If you are a Filipino based in the UAE and you are serious with being a professional financial planner, it is time for you to be certified!

Since 2013 the AFP has been helping Filipino financial planners in the middle east improve their level of competency and professionalism.

The 2017 schedule will be this September 1 & 2, 2017 in Dubai, UAE.

Why the AFP?

Because of the increasing financial awareness and prosperity of many Filipinos, the demand for financial products and financial advisors has been growing through the years. However, while there have been many who claim to be financial advisors, there has been a need for certified advisors to be differentiate a properly trained advisor from one who is not.

This differentiation can be achieved by choosing to become an Associate Financial Planner (AFP®), a professional designation awarded by the Registered Financial Planners Philippines, the Philippine’s leading financial planning institute.

Become an Associate Financial Planner (AFP)®

The public is looking for a financial planner who has demonstrated a commitment to competency, and financial professionals want an established certification that will set them apart in the globally expanding financial planning profession. As an AFP®, you can energize and revitalize your career by leveraging the knowledge and prestige associated with one of the world’s most recognized financial planning certification.

Benefits of the AFP® Certification

– Immediate recognition from clients, peers and employers with AFP® designation after your name.

– Strict eligibility criteria mean only a selected few are privileged to hold this designation.

– Provides a good starting point for professional who have the necessary skills sets and knowledge in basic personal financial planning.

– Provides an interim designation while you are pursuing the Registered Financial Planner (RFP®) quantification in the future.

– Become part of the preeminent financial planning organization in the country, the Association of RFPs in the Philippines with numerous benefits, including access to technical sessions, events, seminars and conferences.

What will be discussed during the AFP® Program?

• Personal Finance Steps
• Insurance Planning
• Behavioral Finance
• Investment Planning
• Time Value of Money
• Stock Market Investing

After completing the training program, a qualifying examination will be performed within 1 to 2 months after the program. Those who pass the exams can apply for membership to the AFP®

Who will be conducting the AFP® Program?

Randell Tiongson, RFP is the director of the Registered Financial Planner Philippines and has been engaged in the financial services industry for 3 decades. He is one of the most respected personal finance speaker and educator in the Philippines and has given over 1000 lectures & training on finance through the years. He is a columnist of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, best-selling author of 5 finance books.

Marvin Germo, RFP is the Philippine’s most in demand speaker and educator on stock market investing. He has given hundreds of seminars on investing in equities for Filipinos across the globe. He is frequently seen in Philippine media on the subject matter of investing and he is also a best-selling author of 5 books on investing and the stock market.

If you are interested to become an AFP®, please send an email [email protected] [email protected] or click HERE

One of the biggest issues that faces the world today is the problem of fatherlessness. It is said that it is the father who gives an identity to a child. When the father is absent or abdicates his duties, a multitude of problems arises. Studies show that the absence of a father or a father-figure can cause children to under-perform, be prone to substance abuses, be in poverty and live a life of dysfunctions. But take heart, we have a Father in heaven who will be more than enough to give you your identity and deliver you from the troubles of this world: “One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:6, ESV ) I am throughly blessed to have an intimate relationship with God as my father the moment I gave my life to Jesus.

Among the many things I am so thankful to the Lord is that I have never experienced the issue of fatherlessness. In all my 50 years of existence, other than the Lord, there was a man who has always been there in my life: providing for me, guiding me, disciplining me, molding me and have given me my identity. I honor my father for who he is and everything he did in my life and for my family. My Dad was a great model to me. To those who know my father, they will see that his impartation in my life is very strong — I am hard working, fiercely loyal to my wife, a provider and protector of my own family, disciplined and God fearing… all thanks to my father. One of the specific imprints he left in me was financial preparedness. Growing up, I would often question why he was very tough on money matters and why he kept telling us to be financially abled and financially prepared. When it comes to finances, he knew that tough love was needed for us to grow understanding the value of hard work and control. While I did not understand why in the past, I fully understand now and in fact the many lessons I learned from him are what I teach today. I would often say in my talks that my first finance mentor was my father, he is the first financial planner I ever met.

My Dad has left his imprint in all his children and that goes beyond finances. My siblings are all fiercely loyal to their families, and all are God-fearing, because of him.

