Let's Make a Plan

The CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER Board of Standards is rolling out a $37 million awareness campaign. Based on market research, the board found that consumers who represent the typical CFP's target audience are generally unaware of the credential or the benefits of working with a CFP. Further, when they learned about the value of comprehensive financial planning and the role of a CFP in that process, they were more likely to seek the services of a CFP.

The board commissioned a leading marketing agency, Arnold-DC, to place print ads (The Wall Street Journal’s Money & Investing section, SmartMoney, Kiplinger’s, Money and Barron’s), run commercials on cable news networks (CNN, MSNBC and the Fox News Channel)and lifestyle cable networks (The History Channel, HGTV and ESPN) and position banners on select web sites (LinkedIn, Morningstar.com, Bloomberg and Forbes). The campaign is called "Let's Make a Plan." The position statement is "If you need your whole financial life pulled together, a CFP professional is uniquely qualified to help.”

It is no wonder that the CFP credential is not well known. There are dozens of credentials in the financial services industry. A small industry creates credentials, develops curriculum for them and then markets them to insurance agents, stockbrokers, and financial advisors. It is literally a business with some of these mills producing several credentials in areas that range from life insurance to long term care insurance to mutual funds. Almost all of them can be obtained by satisfying very weak requirements.

The strongest credentials are Certified Public Account, Chartered Financial Analyst and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER. The CPA, CFA and CFP are also held to a fiduciary level of care when working with clients.

I hope that the CFP Board's campaign is successful. But I suspect it will take regulatory action to actually clean up the industry and provide consumers more information about the true nature of the credentials that advisors use to promote themselves.