PFS help for advisers after Brexit

However, when it comes to qualifications, the negotiations are just beginning for most professions.

Before Brexit, the regulation of individuals’ professional qualifications was governed at EU level by the 2005 Directive on the Recognition of Professional Qualifications. This required member states to recognise equivalent qualifications in other member states, but it also gave the ‘home’ member states the right to insist on ‘bridging’ qualifications to make advisers competent to practice in the home state – for example, by taking additional examinations in the tax and regulatory systems that are in place in that member state.

This framework will no longer apply after Brexit. The trade agreement that was put in place at the end of 2020 does provide guidelines for the production of joint recommendations by professional bodies and authorities. These guidelines will be ‘taken into account by the Partnership Council [of EU and UK authorities] when deciding whether to develop and adopt arrangements’.

Fortunately for advisers who still want to practise in the EU, the PFS has already put such an agreement in place in partnership with other awarding bodies across Europe. Through the Personal Finance Society’s membership of the European Financial Planning Association, PFS members automatically have an EPFA certificate that is recognised by qualification bodies in 11 countries in the EU, including Spain, Germany and Italy. Once a PFS member has the EFPA certificate, they are able to go through a bridging process.

This means that, as far as qualifications are concerned advisers in the UK are in a similar position to the one that existed under the Directive on the Recognition of Professional Qualifications – they do not have an automatic licence to work in the EU, but they do have access to a bridging process that will enable them to use their UK qualifications in many EU states.

To have proof of your EPFA status, you can download your EFPA certificate from MyPFS.