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Trade Associations
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CFP Board Looks To Move Bankruptcy Cases To A Disclosure-Only Basis, Freeing Up Resources For Other Enforcement |
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Wednesday, January 18, 2012 20:08
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Tags: CFP Board The CFP Board is calling for comments on a proposed change in the way it discloses CFP declaring personal bankruptcy. The move will let certificants who have filed for bankruptcy in the last five years avoid discipline, but they will still need to disclose their credit status.
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Removing declarations of personal bankruptcy from its caseload will "allocate more of CFP Board's resources to investigate other matters such as fraud, misrepresentation, and misappropriation of funds," says the CFP Board, the licensing body of CFPs.
Bankruptcy was a factor in 36% of the 25 actions in the CFP Board's most recent disciplinary report.
Given the more than 60,000 planners falling under the non-profit CFP Board's oversight, planners don't get into trouble very often.
But when they do, the Board wants to make sure its Disciplinary & Ethics Commission has the time to catch them before they sully the good name of the profession as a whole.
As Michael Shaw, the CFP Board's managing director for professional standards and legal, notes, "CFP Board is the only financial planning designation that enforces its rules and standards through a process that may result in sanctions including suspension or revocation of the CFP marks."
Disclosing practitioner bankruptcies ensures that planners who fail to practice what they preach will be publicly noted.
"The proposed policy change continues this commitment of benefiting the public, being transparent and ensuring that consumers are aware of pertinent information about CFP(R) professionals and candidates," Shaw adds. "We believe that this proposed
change provides a better process, allowing for greater consumer protection since we will be disclosing bankruptcy filings for all
CFP(R) professionals."
The proposal is here. Comments can be sent to
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
over the next month.
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Brokerage, Insurance Groups Eager To "Help" The Labor Department Rewrite The Fiduciary Rules |
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012 14:30
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Tags: fiduciaries The Labor Department has gone to the biggest trade groups in the financial industry for guidance on whether its proposed fiduciary rules will have an impact on their business. The giants have jumped at the chance.
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In a joint letter, the industry groups thank the DOL for giving them input into the new fidicuary standard for retirement plan advice.
As a group, they are not known for their fierce advocacy of the fiduciary code, shall we say.
The Financial Services Roundtable represents the 100 biggest integrated financial conglomerates: the money center banks, the wirehouses, the true giants.
The Financial Services Institute represents the independent broker-dealer channel and has taken a vocal position against a flat fiduciary standard for all plan advisors.
SIFMA and the American Council of Life Insurers are also at the table. Purely fiduciary-oriented groups like the Financial Planning Coalition are not.
The trade organizations have protested that the proposed DOL rules would force commission-based advisors out of the plan business, making it impossible or very expensive for the typical worker to get retirement advice.
At this point, the odds that they're going to get some kind of exemption look pretty high.
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RIAs Driving New Wave Of Interest In CIMA Designation, IMCA Membership |
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Wednesday, January 11, 2012 16:07
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Tags: financial advisor The Certified Investment Management Analyst designation got a lot of press last year as an emerging competitor to existing credentials. It turns out that nearly all of that interest was driven by registered investment advisors.
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Membership in the Investment Management Consultants Association, which administers the CIMA credential, surged a healthy 7% to 8,400 last year.
Drill down into the numbers and you'll find that a net 620 RIAs joined the organization.
But overall membership actually increased by only 550.
Granted, attrition plagued the broker-dealer channel last year, but this indicates that RIAs are signing up for the CIMA faster while other types of advisory firm are giving up.
At this point, 27% of IMCA members are RIAs. If this goes on, IMCA may one day become a rival to today's RIA-heavy trade groups.
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Alan Goldfarb, CFP, To Serve As 2012 Chair Of CFP Board's Board of Directors |
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Wednesday, January 11, 2012 14:29
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Tags: advisor industry people | CFP Board Alan Goldfarb of Weaver Wealth Management in Dallas is the new Chair of the Board of Directors of Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.
