run its courses through the second semester of 2004, and “transitional arrangements” will be made for students in 2005.

The ANZIIF four-module Diploma of Financial Services (Financial Planning) provides entry to the three-module Advanced Diploma of Financial Planning (Financial Planning). ANZIIF says they are fully accredited and internationally recognised.