Planners form coalition to press reforms

The leaders of three financial planning organizations have formed a coalition to represent the industry as Congress works to reform the financial services industry. The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. of Washington, the National Association of Personal Financial Advisers in Arlington Heights, Ill., and the Financial Planning Association of Denver — working together as the Financial Planning Coalition — issued a statement today outlining their goals. Among them is ensuring that financial planning services are “delivered to the public with fiduciary accountability and transparency, serving the client’s best interest first and always.” Additionally, the group wants financial planning services to be “specifically regulated to distinguish and differentiate professionals who have met essential requirements to practice, including examination, education, experience and ethics, as modeled and enforced by the certified financial planner certification.” The aim is to enable the public to “easily identify who is a financial planner and subject to these standards,” according to the statement. “The recent upheaval in the markets and the Bernard Madoff fiasco have highlighted the gaps in regulation governing financial services,” Marilyn Capelli Dimitroff, chairwoman of the CFP Board’s board of directors, said in a statement. “We hope to work with Congress to produce legislation that puts clients first and enables consumers to identify a trusted financial adviser.”