CFP Board’s CE Plan Would Set Financial Planning Back 30 Years

Perhaps those CFPs remember what the Board seems to have forgotten: The CFP Board was created in 1985 (called the IBCFP back then), when leaders from the old IAFP and ICFP (which later combined to form the FPA) and NAPFA convinced Dr. Bill Anthes (founder of the College for Financial Planning, which owned the CFP mark) that financial planning would never become a profession as long as the CFP mark and the education of CFPs were overseen by the same organization. 

Here’s how the FPA described this conflict in its recent letter to the Board: “We are acutely concerned that the CFP Board becoming a CE provider is a solution to an issue that creates more problems…than it solves. Specifically, the conflict of interest perception that would be created would impede the development of the financial planning profession…The notion that the CFP Board would now set the rules in a highly competitive CE provider environment with over 1200 accredited providers and simultaneously become a player in that environment crosses a line of integrity and impartiality…the CFP Board has held itself to a higher standard of integrity over the years in part because the ultimate objective is not just the support of a certification but also the creation of a widely recognized and supremely respected new profession[which] necessitates a legitimate and clear separation between the licensing authorities that establish the CE guidelines from the providers of CE to avoid the impression of a non-level playing field and unfair competitive practices.” 

As the Board already approves all the CFP CE programs, isn’t it just a bit disingenuous to be lamenting the current state of continuing ed? Wouldn’t the obvious solution be for the Board to simply beef up its standards for CE approval?

That raises the question of why the Board really wants to get into the CE biz. Is it for the money? With its CFP base presumably tapped out over its multi-million dollar “Public Awareness Campaign,” revenue growth has to come from somewhere. Or is the CE idea simply a bargaining chip to be traded for concessions from other industry players such as the FPA?

Or as mentioned earlier, is the whole ridiculous notion simply an attempt to distract attention from the Board’s other public problems? At this point, we just don’t know. But we do know that if the Board follows through on its plan to offer CE programs, it will be a major step backward for a financial planning profession, a major loss for both CFPs and financial consumers—and probably the end of the Board’s ongoing bid to become the regulator of financial planning.