CFP Board

The more out-of-left-field the change, the more profound the lesson learned, our columnist has found in the corporate and individual practice realms.

Here are prep techniques and resources for candidates taking a test that can seem daunting.

Director tenures, nominations and committees are changing after an independent task force identified weaknesses.

Financial advisors can help the country’s increasingly diverse population, but we must fully realize our vision of recruiting more young and racially diverse talent.

Industry groups warn of creeping fiduciary obligations, while consumer advocates see it as a setback for investor protections

The widespread popularity of the compensation descriptor, long ballyhooed by RIAs, ultimately proved problematic for the CFP Board which has updated its standards.

Candidates will be allowed “two tissues” while testing at home and are advised to have bed linen handy.

“The face of our industry is typically not me,” says the Vanguard and DFA veteran. “I thought about how many young people that I could inspire. So I raised my hand.”

“If anything, this environment has actually pushed people to complete their credits,” says John Loper, managing director of professional practice for the CFP Board.

The board is “decisively moving away” from allowing advisors to self-disclose, CEO Kevin Keller says.

Thousands of planners have dropped their memberships in recent years. Here’s why I joined them.

“Especially in this time when we are thinking, ‘Is there going to be a shortage of opportunity,’ in comes this one. It’s put a lot of fire in me to learn as much as I can,” says new college graduate Kameron Kindle.

The data on Black and Latino advisors helps track the industry’s progress amid nationwide Black Lives Matter protests.

The change is one of several made to the board’s disciplinary reporting process following a report by an independent task force that found “systemic, long-standing, governance-level weaknesses.”

Two testing windows remain for this year, but the board cautions they will take place “only if they can be conducted without compromising the health of exam candidates.”

When Congress killed tax deductions for financial advice in 2017, the world was a different place. Now planners want them restored to help clients during the coronavirus crisis

“We are trying to balance the health and safety of the [CFP] candidates with their desire to complete the exam,” CEO Kevin Keller says.

Restoring fee-model disclosures to its website is just the first step in correcting the organization’s “monumental failure,” according to fiduciary watchdog Ron Rhoades.

The decision does not diminish the board's conviction that consumers have a right to know how they are paying for products and services, writes the former board chairwoman.

“The only reason why I could see them doing that is shame,” one critic says of the move; the board calls it an important shift in the conversation about fiduciary care.