Dad, I honor you… 85 years is too short for a good man, a good father to us and a role model to me. I am comforted that you will finally rest, knowing that you have prepared me and my siblings in the adventure of life despite the trials and imperfections of this world. I take greater comfort that you have entered a place where there is no more sorrow and where life is perfect eternally, basking in glory of the Lord.

Farewell Dad and thank you. I love you.

Ricardo Tantoco Tiongson, 1932-2017

FINANCIAL PLANNING is a relatively new profession.  It represents the first broad-scope service profession to emerge in recent years.  Its development can be traced back to  1969, when a small group of financial services professionals met at a hotel near Chicago’s O’Hare Airport to discuss the inadequacy they saw in the state of financial services at that time.  They voiced their frustrations and searched for ways to introduce a new degree of client orientation and professionalism into a field that was neither well known nor well defined.

The planning pioneers who founded this profession led a movement to provide clients with better and more targeted service.  They looked forward to the time when comprehensive financial planning would become an accepted and integrated means for providing service and product delivery to consumers.  In doing so they revolutionized their business, creating a new way for individuals to manage their personal finances.  The pioneer’s approach was to focus on the client’s needs and objectives by putting their client’s interests first and foremost above personal gain.

The efforts toward targeted client service led to the development of two principal types of financial plans, segmented and comprehensive.  Segmented plans enable practitioners to review one aspect of a client’s life, such as insurance, investments, or retirement.  Comprehensive plans provide a more detailed and complete approach by factoring in all of the financial concerns affecting the client’s life, such as cash flow, education, insurance, investments, income tax, retirement, and estate issues.  These revolutionary changes in approach paved the way for a new profession: Financial Planning.

The next step for these innovators was to educate the public about their new service profession.  They wanted to show the public how they differed from their predecessors and why it would be worthwhile to use their services.  To counteract negative perceptions, a number of financial services professionals began pursuing a different way of helping their clients.  They strove expressly to adopt a logical and consistent format in providing good financial advice not just in one specialized are, but in every aspect of client’s financial lives.  Furthermore, they wanted their clients to know that they were trained specialists in their area of practice.

WHO ARE TODAY’S FINANCIAL PLANNERS?

FINANCIAL PLANNERS have come from a variety of fields and hold many licenses and designations.  As noted previously, many today are midcareer professionals who have retired from their first field, have grown bored with it, or wanted to branch out into something new that involves helping others.  For example, many are CPAs with twenty or more years of experience who have found that their clients specifically ask for such services; if they fail to provide financial planning, they run the risk of losing clients to other CPAs who do.

Similarly, many representatives, brokers, and related employees at major brokerage firms and insurance companies find it difficult to compete solely by selling products; financial planning offers a more flexible and comprehensive approach to satisfying their client’s needs.  Likewise, bankers more and more are finding that they cannot effectively compete in the service marketplace without taking an overall view of financial planning for their clientele.  The banks have finally recognized that financial planning in its own right can be a very profitable revenue center.

So what does this all mean?  For many financial services professionals, the days of pushing a product-centered transaction with little or no concern for client needs and objectives are gone.  That approach is being replaced by the services offered by more sophisticated and better-trained financial planners who want to understand their clients in order to make the most appropriate choices for them.

Although the history is largely U.S. experience, the world has seen the evolution from product pushing to solutions provision… thus evolving from Agents to Planners.  Asia has seen changes, and the changes are happening in a much faster pace.  Singapore has been the most successful in its evolution to Financial Planners with strict implementations of standards and procedures.  Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and other ASEAN countries are also on its way in developing substantial numbers of professional financial planners.

For many years now, it has been my quest to take part in the evolution of the financial planning practice in the Philippines. In 2005, I help found the Registered Financial Planner Institute of the Philippines which will hopefully result to the evolution of Filipino Financial Planners but the evolution to professional financial planners goes beyond the RFP.

Today, there are a lot of advisors claiming to be Financial Planners and while some are true-blue ones, many are still in name rather than in deed. However, I am very hopeful with the rate the financial planners are evolving and soon, this profession will be one of the most respected in the Philippines as well.