ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the results of the analysis of the phenomenographic interviews of certified financial planner (CFP) professionals in Australia. This study attempts to capture how CFP professionals in the countries experience the phenomenon of the professionalism of financial planners. Phenomenography is the study of the qualitatively limited number of ways that phenomena in the world around us are experienced, conceptualised, understood, perceived and apprehended. The outcome space is comprised of the complex of categories of description capturing the different ways of experiencing the phenomenon. Professionalism is experienced as the advice given to financial planning staff that the primary reason they are here is for their clients, and secondly for themselves. Professionalism to Australian CFP professionals means operating in an environment regulated by corporations law and administered by the Australian securities and investments commission (ASIC). The validity of research refers to the internal consistency of the object of the study, the data and the findings.
