The CFP Board's Duplicitous Fiduciary Standard

Here is a very good article on the duplicitous CFP proposed fiduciary standard which is really just a marketing tool to protect the millions of dollars in annual revenue on CFP courses, study materials, and testing fees.

I have written extensively on the need of a true fiduciary standard.  In fact, my "Beware"  blog post was linked by Abnormal Returns and Dan Solin.   I have refrained from criticizing the professional designations and organizations, but they are unavoidably a major part of the problem.  I started looking at the CFP in the 1980's when it was two competing organizations (which later merged) and have done so through the subsequent years and every time I looked at the CFP they had an ethical
controversy.  I studied their past tests and the answers and found them to be primarily oriented to conformity and antiquated (not current with financial academic literature) financial concepts.  This not to say that there are not some CFPs who truly try to conduct themselves as absolute fee-only fiduciaries without any direct or indirect conflicts of interest.  The problem is trying to find them and sift them from the others who say they are but are not.  Consequently, I could never ethically accept the CFP as a valid credential with which I would want to be associated. 

The public continues to be misled by financial writers and commentators, some of whom directly involved with the CFP Board or as members, who perpetuate the illusion of the CFP as a reliable and trustworthy designation that the general public can trust; thus luring them into the kill zone to be reeled in by people who are not true fiduciaries although they may call themselves fiduciaries.  This is the type of society in which we live and must proactively protect ourselves in defiance of commonly accepted ignorance and deceit.


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