The Review: Insight and analysis for financial services professionals
CISI Chief Executive Simon Culhane, Chartered FCSI introduces your new rebranded membership magazine
In 2017, the Institute proudly enters its 25th year since it evolved from the London Stock Exchange, and I write this message to you, having just been involved in a discussion about how we’ll mark this milestone with our members. It’s when celebrating milestones like this that time is taken to reflect on changes, developments and achievements over the years, and for the Institute, there certainly have been many of them.
Our merger with the Institute of Financial Planning (IFP) in November 2015 heralded a new chapter. Many traditional wealth management firms are now growing their financial planning capability, and we see financial planning as a growth area, particularly in light of the numerous and far-reaching UK pension reforms, which have accelerated the need for individuals to obtain proper financial planning and advice. We are delighted that we are now the UK arm and membership body for the global CFP™ designation and we welcome the financial planning community to the CISI.
While clearing up in anticipation for the move to our new office in the ‘Walkie Talkie’ building (yet another exciting new chapter!) we found the proofs for the first ever edition of the Review, published in July 1992. It is fitting that now in July 2016, we are introducing your updated membership magazine: The Review – providing insight and analysis for financial services professionals. Along with a change in title, we’ve increased the scope and subsequently the size of the publication, which now includes 12 pages of financial planning content, to complement the capital markets, regulation, risk, compliance, wealth, securities, investment and economic comment already included. We are now a larger membership body and it is important that the magazine offers topical CPD opportunities for all CISI members.
Our new financial planning content in the July print edition of The Review starts with Q&As with Campbell Edgar, Chartered FCSI, the CISI’s Head of Financial Planning, and Jacqueline Lockie CFP™ Chartered FCSI, the CISI’s Deputy Head of Financial Planning. It continues with a feature on risk profiling, which highlights the intersectionality between wealth managers and financial planners (pp. 16–19), followed by two new regular sections, ‘Case study’ and ‘My business’, starting from page 54.
This inclusion of financial planning content follows our decision to make the July issue of Financial Planner magazine the last ever edition. The print media landscape has been changing for some time and society’s growing want for instantly accessible information has resulted in advertising revenue – which helps support the magazine – being moved away from traditional avenues such as print media to other mediums in an effort to gain consumer attention. It has become difficult to gain sufficient advertiser support to fund the magazine and as a result it has become no longer financially viable to publish Financial Planner magazine.
To complement the changes to The Review hard copy publication, we’re also increasing the amount of online weekly content at cisi.org/review with the inclusion of financial planning content written by Jacqueline. The CPD hours gained from reading online are automatically added to your CPD record.
I would like to thank the members of our Editorial Panel who meet with us every six weeks to provide guidance and support on the content included in publication. It is very important to us that the magazine is, and continues to be, a magazine for our members and that the insight and topics discussed each quarter, and online, keep you informed.