The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards announced on Friday that it has put together a commission to reevaluate the standards for CFP Certification, wealth management’s most popular designation with more than 95,000 members.
The first-ever competency standards commission is comprised of 15 voluntary members consisting of financial services professionals, educators, experts in credentials, and leading members of the CFB Board including Jack Brod, Kamila Elliott, and Susan John, who have each previously served as chairs of the CFB Board’s board of directors.
The commission is tasked with reviewing every current CFP Certification requirement and recommending changes for improvements — a necessary move according to Dan Mosiand, the new chair of the CFP Board.
“It’s never been done before but its past due,” Mosiand told RIA Intel in a January interview. “We’ve got to take a look at those things and make sure that our standards are continuing to keep up with what’s needed to advance the profession.” He added that some of the current standards were established decades ago.
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Other appointees to the commission include Nandita Das, professor of finance and director of the CFP Board Registered Financial Planning Program; H. Amos Goodall, certified elder law attorney and member of the CFP Board Disciplinary and Ethics Commission; Jake Greenberg, managing director at Pure Financial Advisors; Archie Hoxton, financial planner and manager at Hoxton Planning & Management; Sonya Lutter, director of financial health and wellness at Texas Tech University; Peter Richardson, vice president of planning excellence at Northwestern Mutual; Josh Schneider, senior vice president at the Bethesda Group at Morgan Stanley; Joyce Schnur, senior vice president at Kaplan North America; Neal Solomon, managing director of WealthPro; Roy Swift, a certification expert and executive director of Workcred; Grace Yung, CEO and founder of Midtown Financial Group; and Khiara Cureton, a financial planning intern at Abeona Wealth and a current candidate for CFP certification.
Terms for the commission members will begin on March 20 and continue into 2024 “to ensure a thorough review and deliberation process,” the CFP Board said in a statement.
After the commission completes its review and finalizes its proposed recommendations — which will be subject to a public comment period — it will go to the board of directors for deliberation and approval. Based on its evaluation, the commission may propose changes in competency standards or may recommend that the CFP Board maintain its current standards.
“We are excited to have such a talented and experienced group of professionals serve on the Competency Standards Commission,” Moisand said in a statement Friday. “Their collective expertise will be invaluable in ensuring that the CFP Board’s competency standards continue to serve both the public interest and the financial planning profession by providing the highest level of competency and professionalism in financial planning.”
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