Part of the Board’s effort will be to make sure that the CFP designation is seen as the pre-eminent certification for financial planners in the U.S.
“There are 170 certifications out there, the public is confused, and that’s why we’ve invested more than $60 million over the past five and a half years to promote the value of the CFP certification,” Keller says.
In fact, Keller says, the DOL’s fiduciary rulemaking, which goes into enforcement in 2017, should increase the number of advisors who get the CFP certification. But the CFP Board doesn’t want all advisors to become CFPs, says Keller.
“Quite frankly, we would have to water down the CFP standards to the point that we would lose what makes the CFP such a desirable designation, but we also recognize that 76,000 CFPs isn’t enough to serve the country’s needs, either,” Keller says. “We’re working on creating access for the public to a more diverse and sustainable supply of competent and ethical financial advisors.”
The CFP designation was born in 1973 when the first College for Financial Planning class graduated. In 1985, the college helped establish an independent, non-profit professional certifying entity which eventually became the CFP Board.