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May 05, 2013 at 07:24 PM
We are not amused.
That was the clear message from attendees of FPA Retreat 2013 in Palm Springs, Calif., to the announcement during a town hall meeting on Sunday that the CFP Board is considering a plan to enter the continuing education provider market.
The CFP Board, which is currently tasked with setting the standards and regulating CFP CE providers, would now become a provider itself if the plan were eventually approved.
“It’s a conflict of interest and a serious threat to the profession and the credibility of the CFP mark,” FPA president Michael Branham said when stating the FPA’s position on the matter.
Branham stressed that the CFP Board is at this time only exploring the idea of entering the CE provider market.
Michael Kitces, director of research for Pinnacle Advisory Group (and AdvisorOne contributor), compared the CFP Board’s plan to a hypothetical situation in which the SEC “suddenly announced it would open an RIA that was direct-to-consumer for financial advice, while still regulating the rest of us. The conflict of interest is so apparent; I don’t see how it would work.”
