Last November, CFP Board announced its membership with Financial Planning Standards Board, Ltd. (FPSB), the international organization that owns the CFP marks outside the United States. CFP Board supports FPSB’s work with its member organizations to align the educational, examination, experience and ethical standards for financial planning professionals who hold CFP certification around the world.

While CFP Board’s membership with FPSB is relatively new, we are actively engaged with FPSB’s activities. CFP Board participates in task forces on ethics and certification and working groups on education and assessment. During the FPSB Council meeting in Christchurch, New Zealand this past month, CFP Board representatives were involved in meetings and panel discussions. Before the meeting, I had the opportunity to share my thoughts and experiences on how to be a lifetime trusted advisor with a group of financial planners associated with New Zealand’s Institute of Financial Advisers. Representatives of CFP Board’s sister organizations around the world showed great interest in the updated ethical standards CFP Board has adopted, especially as FPSB has initiated efforts toward standardized Code of Ethics, Rules of Conduct and Practice Standards for CFP professionals around the globe.

One thing I took away from the FPSB Council meeting was the deep respect FPSB members have for the CFP® professionals here in the U.S. who have done so much to further the practice of financial planning. I believe CFP Board's new engagement with FPSB comes at an opportune time. The number of CFP professionals outside the U.S. continues to grow at a rapid rate, with more than 55,000 CFP professionals now certified in other territories. It is essential that worldwide standards for CFP certification remain strong and relevant to the work CFP® certificants in the U.S. provide to their clients.

David G. Strege, CFP®
2008 Chair, Board of Directors
CFP Board

Over the past two weeks CFP Board's Web site was not accessible to visitors due to extensive maintenance which was necessitated by malicious cyber attack. This attack, which also affected thousands of other well-known sites, attempted to direct visitors away from CFP Board’s Web site to third party Web sites with unknown and possibly dangerous purposes.

Due to the uncertain risks the attack posed to visitors of CFP Board’s Web site, CFP Board chose to respond to the attack with the greatest of caution. The Web site was taken down for an extended period of investigation and maintenance. Taking a Web site offline is a serious decision. It causes inconveniences for all stakeholders and has an effect on an organization's internal operations. CFP Board’s decision to take the most conservative approach to the attack was made to best protect the interest of our stakeholders, safeguarding the integrity of our stakeholders’ data and ensuring that individuals accessing our Web site were not directed to dangerous Internet content.

While access to the online account section of CFP Board’s Web site was removed during the maintenance period, we were able to retain staff access to key portions of our databases. We have conducted a thorough review and have no reason to believe that any certificant data were affected by the cyber attack. The security systems used for CFP Board’s online accounts have been now been enhanced, and you can be confident that your information is protected when submitting transactions through our secure online application forms.

In addition to the extensive maintenance that took place over the past few weeks, we are taking additional steps to ensure that security for CFP Board’s Web site remains high and up-to-date. If you experience any difficulties with the Web site, please contact us at 800-487-1497 or mail@CFPBoard.org.

To all who attempted to access CFP Board’s Web site during the extended maintenance required by this unfortunate situation, thank you for your patience and understanding.

Kevin R. Keller, CAE®
CEO, CFP Board
CFP Board

Stocks can do amazing things. They can soar, surge, climb, leap, and perform all kinds of other superheroic statistical feats. Sadly, they also plummet, slide, drop, and fall, subject as they are to gravity and similar dismal laws. Though these two types of descriptions depict opposite trends, they have one important thing in common. They are both metaphorical, and they evoke powerful impressions and expectations in those who read or hear them.

Everyday speech is so rich in metaphor — describing one thing in terms of another, unrelated thing — that we don’t even recognize much of our language as figurative. Some common examples: ‘Let me run this idea by you’; ideas do not have legs (neither do tables or chairs, by the way) but ‘run’ is used metaphorically to request a brisk consideration of a proposal. ‘The markets are jittery today’; markets don’t get the jitters, investors do, but the phrase metaphorically expresses the reigning uncertainty. See what I mean? Oops! There’s another metaphor: using the verb to see to metaphorically denote understanding or comprehension.

