It won’t be released to the public for another month or two, and the details are being closely guarded, but Financial Planning Association officials hint that a new FPA white paper will address such thorny issues as the definition of financial planning and how–or whether–it should be regulated.
“This paper will be about the landscape,” association Chair Guy M. Cumbie told Investment Advisor during the annual FPA Retreat in a Houston suburb in late April. But the white paper will not “reach conclusions on how or if we should be regulated,” he adds. Instead, said President Robert Barry, it is intended to be “the spark that may create a dialogue.”
Indeed, the long-running quest to turn the designation of certified financial planner into a legally defined professional designation akin to doctor, dentist, or lawyer showed no sign og slowing down during the Retreat’s panels and schmooze sessions. During the “Knowledge Caf?” discussion session that wrapped up the retreat on April 29, some FPA members called for giving the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards more teeth to police offenses in the planning industry.