Standard Life Investments, a leading investment house, today announced the launch of a series of free online training tutorials to help UK intermediaries meet the requirements of the Financial Services Authority's Retail Distribution Review (RDR).
Under RDR, any individual who is registered to give advice and wants to continue providing advice must meet minimum professional standards by 31 December 2012 and undertake the required annual hours of continuing professional development (CPD) from 2013.
Learning Gateway (www.standardlifeinvestments.com/training) provides a wide range of online tutorials designed to help advisers fulfil the 21 hours per year of ‘structured learning' required as part of the CPD commitment.
Over 100 free training tutorials will be available to advisers via Learning Gateway and will include: Equities, Fixed Income, Real Estate, Derivatives, Inflation-Linked Instruments, Risk Management, Economic & Technical Analysis, Portfolio Theory, Asset Allocation and Regulation.
Michael Beveridge, Head of Intermediary Sales, Standard Life Investments, said:
"In 2010 Standard Life Investments embarked upon an intensive education programme, putting over 1,000 advisers through a full training day in relation to Absolute Return Funds. This was then followed up at the start of this year with a series of Fixed Income sessions. Both have received an overwhelmingly positive reaction from advisers.
"With the success of these sessions and the deadline for Retail Distribution Review compliance looming, it's a natural move for us to launch an online portal to help UK intermediaries meet these new training requirements. There has never been a more important time to ensure that advisers are getting the right level of support from investment providers. With the launch of Learning Gateway our aim is for advisers to think of Standard Life Investments as their education partner of choice."
Nick Cann, Chief Executive, Institute of Financial Planning, said:
"It is particularly encouraging for us at the IFP and Financial Planners and Paraplanners to see developments like this from Standard Life Investments. There is a shortage of relevant content to meet specific regulatory requirements and Standard Life Investments have managed this in a particularly innovative and helpful way. I am sure that this service will be very popular and the IFP is delighted to be able to accredit this learning for the benefit of the Financial Planning community."
Fay Goddard, Chief Executive, The Personal Finance Society, said:
"It is essential that financial planners and advisers understand the importance of maintaining knowledge through relevant structured CPD, both now and post RDR. The PFS welcomes the initiative from Standard Life Investments, which will help support the advisory sector in meeting their requirements."
Ruth Martin, Managing Director, The Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment, said:
"We are delighted to endorse and support this approach. E-learning for busy people is exactly what they need. We are very pleased that Standard Life Investments is investing in the learning needs of advisers in an industry affected by the Retail Distribution Review."
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