CFP Board gives stay on new standards

The CFP Board’s directors decided this week to give CFP holders a six-month grace period.

Certified financial planner certificants must implement the revised Standards of Professional Conduct by Jan. 1, 2009, the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. said yesterday.
The revised standards go into effect July 1, but the Washington-based CFP Board’s directors decided this week to give CFP holders a six-month grace period to implement the standards fully in their practices.
“CFP certificants are engaged in a wide variety of business settings and activities, and the introduction of the Jan.1, 2009, enforcement date allows certificants to ensure that all aspects of their practices are fully aligned with the revised standards,” said David Strege, chairman of the board of directors.
Mr. Strege is senior wealth coach with Syverson Strege & Co. of Des Moines, Iowa, which manages about $250 million.
Conduct by CFP certificants through the Jan. 1 enforcement date will be reviewed under the CFP Board’s current Standards of Professional Conduct.
“The standards will be in place. It’s the enforcement that has the six-month window,” said CFP Board spokesman Chris Wloszczyna.
The new standards include heightened disclosure requirements as well as obligations that CFPs put their clients’ interest ahead of their own.
The standards require CFPs providing financial planning services to act with the “duty of care of a fiduciary,” which the organization says “is partly defined as acting in the best interest of the client.”
The duty of care standard is intended for use in situations where there is no full financial planning process, such as performing brokerage services, including transacting orders for securities, Mr. Wloszczyna said.
The CFP Board has been educating certificants on the new ethical standards, and material on them is on the board’s website: www.CFP.net/aboutus/Standards.asp.