Attack of the Spin Doctors

The other thing that bothered me about the Board’s campaign release is this statement: “CFP Board is contributing $9.3 million over two years to jump-start the campaign.” So, it looks like the Board’s really stepping up, too, with some serious skin in the game. But let’s do the math: The fee increase is $145 a year, for 62,000 CFPs, that’s $8,990,000. Which is just pretty darn close to the $9 million a year the Board says the campaign is going to cost.

Probably just a coincidence, but it does beg the question that if the dues increase covers the cost of the campaign, what’s the Board’s “contribution” for? My skeptical guess is that their “contribution” is more of an “advance” so they can start the campaign now, and recoup their “contribution” out of fees as they start coming in. Plus, of course, there will be additional fees from new CFPs attracted by the Awareness Campaign, as well (pretty neat trick, getting CFPs to pay for increasing their competition, eh?). And, no one’s said anything about dropping the fees back down at the end of the four-year awareness campaign—so, I suspect there will be plenty of cash flow to cover the Board’s “contribution.” Many of us had hoped that under the Kevin Keller regime, the Board would be more up front with CFPs, but this sure feels like business as usual to me.