Please do not be fooled by offers of services, the result of which will lead to you attaining “Continuous Professional Development” points. You are not yet required, in terms of the FAIS Act, to attain such points.
Continuous Professional Development (CPD), from a FAIS perspective, was officially placed on ice until further notice with the publication of Board Notice 163 of 2012, published on 3 October 2012.
We receive enquiries on a daily basis from readers who are enticed to sign up for training, or read magazines which will earn them “CPD Points”. Which CPD points, is not explained.
As explained on a number of occasions before, the only benefit of attending such training is for members of professional bodies who set CPD requirements for its members. A magazine, lying on my desk right now, contains a red sticker on the cover which simply reads: “Earn one CPD point for this issue”.
Apart from not stipulating the nature of the CPD point, there is of course also no obligation on you to read the magazine, which makes a bit of a farce of the whole thing, not so?
The bottom line is: if you belong to a professional body which requires you to conduct CPD, make sure that they approved the points advertised. If you do not belong to such a body, evaluate the quality of the service in terms of what it can do for you and your business. We do not foresee FAIS CPD being implemented with a retrospective clause.
