Latest news with #FPAM
The Sun
23-05-2025
- Business
- The Sun
FPAM celebrates Silver Jubilee with Industry-Leading Symposium
KUALA LUMPUR: The Financial Planning Association of Malaysia (FPAM) hosted its flagship Annual Financial Planning Symposium 2025 today themed 'Shaping Financial Foundations, Securing Wealth for Tomorrow'. Coinciding with FPAM's 25th anniversary celebration, the symposium brought together industry leaders, professionals and thought leaders to discuss current trends and innovations in financial planning. 'This year marks a significant milestone in FPAM's journey. For 25 years, we have served as Malaysia's premier body for financial planning professionals, upholding the highest standards of expertise, ethics and service,' said FPAM president Alvin Tan, in his opening address. 'When seeking financial advice, consumers should ensure their financial planner is a certified financial planner professional. CFP professionals adhere to rigorous standards of competence, ethics, and client-centered practice.' The symposium attracted over 800 financial planners attending both physically and virtually. A highlight of the event was the launch of FPAM's 25th Anniversary Commemorative Book, documenting the association's journey and contributions to Malaysia's financial planning profession since its inception. Tan emphasised that this milestone symposium represented more than just an anniversary celebration—it served as a strategic gathering that strengthened Malaysia's financial planning ecosystem. 'This event connected the industry's brightest minds with practitioners seeking excellence, creating a powerful synergy that will ultimately benefit Malaysian consumers through enhanced financial advice.' The symposium addressed key areas vital for the public, including innovations in insurance, wealth preservation strategies for families, behavioural finance principles and emerging technological applications in the financial sector. This knowledge empowers individuals to make informed financial decisions and achieve their financial goals in an increasingly complex and digitised financial landscape. Looking ahead, FPAM remains committed to fostering a vibrant financial planning community in Malaysia and empowering Malaysians to achieve financial wellbeing. Through continued professional development, public education initiatives and advocacy for high industry standards, the association seeks to strengthen the financial resilience of individuals and families across the nation.
The Sun
23-05-2025
- Business
- The Sun
FPAM
KUALA LUMPUR: The Financial Planning Association of Malaysia (FPAM) hosted its flagship Annual Financial Planning Symposium 2025 today themed 'Shaping Financial Foundations, Securing Wealth for Tomorrow'. Coinciding with FPAM's 25th anniversary celebration, the symposium brought together industry leaders, professionals and thought leaders to discuss current trends and innovations in financial planning. 'This year marks a significant milestone in FPAM's journey. For 25 years, we have served as Malaysia's premier body for financial planning professionals, upholding the highest standards of expertise, ethics and service,' said FPAM president Alvin Tan, in his opening address. 'When seeking financial advice, consumers should ensure their financial planner is a certified financial planner professional. CFP professionals adhere to rigorous standards of competence, ethics, and client-centered practice.' The symposium attracted over 800 financial planners attending both physically and virtually. A highlight of the event was the launch of FPAM's 25th Anniversary Commemorative Book, documenting the association's journey and contributions to Malaysia's financial planning profession since its inception. Tan emphasised that this milestone symposium represented more than just an anniversary celebration—it served as a strategic gathering that strengthened Malaysia's financial planning ecosystem. 'This event connected the industry's brightest minds with practitioners seeking excellence, creating a powerful synergy that will ultimately benefit Malaysian consumers through enhanced financial advice.' The symposium addressed key areas vital for the public, including innovations in insurance, wealth preservation strategies for families, behavioural finance principles and emerging technological applications in the financial sector. This knowledge empowers individuals to make informed financial decisions and achieve their financial goals in an increasingly complex and digitised financial landscape. Looking ahead, FPAM remains committed to fostering a vibrant financial planning community in Malaysia and empowering Malaysians to achieve financial wellbeing. Through continued professional development, public education initiatives and advocacy for high industry standards, the association seeks to strengthen the financial resilience of individuals and families across the nation. FPAM hosts its flagship Annual Financial Planning Symposium 2025 and celebrates its 25th anniversary
New Straits Times
11-05-2025
- Business
- New Straits Times
MONEY THOUGHTS: Trust two processes
