In response to broker-dealer and practitioner demands, the CFP Board of Standards has delayed enforcement of its new fiduciary standards until June 30, 2020—the same date that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new retail advice standards go into effect, CFP Board Chairwoman Susan John announced at a press conference on Monday.

The group’s 85,000 CFP professionals will still be expected to “understand and comply with the new rules” on October 1, but the delay will push back the implementation of disciplinary investigations and actions under the new rules by more than eight months, John said.

While enforcement is delayed, the new standards will be taught in the more than 200 colleges and universities that offer CFP prep programs and will be part of the content for the November exam that will be taken by CFP applicants. CFP Board President Kevin Keller said.

“The alignment with the SEC date is helpful because there is significant overlap between the standards, with the notable exception that ours require CFP professionals to act as fiduciaries whenever they’re providing advice to clients,” John said.

“Since the beginning, we have said that the CFP Board won’t be led by regulatory standards, but we won’t ignore them either,” added John.

John denied the CFP Board is capitulating to aggressive brokerage industry delay tactics. “Yes, we’ve had pressure from firms," she said, "but we’ve also heard from the FPA and many individual CFPs from firms large and small,” whom she said asked for more time to implement and coordinate the standards with the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest.

John maintained that the CFP Board would not water down its standards in the face of pressure from financially powerful brokerage concerns. “Firms were also asking us to modify and change our standards, but they’re set in stone,” she added. “Our standards are our standards and and we don’t necessarily need to conform to Reg BI mode."

There is “a great deal of ambiguity and confusion” regarding Reg BI, she added. “I would say our standards offer more clarity than Regulation Best Interest. When you look at all the Reg BI training and forums out there, almost every one of them says something different.”

The CFP Board’s delay goes a long way toward “ensuring that CFPs have adequate time to adopt systems that are in alignment,” she said. "We made the change so that ultimately people are going to get the advice they deserve."