CII issues first SPS

The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) has issued its first statements of professional standing (SPSs), including gap fill verification.

The SPSs were issued to Joel Adams, joint chief executive of Chartered financial planners LIFT-Financial, and Mark Rose, independent financial adviser at Honister Partners - both of whom helped trial the CII's gap fill verification and SPS process.

"As a Chartered financial planner I was surprised, when I logged onto the PFS gap fill tool, that I still had quite a few gaps to complete.," said Joel Adams. "The gap fill tool was very useful as it highlighted clearly where most of my gaps were and I decided to meet most of the gaps by taking a number of the R0 units."

Fay Goddard, chief executive of the PFS(pictured), added: "It is fantastic to be able to issue our members with SPSs from the CII. We have tried really hard to help advisers as much as we can en route to RDR compliance.

"As part of the CII we've been able to provide new qualifications and study materials, a bespoke gap fill tool and gap fill events, verify gap fill and now issue SPSs. "

The CII is accepting SPS applications from 3 October 2011, via its online SPS application centre. When applying for an SPS members will need to confirm the following information:

• They are a current member of the PFS / CII.
• They have, for each of their regulated activities:
- Completed a qualification that fully meets the RDR requirements (such as the CII diploma in regulated financial planning); or
- Completed a FSA approved transitional qualification (such as the CII diploma in financial planning) together with a fully completed gap fill record with supporting evidence.
• Their individual FSA authorisation number.

Members will be notified by email if their SPS application has been successful. If their application is successful members will receive a PDF copy of their SPS certificate by email.