CFP Board officials gave a pep talk to advisors at the spring meeting of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors in Phoenix on Thursday morning, stressing the need to raise professional standards and knowledge.

“We’re going to lose several thousand of us over the next few years, at the exact same time the need for advice is increasing,” said Mike Greene, chair of the CFP Board of Standards and an executive at Ameriprise Financial.

“If it’s a true profession, we need a codified body of knowledge,” said Greene at the meeting.
An initiative launched by the board in November, the Center for Financial Planning, will address three key challenges the industry faces: broadening diversity among planners, developing the workforce and building a body of professional knowledge.

The center is under the umbrella of the CFP Board. “We wanted this to have some financial muscle behind it. And the brand matters,” Greene said.

The effort is backed by several big financial services firms, and has representation from the National Urban League and the National Council of La Raza. Scholarship and mentorship programs are in the works, and the center will put out calls for academic research.

The goal is to raise $10 million for the center, “and we’re about halfway there,” said executive director Marilyn Mohrman-Gillis in an interview.

Mohrman-Gillis hopes a new academic journal supported by the center will give financial planning faculty a chance to publish and advance in their careers.

“There’s a shortage of staff to teach” at the 140 baccalaureate programs in existence today, said Kevin Keller, chief executive of the CFP Board of Standards. There are another 35 college programs in the works, he said.

Separately, the CFP Board is updating its Standards of Professional Conduct, which include practice standards and codes of ethics.  The board has held meetings in nine cities this year, taking input from CFPs, along with virtual town hall webcasts.

NAPFA attendees quizzed Greene and Keller about strengthening the conduct standard to a full fiduciary status under Rule 1.4 of the board’s rules of conduct—a tricky issue for commission-based planners.

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