The Financial Planning Association will take charge of an effort to achieve legal recognition of the term “financial planner” through title protection, according to a statement Thursday by the trade organization, which counts certified financial planner certificate holders and others as its members.
The effort, announced during FPA's annual update for members, will focus the group's advocacy work in coming years and reinforce the organization's role as a leader in the financial planning profession.
The decision has clear benefits for the investing public and CFP certificate holders, the FPA said in a statement, calling legal recognition of the title "a critical step in recognizing financial planning as a distinct, essential profession."
Title protection for the term "financial planner" will distinguish financial planners from other financial service providers, establish minimum standards and allow consumers to identify and work with a qualified financial planner for comprehensive financial planning services, the FPA said in its statement.
"The legal recognition of the term ‘financial planner’ through title protection is an acknowledgment that anyone proclaiming to be a financial planner meets minimum standards that protect consumers and advance the financial planning profession," Dennis Moore, 2022 FPA president, said in the statement.
"Presently, there are no minimum standards for competency and ethics for those professing to be financial planners," Moore added. "Some credentialing bodies have their own prescribed standards, but policymakers have established nothing at the state or federal level."
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