CFP Board Formally Launches Competency Standards Commission, Names 15 Members

What You Need to Know

The launch of the commission comes several months after the CFP Board revealed its intentions to conduct a top-to-bottom competency standards review.
Jack Brod, a former CFP Board chair, will head the new commission.
The review is expected to be a multi-year effort that will involve a proposal and public comment period.

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards announced Friday that it has formally established a Competency Standards Commission to review and evaluate the CFP Board’s competency requirements across education, examinations, experience and continuing education.

The launch comes several months after the CFP Board announced its intentions to conduct such a review, and several weeks after 2023 CFP Board Chair Dan Moisand told ThinkAdvisor that “everything would be on the table” in the review process, including much-debated requirement that CFP mark holders must have attained at least a bachelor’s degree.

As Moisand pointed out at the time, some stakeholders have suggested this requirement has exacerbated the lack of adequate representation of Black and Latino Americans in the CFP profession, and this contention will be considered in the forthcoming review.

Commission Members

As detailed in a press release published Friday by the CFP Board, members of the Competency Standards Commission include stakeholders from across the financial advisor industry. Jack Brod, a former CFP Board chair and current board member at Savant Wealth Management, will head the new commission, with support from more than a dozen commission members, who serve in industry roles ranging from top-level firm executives to interns seeking CFP certification.

All Competency Standards Commission members begin their terms on March 20, 2023, and will continue through 2024 to ensure “a thorough review and deliberation process,” according to the CFP Board announcement.

In previous discussions with ThinkAdvisor, Moisand has emphasized that the review process is likely to require several years of work, and it will eventually culminate in a proposal and public feedback process in which he encourages all stakeholders to get involved.

Explaining why the commission is being launched now, Moisand says the public’s need for professional financial planning and conflict-free advice has never been greater, but the profession is not regenerating itself fast enough to meet increased demand, and it does not sufficiently reflect the changing demographics of U.S. consumers.