Strategic vision and themes
Annual Report 2022
In April 2023, we shared with our membership the Institute’s new strategic plan covering the five years from 2023‑2027 and signposting our longer-term direction. The plan lays out our renewed vision and purpose, the key strategic challenges we face, and the high-level initiatives we will adopt to address them. It provides the overarching direction within which the institute will develop annual business plans and allocate budgets and resources
The Plan lays out a bold vision that will see the Institute’s position as a global professional membership body cemented, financial reserves restored following the challenges of the pandemic, and the latest IT systems and services delivered to support our more than 120,000 members wherever they work and whenever they need them. We will also refresh the Institute’s identity, uniting our professional member communities across insurance, financial planning and mortgage advice. Below we summarise both the vision and strategic themes outlined in the Plan.
Financial resilience is the ability to plan and provide for unexpected events, as well as the ability to recover more quickly financially after these events have occurred. Over the next five years we may see increasing uncertainty if global growth loses momentum, inflation broadens or becomes embedded, and if geopolitical issues become more fraught. These factors, and many others, have the potential to put greater financial pressure on large numbers of individuals, especially the most vulnerable members of society.
Our members will provide individuals and societies around the world with products and services that deliver greater financial resilience, security and confidence. They will do this by delivering robust financial plans and products as well as appropriate affordable cover and swift claims payments, ultimately creating a better world.
The Plan contains six strategic themes and places a renewed emphasis on professional standards and the value of membership supported by world-class learning and qualifications. The themes reinforce the Institute’s overarching role, with the CII and the PFS positioned as professional membership bodies first and foremost, delivering our unique member proposition that encompasses “Credibility, Community and Career”. The themes draw heavily from the outputs of our “Shaping the Future Together” consultation, a major survey of CII and PFS members conducted in the latter part of 2021. The findings from the consultation were reported back to the membership in the first half of 2022.
“Our vision is that CII and PFS professionals build a world which delivers ever greater financial resilience for individuals and societies more broadly.”
Our six strategic themes
1. Excellent Member Experience
2. Highest Professional Standards
3. Sector Thought Leadership
4. World-Class Learning
5. Digital First
6. Sustainable Institute
Each theme is described in greater detail in the full strategic plan along with the actions we will take, the high-level outcomes that will be delivered, and a set of performance measures that will evidence the delivery of these outcomes. Some of the measures will evolve and some will be updated over the course of the Plan period as they are informed by the delivery of other actions and external events.
The Plan is organised into two distinct phases. The first year of the Plan – 2023 – focuses on addressing legacy systems issues, returning the CII to a surplus position after the pandemic and building strong foundations for the future. The subsequent four years focus on delivering new capabilities and rebuilding the Institute’s reserves for the long term. The 2023 year is supported by a detailed annual business plan and budget, and we will develop similar documents for 2024-2027 going forward.