“Over 100,000 of them were holding themselves out to be something they were not,” Mohrman-Gillis says.
Nystrom says, "The problem is not going to solve itself or go away.”
The CFP certification standards can serve as a proxy for national standards, says Michael Watkins, a consultant on public policy and advocacy for the Napfa.
“We are working to make sure financial service providers have the competency to provide the services they say they provide,” adds Mohrman-Gillis.
Another priority for the Financial Planning Coalition is the extension of a fiduciary standard to broker-dealers that is being considered by the SEC and the Department of Labor. The coalition also supports allowing the SEC to collect user fees so it can adequately oversee the financial service providers under their purview.