This Website Is For Financial Professionals Only
 Goldfarb, according to the CFP Board press release, developed the curriculum and structure of the nation's first personal MBA program for the personal financial planning profession to be registered with CFP Board, a program offered at the University of Dallas Graduate School of Management.
Goldfarb received CFP certification in 1978 and, says the press release, was instrumental in the organization's creation more than 25 years ago.
Weaver's firm manages $219 million of discretionary assets and $60 million in non-discretionary assets, according to Weaver's latest ADV.
A past Chair of CFP Board's Board of Professional Review (now Disciplinary and Ethics Commission), the CFP Board says Goldfarb also served on the Ethics Task Force that developed the most recent version of CFP Board's Standards of Professional Conduct.
Goldfarb also has served as the Director of the Financial Services MBA Program at the University Of Dallas Graduate School of Management and as Executive Director for the Southwest Institute for Personal Financial Education.
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Sizing Up The Powerful Forces Aligned To Fight Making FINRA The SRO For RIAs |
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Tuesday, December 20, 2011 19:06
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Tags: advisor industry people | CFP Board | Dodd-Frank | FINRA | RIAs | SRO Last Thursday’s press conference went on for an hour but it took just three-minutes for David Tittsworth of the Investment Adviser Association to offer a scathing attack on the proposal to make FINRA the SRO for Registered investment Advisers.
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“So let me be clear,” Tittsowrth said in summing up,” enhanced investment advisor oversight is certainly needed, but giving that job to FINRA would be the wrong choice for a lot of reasons.”
IAA is a trade group with about 500 members that collectively manage more than $9 trillion. Last week, IAA joined with the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Financial Planning Association, National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, and TD Ameritrade Institutional to announce the results of a study the groups sponsored jointly that supported their opposition to naming FINRA the SRO for RIAs.
Expanding FINRA’s power by giving it responsibility for RIA examinations and regulation would impose, said Tittsworth, executive director of IAA, “extraordinarily high costs on investment advisors, most of whom are small businesses." However, Tittsworth added, cost was not the main reason IAA opposes naming FINRA the SRO for RIAs.
“This is not a debate just about cost, although that’s the focus of the press conference today,” said Tittsworth. “We believe that FINRA would be the wrong choice for a lot of other reasons, including their lack of accountability, their lack of transparency, their weak track record, and bias favoring the brokerage industry and that regulatory model.”
Tittsworth then slammed FINRA.
“FINRA’s budget and its governance are not subject to oversight by either the SEC or Congress,” said Tittsworth. “FINRA is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, the Administrative Procedures Act, and other laws that the SEC must adhere to.”
Near the end of his remarks, Tittsworth touched on an intriguing aspect in the alignment of powerful forces lobbying Congress over the future of RIA regulation. The North American Securities Administrators Association, an association representing state securities regulators, opposes naming FINRA as the RIA SRO.
“Some organizations that are not represented here agree with these positions, including the Managed Funds Association, AICPA and The North American Securities Administrators Association,” Tittsworth said.
Cynical as I am about Washington, my guess is the alignment of these anti-FINRA groups will not be enough thwart the move to name FINRA the SRO of RIAs, a move supported by the largest Wall Street brokerages and banks.
Look at the array of firms aligned to fight the big Wall Street firms.
The Managed Funds Association probably does not have a lot of campaign contributions sloshing around Washington, D.C. So its influence is limited.
The AICPA with 380,000 members is stronger, but accountants are not exactly known for making large political contributions.
IAA is indeed a powerful group with a large base of money managers that undoutedbly could have Washington influence. However, among its ranks are the largest separate account managers that depend on wirehouse distribution. So I am not so sure how far IAA will go in fighting the big firms.
Let's face it, Wall Street firms still have far more influence in Washington than all of these groups combined.
While NASAA’s endorsement carries moral authority, betting on morality from Washington is unwise.
Sorry to be so cynical, but I remain skeptical that the groups aligned to thwart making FINRA the SRO for RIAs will be able to overcome Wall Street’s influence over Congress.
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