I THINK it is unfortunate, yet understandable, that most responsible adults only get serious about financial planning after they turn 40. Usually, by this point most people have gotten married, had children, stabilised their careers and begun waking up to their still distant yet fast-approaching retirement seasons. If you fall in this category or have friends and family who do, then here are two distinct processes to propel you on this journey of steady economic uplift. They are the six-step financial planning process and the three-part wealth building process. THE SIX-STEP PROCESS Financial planners worldwide distinguish themselves from product-centric intermediaries by first committing to a professional planning process. My favourite definition of financial planning is an illuminating 17-word one I memorised decades ago, and which I have relied on almost every day since I began earning money directly from it 29 years ago, back in 1996 — I've done so from writing and consulting on financial planning and from portfolio construction and long-term management. Here's the definition: "Financial planning is the process of meeting your life goals through the proper management of your finances." So, identify those goals. Also, focusing on the process makes it clear that just as an architect should create a blueprint before a skyscraper is safely erected skyward, the financial planning process involves blueprinting (or plan constructing) before financial products are bought. In reality, though, many young adults start buying various disjointed products because of a procession of bankers, insurance agents, unit trust consultants and will-writers they encounter in random fashion as they mature, start work, earn money and begin to think about the future. This usually means adults already have some financial products in place before they get serious about financial planning. That's commonplace, and all practising licensed financial planners in Malaysia are familiar with this situation. Individuals who are serious about moving forward may find understanding the six-step financial planning process used by professionals immensely helpful: Step 1: Establish the client-planner relationship; Step 2: Gather relevant data; Step 3: Analyse the data; Step 4: Develop several plans (with differing pros and cons) for client consideration; Step 5: Implement the plan selected, through planner-guidance, by the client; and Step 6: Monitor the plan. A great resource for Malaysian residents is the Financial Planning Association of Malaysia (FPAM), which is celebrating its milestone of 25 years of service this year. The second process you'll benefit from is the three-part wealth building process. For any viable investment process to work well, it should be built from the ground up. So, here's the process I use for my clients and myself. It hinges on a basic investment PRINCIPLE, a powerful investment STRATEGY, and an automated emotionless SYSTEM. The investment principle is one that also works in business. The "Father of Security Analysis", the late genius Benjamin Graham, who was the primary mentor of super-investor Warren Buffett, had firm opinion on the matter. More than 75 years ago, Graham wrote in his bestselling book The Intelligent Investor: "Investment is most intelligent when it is most businesslike." And the foundational principle which works equally well in business as in investing is "buy low, sell high". A fabulous strategy that helps us put that principle to work is dollar-cost averaging or DCA. For DCA to work well, five criteria must be met. They are: 1. Only buy high quality assets; 2. Only buy such assets that fluctuate in price; 3. Use equal amounts of money; 4. Injected into those investments at equal time intervals: and 5. Stay the course regardless of market conditions. STABILISING OUR FINANCES High quality assets that don't meet criterion No. 2 (Only buy such assets that fluctuate in price) might be bank savings and fixed deposits. Such cash-saving instruments are very important and all of us should use them to build up savings liquidity that helps stabilise our finances and, thus, also our emotions. But for the specific purposes of implementing a viable DCA strategy, we should focus on buying over the long-haul investments that fluctuate in price. Thankfully, there are many such investments that fit the bill, including stocks and equity unit trust funds. I implement the DCA strategy through an automated system based on a facility all banks provide, a standing instruction or SI. Here's how this powerful system — based on the DCA strategy — works. A standing instruction (SI) is set up, ideally electronically, from your personal bank account to emotionlessly flow regular amounts of cash into your diversified SAP (or savings and investment portfolio). Over the next three weeks, I will elaborate sequentially on the specifics of the buy-low-sell-high principle, the DCA strategy, and its bank SI-based system of wealth accumulation. In the meantime, use this week to beef up your understanding of financial planning in general. You might choose to do so by reading some of the hundreds of Money Thoughts columns here:
