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About the Financial Planning Coalition
The Financial Planning Coalition is a collaboration of the Financial Planning Association® (FPA), the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standard, Inc. (CFP Board) and the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) to influence legislators and regulators to protect consumers while creating a true profession for financial planners.
Members of the Financial Planning Coalition will collaborate as Congress undertakes regulatory reform to achieve the following objectives:
  • Financial planning services are delivered to the public with fiduciary accountability and transparency, serving the client's best interest first and always.
  • Financial planning services are 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 public can easily identify who is a financial planner and subject to these standards.
The Coalition is currently working with legislators to establish a professional oversight board for financial planners that would be subject to federal authority and a true fiduciary standard of care. Additionally, individuals who provide broad financial advice – or present themselves as “financial planners” or similar title – would be subject to the board’s oversight.
 
The Coalition defines financial planning as the process of advising individuals and families across a range of personal finance topics in addition to investment advice) is unregulated as a profession, resulting in major gaps in current laws. The title “financial planner” should be recognized as distinct from sales persons – and held to corresponding competence and ethical standards similar to those required of a CPA, doctor or lawyer. Individuals should not be able to call themselves a “financial planner” without proper oversight and regulation.
 
The Financial Planning Coalition’s Efforts to Advance a Strategy to Establish Regulatory Recognition of the Financial Planning Profession
 
The Coalition is meeting with policy makers in Congress and with consumer and industry organizations to discuss our goals and our conceptual proposal and to seek input as we work to further refine the details.
 
Our proposal is outlined in our Case Statement, and has been developed to further the goals outlined in our Statement of Understanding.
 
Statements and Press Releases
 
The Financial Planning Coalition distributes stakeholder updates, press releases and formal statements regarding the need for consumer protection and activities taking place in Congress to enact a strict fiduciary standard for all financial advisors. 
 
Get Involved!

Many of you have asked how you can help the Financial Planning Coalition protect American consumers. We've created a sample letter to Congress and encourage NAPFA members to support the Coalition's grassroots efforts.   

Financial Planning Coalition Message Points

 

Below are some simple message points you can use in conversations with your Representative and local media outlets to convey your support for establishing financial planning as a recognized and regulated profession, with meaningful competency, practice, and ethics standards:

 

  • Financial planners—who advise individuals and families across a broad range of personal finance topics—are unregulated as a profession.
  • The patchwork of regulation covering financial planners has left gaps that allow anyone to call themselves a financial planner or advisor without meeting appropriate competency, practice and ethics standards.
  • This has resulted in consumer confusion, misrepresentation, and fraud.  [Share personal experience advising a client who was misled by a financial agent who was not working in the client’s best interests.]
  • Holding financial planners and advisors to basic competency levels and a fiduciary standard is a key component to restoring consumer confidence. 

Encourage your clients to contact their Representative in Congress concerning financial services refrom.  There's a consumer oriented sample letter on the Financial Planning Coalition website that makes it easy to get involved.
 
Advisors contacting the Media
 
There's one more important thing you can do. Send a Letter to the Editor to your local newspaper. Letters to the Editor show your representative that you are paying attention to their votes in Congress and are also an effective way to get the word out to your local community.
 
Comments and questions about the Financial Planning Coalition can be directed to:
 
NAPFA Contact
 
Nancy Hradsky
Special Projects Manager
847-483-5400 ext. 103
 
Media Support
 
Benjamin Lewis
NAPFA Public Relations Representative
301-963-7555