The King Is Dead: Long Live the King

Now, Elissa is one of the sharpest minds in the independent advisory world. In the few times I’ve disagreed with her over one thing or another, more often than not (I’m sorry to say), she’s turned out to be right. And this is a case in point. At the time, my feeling was that a profession needs a professional designation, and for better or worse, the planning profession’s designation is the CFP, owned and regulated by the CFP Board. So if it’s broke, we need to fix it.

Yet, in conversations with countless advisors since then, my sense is that the sentiment among CFPs and non-CFPs alike is closer to Elissa’s than mine. It appears that the Board, despite the participation of some of the finest planners in the business, has drifted further and further from representing the interests and the sentiment of professional financial planners. Perhaps it’s time for a successor to step up: Could that be on the FPA’s agenda?