CFP Board Continues Its Diversity Focus

CFP® Certificants in the News According to CFP Board “The Abacus Wealth Partners Scholarship for Increased Diversity in Financial Planning aims to advance the financial planning profession by providing financial assistance to students pursuing CFP® certification who are from populations underrepresented in the profession and have a financial need (emphasis added).” About The Sponsor Abacus…

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Your Smart Watch Can Void Your Passing Score on the CFP® Board Exam

CFP® Certificants in the News CFP Board’s recently revised PATHWAY TO CFP® CERTIFICATION AGREEMENT (PATHWAY) highlights key requirements for certification. We’ll address select topics contained within this CFP Board publication, beginning with when you can publicly represent yourself as a “Candidate for CFP® Certification. Candidate for CFP® Certification You can represent yourself in this manner…

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Making Sense of the Duty to Report Information to CFP Board

CFP® Certificants in the News Are CFP® Certificants obligated to report merely being charged with a felony or misdemeanor to CFP Board? How about being notified of a regulatory investigation or action? Read on to get the answers, based on CFP Board’s Duty to Report Information publication. Text in quotation marks is taken from this…

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Does Recommending Cryptocurrency Violate CFP Board Rules?

CFP® Certificants in the News You’re a CFP® Professional with an investment advisory practice and you just advised a client to purchase cryptocurrency assets (CRAs). Did you just violate the ethical standards? Should you expect a communication from the Disciplinary and Ethics Commission? Here’s the seemingly equivocal answer—maybe yes and maybe no. This article will…

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Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace

CFP® Certificants in the News “Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board) announced…that it is seeking public comment on proposed changes to CFP Board’s Procedural Rules. The proposed changes are intended to modernize CFP Board’s enforcement processes and further CFP Board’s work to uphold its Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct (Code and Standards) for the…

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The CFP Board Exam and the 10-Year Rule

CFP® Certificants in the News CFP Board generally considers regulations fair game on the CFP Board exam if they become effective within six months of the exam date.  Simple enough, right?  As you might suspect, that’s not always the case.  We’ll analyze the IRS’s recent re-interpretation of the stretch-IRA killing required distribution rules as a…

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How Financially Resilient Were Americans During the Pandemic?

CFP® Certificants in the News You may be surprised by some of the conclusions drawn about our financial resilience as a nation according to an article posted in CFP Board’s FINANCIAL PLANNING REVIEW dated May 12, 2022. We’ll frame this discussion in three parts: Context, Methodology, and Findings. Context According to the article, “the economic…

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The Psychology of Financial Planning

CFP® Certificants in the News Rational clients seem to make irrational financial decisions to the puzzlement and frustration of financial advisors. Why? One school of thought blames our emotions for our financial miscues.  Regrettably, we are not always self-aware of the power wielded by our sub-conscious emotions in the following behaviors and more: The buy-high/sell-low…

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Prepare for the CFP Board Exam

CFP® Certificants in the News You’re completing or have just completed the coursework required to take the CFP Board exam (the exam). Now what? Here are the potential next steps for you: Respect the exam’s breadth and depth, Budget your study time, Register for the exam, Use CFP Board resources, and Take a review course.…

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Protecting Public Trust with CFP Board Discipline

CFP® Certificants in the News Financial advisors, financial planners, and their employers have a vested interest in preserving, if not building upon, public trust in CFP® Certification. This article will focus on a specific interim suspension that, if anything, may initially err on the side of protecting public trust while ultimately providing a just result…

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