This is Financial Planning Week. Normally such efforts at self-promotion would go unmentioned in this column, but let's make an exception. With the Financial Planning Association (FPA) stepping up its efforts to have the term ''financial planner'' enshrined in legislation, it seems opportune to look at what a financial planner is and should be.

The association is busting its boiler to be recognised as a profession up there with doctors, lawyers and accountants.

The real deal … it only takes a few days of study for anyone to ''qualify'' as a financial planner. Illustration: Karl Hilzinger

To many consumers, that might seem like a big ask but there's no doubt we could all use professional financial advice - particularly with an ageing population and a hefty retirement savings gap. It is a national disgrace that the majority of Australians do not feel confident to seek advice when they need it.

But while there are good doctors and bad doctors, good lawyers and bad lawyers, these professions at least have high minimum standards. To call yourself a financial planner you can currently undertake a course lasting just a couple of days or you can go the full hog and become a certified financial planner (CFP), which means you need a relevant undergraduate degree, an advanced diploma of financial planning if your degree was not a financial planning course, five units of post-university study at master's level (one unit of which is ethics), three years' supervised experience and to have signed up for ongoing education - just as a starting point.