Advisors took to Twitter on Tuesday to voice their concerns about the CFP Board announcing that it would remove from its consumer-facing website, letsmakeaplan.org, any information on how advisors are compensated.
“Woa. Big announcement from @CFPBoard going out to CFP certificants this week: the CFP Board is entirely removing any discussion of how advisors are compensated from its Let’s Make A Plan website, and instead will force consumers to dig into advisor disclosures,” tweeted Nerd’s Eye View blogger Michael Kitces.
Kitces added that “In the long run, though, the @CFPBoard isn’t doing itself any favors by hiding compensation information from consumers & telling them to work harder to find it. It’s ALREADY required disclosure under Form ADV. Why make consumers do more work if there’s nothing to hide?”
The CFP Board’s email sent to certificants states that “The three compensation method categories previously provided by the search tool — Commission-Only, Commission and Fee, and Fee-Only — were broad enough to capture the various compensation methods that financial planners use today, but not very specific or helpful to consumers.”