Studies suggest that we routinely use between two and ten metaphors a minute. Try to spot the metaphors the next time you read an op-ed about the bear market, the next time you hear a pundit talk about investors clawing back gains, or the next time a financial advisor describes a portfolio as slipping downhill. Metaphors are a rich source of imagery and connotation, just the thing to spice up otherwise dull conversations. But metaphors are extremely powerful, too, and when used in the context of financial commentary, can influence people in subtle, unexpected ways.

In “Metaphors and the market: Consequences and preconditions of agent and object metaphors in stock market commentary,” published in the March 2007 issue of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Michael W. Morris and co-authors identified two primary types of metaphors used by market commentators. Agent metaphors describe price movements as the deliberate action of a living thing, as in “the NASDAQ climbed higher” and “the Dow fought its way upward.” Object metaphors, in contrast, describe price movements as non-living objects subject to external forces, as in “the NASDAQ dropped off a cliff” and “the Dow fell through a resistance level.” The researchers also found that “agent metaphors tend to be evoked by uptrends whereas object metaphors tend to be evoked by downtrends.”

So, you might well ask, what’s the point? (Which is, of course, yet another metaphor, in which the word point metaphorically represents the gist or nub of an argument…) The point is, the researchers concluded that these two different types of metaphor had two very different effects on those who heard or read them: “Agent metaphors imply that the observed trend reflects an enduring internal goal or disposition and hence it is likely to continue tomorrow … Object metaphors do not imply that it reflects an internal force that will manifest itself again tomorrow.” In other words, because a metaphor like “the NASDAQ climbed higher” suggests a living thing pursuing a goal (after all, only something that is alive — and determined — can climb), people expect the upward trend to continue, so they may feel confident about, say, taking out a second home equity loan. The opposite is true when object metaphors, like “the NASDAQ dropped off a cliff,” are involved. When something drops off a cliff, it tends to remain where it fell; people don’t necessarily expect that trend to continue but they don’t expect it to change, either, so may be prompted into something like, say, panic selling.

Morris and his associates tested their theory by asking a group of people to read some market commentaries and then predict the next day’s price trend. The researchers controlled whether participants were exposed to agent metaphors or object metaphors. Sure enough, those exposed to agent metaphors had higher expectations of trend continuance. Previous research has come to similar conclusions. For example, the provision of financial news in a stock trading game “led participants to perform worse,” the authors wrote. “News-condition participants bought (high) after updays and sold (low) after downdays, presumably because they tended to attribute the price trend to the changed business condition and hence expected it to continue the next day.”

Studies have shown that metaphors influence the experts, too, so financial planners beware!

The researchers did observe, however, that expectations of trend continuance are lower when financial information is presented in tables of numbers rather than trajectory-like graphs. They suspect this is because graphs (especially things like future growth projections) work much like visual metaphors, often showing a trend heading seemingly inevitably in one direction. So one way to tamp down expectations, whether good or bad, is to display information in table rather than graph format.

Decades of statistical analysis suggest that the random walk metaphor is still the most accurate way to describe market behavior. Yet people insist on dragging bulls, bears and bubbles into it. Given the proliferation of financial commentary in print, online and on TV, we might do well to have a look at the expectations hidden in our metaphors. Because when metaphorical bubbles burst, the consequences can be — quite literally — serious.

- James Geary

At the beginning of each of his financial planning workshops, Ken Clark, CFP® conducts a pop quiz. What does the abbreviation ‘IRA’ stand for? What percentage of your income will Social Security replace? What does the term ‘inflation’ mean? (You can take the quiz yourself by clicking here.) “These are mission critical questions,” Clark says, using the military jargon familiar to his clientele: the marines of Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, CA. “The average score is 10.5 out 20, indicating a population that needs the help of the CFP® certificant community!”

To assist in providing that help, CFP Board has awarded a grant to the non-profit Hope Pastoral Care & Counseling, where Clark is director of services. Hope is using the funds to create financial planning workshops tailored to the needs of military families and to make the workshop curriculum available to other bases around the country free of charge.

