Second Exposure Draft of Proposed Revisions to CFP Board's Ethical Standards
 
Survey Results

On March 9, 2007, the Board of Directors of Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board) released a Second Exposure Draft of proposed revisions to CFP Board's Standards of Professional Conduct for a 45-day public comment period, which ended April 25, 2007.

122 respondents completed the online survey during the comment period.

1) Respondent types:

• 86.9% CFP® certificant
• 03.3% Program Director
• 01.6% CE Sponsor
• 07.4% Financial Planner not certified by CFP Board
• 02.5% Regulator or Compliance Specialist
• 04.1% Consumer

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2) Respondents' financial planning practice type:

• 29.5% Independent
• 51.6% Affiliated with a broker/dealer
• 27.9% Fee-only
• 43.4% Fees and Commission
• 04.1% Commission-only
• 04.9% Salary
• 09.0% None of the above - I'm not a financial planner

Note: Total exceeds 100%, as Respondents may select more than one practice type description.

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3) In general, the proposed revisions are clearer and easier to understand than CFP Board's current Standards of Professional Conduct

• 17.4% Strongly Agree
• 60.3% Agree
• 10.7% No Opinion
• 09.1% Disagree
• 02.5% Strongly Disagree

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4) The proposed definition of "Fee-Only" matches my understanding of how that description should be used.

• 28.7% Strongly Agree
• 49.6% Agree
• 07.8% No Opinion
• 07.8% Disagree
• 06.1% Strongly Disagree

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5) The proposed definition of "Fiduciary" matches my understanding of how fiduciary duty should be practiced by financial planners

• 16.0% Strongly Agree
• 53.8% Agree
• 06.7% No Opinion
• 15.1% Disagree
• 08.4% Strongly Disagree

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6) The public will understand the proposed definition of "Fiduciary."

• 06.8% Strongly Agree
• 43.2% Agree
• 14.4% No Opinion
• 21.2% Disagree
• 14.4% Strongly Disagree

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7) I support proposed Rule 1.4, which states that a CFP® professional should always place the interests of his or her clients first, regardless of whether the services provided by the CFP® professional are "financial planning services."

• 67.8% Strongly Agree
• 19.5% Agree
• 02.5% No Opinion
• 04.2% Disagree
• 05.9% Strongly Disagree

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8) I believe most CFP® professionals already provide to clients through spoken disclosure or in writing the basic information that proposed Rule 1.3 would require in a written agreement between the client and CFP® professional (or the CFP® professional's employer).

• 12.0% Strongly Agree
• 46.2% Agree
• 29.1% No Opinion
• 06.0% Disagree
• 06.8% Strongly Disagree

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9) The proposed revisions are an improvement over CFP Board's current Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility

• 21.4% Strongly Agree
• 53.0% Agree
• 12.0% No Opinion
• 07.7% Disagree
• 06.0% Strongly Disagree

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10) The proposed revisions strengthen the ethical standards for CFP® certification.

• 24.8% Strongly Agree
• 54.7% Agree
• 08.5% No Opinion
• 05.1% Disagree
• 06.8% Strongly Disagree

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11) The proposed revisions will benefit financial planning clients.

• 30.8% Strongly Agree
• 44.4% Agree
• 08.5% No Opinion
• 10.3% Disagree
• 06.0% Strongly Disagree

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12) Comments:

The text of comments received from respondents who identified themselves is included among the comments available here.

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