MenuThe Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) has launched a new ‘Match My Planner’ online matching service to help Australians find a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® (or CFP®) professional to meet their personal money and life needs. The service is now available from the FPA’s Money & Life website.
The new Match My Planner online service uses a UX-based research approach to match people online with a CFP® professional based on a personalised profile of money and life goals, and location.
Match My Planner asks consumers a few easy questions to discover their financial goals, demographic information (age, marital status and any dependents), and the number of planners they wish to hear from. Once the call goes out, CFP® professional FPA members who have downloaded the app get a notification and respond if they believe their services are a good fit.
“The FPA is empowering Australians for a better future by making it easier than ever to search and find a CFP® professional on their own terms. We believe this new interactive matching service is a game-changer for how people connect with financial planners that hold the highest available designation for their profession, which is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional marked by having the CFP® designation after their name,” said FPA CEO Dante De Gori CFP®.
Each individual has their own financial goals and circumstances. By launching this new service the FPA is hoping to provide consumers with the opportunity to find their perfect CFP® professional match, whether they are getting married, buying a house, growing their family, planning for retirement, or facing unexpected financial windfalls or losses.
The FPA’s previous location-based Find a Planner directory has been very successful, averaging 6,900 searches, 14,500 profile views and 40 direct messages per month. However, FPA research revealed consumers searching for a planner tend to use six distinct filters when making their decision: trust, comfort, tailored recommendations, rapport, impartiality and reputation.
Wanting to ensure a service that fits the growing needs of consumers, the FPA adapted the traditional directory service to create Match My Planner. “It’s a new economy, a digital economy, where consumer expectations and technological possibilities have shifted. The previous Find a Planner tool is heavily based on geographic location. Research confirmed our hypothesis that it’s an important decision criteria but not the primary one,” Mr De Gori said.
“The new Match My Planner online service ticks more of people’s boxes, and also focuses more exclusively on connecting consumers with the highest level of qualification currently available in Australia.”
The Match My Planner service was first launched to FPA Members at the FPA Professionals Congress in November 2018. Eligible members need to download the app to be accessible by consumers.
