Certified financial planner
originally posted: 11/22/2006 reposted: 2/18/2011 This post has not been recently reviewed or revised by the author and may be out of date. If you notice an error or are in doubt, please send a new question by email or ask for an update. Email asktony@tonynovak.com.
Q: Why do you criticize the CFP designation?
A: My comments apply to only a minority of CFPs and the criticism is of the CFP Board policies, not individual planners. The criticism is simply a matter of the lack of educational and experience requirements to become a CFP. By the CFP Board's own admission, about one in ten Certified Financial Planners do not have the equivalent of a bachelor's degree in a business-related field and there is no experience requirement or peer review requirement of a CFP's work. If the decision were left up to me, anyone offering their service as an adviser should have at least the equivalent of a master's degree in their field. Some CFPs have shown that they posses an academic knowledge of the field, but do not have the broad-based experience that the public deserves in any professional. In short, some CFPs (certainly not all) are simply using the designation to imply a level of credibility that, in reality, is not there. My articles on the topic simply suggest that a person searching for a financial adviser should use different criteria of evaluation.
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