After proposing sweeping changes to its standards for CFPs earlier this year, the Certified Financial Planning Board of Directors is allowing more time to revise its proposals and is planning more opportunities for advisors to weigh in with their opinions.
The professional regulatory organization announced on Wednesday that it is delaying updates to its Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct that would lead to a more stringent application of fiduciary best interest for all of its certification holders.
After receiving more than 1,300 comments from advisors and other professional organizations, the CFP Board will revise its proposal, said Chairman Blaine Aikin at the 2017 Schwab IMPACT conference in Chicago.
“We ultimately met this past week and came up with another version of the standards with some meaningful changes compared to what was proposed before,” said Aikin. “We will have new proposed standards out before Christmas.”
Aikin would not comment on what the new proposal will entail, nor would he describe how it differs from the revisions the CFP Board proposed in June 2017.
However, Aikin said that advisors’ comments on the practicality of the CFP Board’s earlier proposal were taken into consideration when creating the revisions.
“Our principles are vitally important to us,” said Aikin. “However, the board was sensitive to thej pratical aspects of what it takes to comply with our standards.”