And a spokesman for the FPSB, which is based in Denver and has member organisations in 24 countries and jurisdictions around the world, said the ranks of CFP professionals in Brazil may touch the 1,000 mark this year, from 714 in 2011 and 485 the previous year.
Brazil officially overtook the UK as the world’s sixth largest economy earlier this year, in spite of a slow-down in its growth rate to around 2.7% in the 12 months to the end of December. It has benefited from high food and oil prices, which have had an opposite effect in many other countries that are net importers rather than exporters of commodities.
The FPSB said Brazil was one of a number of emerging market countries in which its member organisations had experienced “double-digit growth” in their CFP certification programmes in 2011. The other countries in this category included India, China and Indonesia. Overall, the annual growth rate in CFP certifications last year measured 4.5% globally, according to the FPSB.
FPSB chief executive Noel Maye said that the growth reflected a growing understanding on the part of financial planners in such countries – where the concept of financial planning is still relatively new – of the “value in aligning with a global certification programme”.
The FPSB develops and oversees education and certification for financial planning firms, and is among a number of such organisations that have been actively working on setting a global standard for financial planners.
