Do you think that individuals should use the CPFIS scheme which is offered to them, often by financial planners?

There are 2 parts to this question which I will answer in parts.

1. Usefulness of CPFIS. I cannot share advice on what you should do, but I can share what I have done. First, I have set aside money from OA to SA. Thereafter, I set aside as much as I could to top up my SA to the FRS level. This formed my financial safety net. Thereafter, I invested into Index Funds approved by CPFIS. Do note that is a limit on what can be used in the CPF-OA
2. Usefulness of financial planners. This is a blanket statement, but I generally feel that CPFIS, if I am just buying index funds and buying crashes, I won’t rely on a financial planner. I generally do not think that financial planners can beat the performance of index funds and I do not need financial planners to help me become rich, but instead I rely upon them for my protection needs (insurance)

Yes for investing your OA monies. You can only invest anything above the 20k you need to set aside.

For CPFIS funds, there are only about 60+ and you can honestly find the best long term performing with just the fingers available on your hands.

Constructing a globally diversified portfolio of about 5 to 6 funds are not that hard to achieve using these available funds.

I do recommend you to look at the non ILP products in the market, and buy direct funds either through an investment platform or DIY using FSMOne.

Plus, it's getting cheaper. Currently the maximum sales charge an FA can charge you is 1.5% which will drop to 0% in Oct 2019, and a max wrap fee of 0.7% which will drop to 0.4% at the same time.