Issues & Initiatives

On December 3, 2008, Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board), the Financial Planning Association^® (FPA^®), and National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) formed the Financial Planning Coalition to provide the financial planning profession with a strong, unified voice in anticipation of proposals for financial regulation reform, advancing the financial planning profession, and enhancing consumer protection by encouraging regulations that will help the public identify those competent, ethical advice-givers who are subject to a fiduciary duty in the delivery of financial planning services.

The Coalition has three main focuses:

• Protecting consumers by ensuring financial planning services are delivered to the public with fiduciary accountability and transparency;
• Fixing the outdated and problematic patchwork of regulation overseeing various aspects of financial planning; and
• Addressing financial planning regulatory gaps.

The Coalition is currently working with legislators to establish both a professional oversight board for financial planners that would be subject to federal authority, and a true fiduciary standard of care. Individuals who provide broad financial advice – or present themselves as "financial planners" or similar – would be subject to the board's oversight. The rules governing financial planners – which would include baseline competency, practice and ethics standards, but would not be at the same level as the CFP^® certification requirements – would be established by the oversight board and subject to approval by a federal regulatory authority.