If the CFP Board won’t delay its best-interest standards until after the SEC acts, the eight firms said in a comment letter delivered to the CFP Board on February 2 that it should limit its fiduciary standard to instances where an advisor engages in very narrowly defined financial planning.
In particular, the eight B-Ds object to the CFP Board’s definition of financial planning as “a collaborative process that helps maximize a client’s potential for meeting life goals through ‘financial advice’ that integrates relevant elements of the client’s personal and financial circumstances,” they said in a comment letter to the CFP Board.
The attempt by the B-D industry to delay a fiduciary standard “isn’t surprising,” said FPA national president Frank Paré. “But it’s not as if they’re putting together any new arguments. We have been hearing the same thing for the past 11 or 12 years. I think the CFP Board is doing the right thing, and we are applauding them.”
Napfa president Scott Beaudin echoed those thoughts. “At the end of the day, it will be our profession and increasing consumer demand that drives fiduciary advice forward, not regulators,” he said. “That’s why we support the CFP Board.”