CFB Board - Nicely Done

For the uninitiated, CFP Board is the private regulatory agency serving the US CFP® community of over 57,000 financial advisory professionals. It owns the intellectual property rights to “CFP®” and “Certified Financial Planner™.” For over twenty years it has worked diligently to successfully establish these marks as the predominant and most esteemed credential in the financial planning universe.

Unfortunately, the path has not always been smooth. How could it have been? It had never been traveled before. Yet there have been many times when it seemed to be in its own way. Suffice to say the term: “CFP Lite” will continue to roll eyes from coast to coast while more than a few of us can remember the days when there were four, count ‘em four, different mission statements included on CFP Board’s web-site. None of them were particularly instructive or clarifying. Moreover, as a 501(c)(3) organization answering to diverse and often conflicting agendas, it frequently functioned within the chaos that comes of having too many masters and too little definition. Its cast of volunteers changed substantially every year. For the last decade or so, there has been scant stability in its CEO position.

So it came as news most welcome to learn from this month’s CFP Board Report (February, 2008) that CFP Board had adopted a revised Mission Statement at the January 2008 meeting of its Board of Directors:

The mission of Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. is to benefit the public by granting the CFP® certification and upholding it as the recognized standard of excellence for personal financial planning.

The resolution then articulates several Core Objectives with similar precision and clarity.

Credentialing: Provide the most rigorous financial planning credentialing process that is valid, reliable, and legally defensible.

Education: Establish and enforce educational standards for enhancing the knowledge, skills, and abilities of current and potential CFP® certificants.

Enforcement: Protect the public’s interest through rigorous, ongoing enforcement of CFP Board’s Standards of Professional Conduct.

Communication: Build the CFP® certification brand as the recognized standard of excellence in personal financial planning; promote its understanding and acceptance among the public and all other stakeholders.

Advocacy: Influence policy to benefit the public and increase access for all to competent and ethical financial planning.

Sustainability: Strengthen CFP Board’s capacity to achieve its mission and serve all stakeholders in a timely, accurate and professional manner.

This is good news for the profession and the public. After a couple of decades of mission confusion, this Mission Statement seems clear, concise, articulate and appropriate. It does what mission statements are supposed to do by setting forth guiding principles that will serve as permanent guides to successor boards and directors. This is good work.

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