The Financial Planning Association announced Wednesday it is forming a special advisory group designed to give members more influence over organizations that govern them.
The FPA Member Advocacy Council will take input regarding the activities of the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc., as well as other groups that formulate policies that affect planners.
“For the first time, CFP professionals are going to have a source they can go to and know someone is going to hear them,” said FPA president Pamela Sandy. “The council may put us in a position to be more vocal on issues we're hearing about from our members.”
The FPA recently resisted a CFP Board effort to fund its new Center for Financial Planning in part through a $25 automatic donation from mark holders that was collected as part of their annual renewal fees. The CFP Board dropped that fundraising approach.
Some FPA members also have raised concerns about the CFP Board's rules surrounding fee-only compensation. Controversy over that topic has fomented for years and has resulted in a lawsuit in which there was a federal appeals court hearing Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
Although Ms. Sandy acknowledged that those two examples “are in the mix of situations where we hear from our members, there's really not one thing that's an impetus” for the new council.
“It's been on the drawing board for a while,” said Ms. Sandy, CEO of advisory firm Confiance. “It's going to allow members to voice their concerns in a collective way.”
The CFP Board, which grants the designation and administers the related educational and ethical requirements, said it talks to FPA frequently.
“We have a great relationship with FPA with open lines at the volunteer leaders level, at the CEO level and the working staff level,” CFP Board CEO Kevin Keller said in an interview. “We welcome the input of FPA, whether it's through this new advocacy council or through relationships that already exist.”
The FPA council will meet for the first time next month and will soon field a survey to FPA members to collect feedback on the most important issues they face.
The group will consist of six members, all appointed by the FPA president. Three will be current or past FPA leaders, two will be at-large FPA members and one will be a representative of the board of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors.
Nicholas Nicolette, a former FPA president, will chair the council. It will have a dedicated email address:
[email protected], which will be operational by the end of the week.
The positions that the FPA takes on public policy, such as the Labor Department fiduciary rule, will not be under the purview of the council. Those matters will continue to be handled by the FPA Legislative and Regulatory Issues Committee.
The FPA has approximately 24,000 members, many of whom are CFPs. There are approximately 75,500 CFPs in the United States.