With some 60,000 residents, Camp Pendleton is among the largest military installations in the U.S. and supplies many of the troops deployed in current conflicts around the world. “Many of these soldiers are 19- or 20-year-old kids headed overseas, where they will potentially be in life-or-death situations,” Clark explains. “They’re not exactly on six-figure incomes, either. They’re already in the thick of it, and if you throw in finances as well, this is a high-stress population. The workshops are designed to help reduce one source of stress — stress about money.”

A lot of the marines at Camp Pendleton have joined the military straight out of high school, Clark explains. They are often from low- to middle-income families that couldn’t afford college, and many have little experience in handling money. “Many, if not most, of these families have limited financial resources and are not thinking much about the next 30 or 40 years,” Clark says. “Sometimes, spouses are left at home alone, thrust into making financial decisions they never had to make before. So we try to provide the necessary financial education to help families and couples function in an overall healthier manner.”

The Hope workshops follow the financial planning process as defined by CFP Board, Clark says, “but backwards. The ability to focus time and energy is limited, so we don’t start with the blocking and tackling of budgets and other basics. If we did, we would lose a lot of people. We start with retirement, saving for college, buying a home and other major milestones, which get lots of people’s attention. We try to find out where they are financially, where they need to go, and then give them the tools to get there.”

The workshops last about three hours and also cover issues such as predatory lending and consumer debt. The latter is especially important since while the amount of debt among soldiers is similar to that of other young people, the capacity of military personnel to pay it off is not. “Like a lot of young people, marines get into trouble with credit card debt,” Clark explains. “But military personnel may have a harder time than college-educated kids who are on a career ladder getting the debt taken care of.” In addition, Hope trains base personnel to teach the workshops, thereby extending their reach, and provides comprehensive financial plans to some of the families that have completed the course.

Clark has launched the FinancialBootCamp.org Web site so military personnel serving anywhere in the world can access financial planning materials, watch videos of recent workshops, and connect with financial assistance. So far, results have been pretty good. After completing the workshop program, Clark reports, the average quiz score among attendees jumped to 76%, with no one scoring under 50% — which suggests that Hope Pastoral Care & Counseling’s mission is well on its way to being accomplished.

Hope Pastoral Care & Counseling is always looking to recruit local CFP® certificants interested in contributing to its outreach. If you’re interested in getting involved, see the Volunteer page on the FinancialBootCamp.org Web site or contact Ken Clark at ken@hopepastoral.org.

Read more about projects receiving funding through CFP Board’s 2007 Financial Planning Grants program.

Download the FAQ on CFP Board's Revised Standards (PDF format)

Competence is one of seven principles for CFP® certificants. In CFP Board’s revised Standards of Professional Conduct, which becomes effective July 1, 2008, Rule 2.4 of the Rules of Conduct states, “A certificant shall offer advice only in those areas in which he or she is competent to do so.” CFP Board’s revised Standards also require CFP® certificants to be aware of the competence of other individuals to whom client services may be delegated or referred, including subordinates and third parties, and to provide prudent supervision or direction to those individuals.

The principle of “Competence” in the revised Standards notes that “Competence also includes the wisdom to recognize ... when consultation with other professionals is appropriate or referral to other professionals necessary.” When a CFP® certificant refers a client to third parties or delegates responsibility for client services to subordinates, Rule 4.6 of the new Rules of Conduct requires the CFP® certificant to act with “reasonable and prudent professional supervision or direction to any subordinate or third party to whom the certificant assigns responsibility for any client services.”

Compliance with Rule 4.6 requires a CFP® certificant to exercise diligence in appraising the abilities and knowledge of subordinates and third parties to whom client services may be delegated or referred. Before the CFP® certificant assigns responsibility for any client service to another individual, the CFP® certificant should obtain information that reasonably demonstrates the individual’s competence and qualifications. That information may include such things as the individual’s licenses and registrations, experience, background and areas of expertise.

A CFP® certificant’s obligations may not end with the referral or delegation of client services to another individual. In situations where the CFP® certificant’s engagement with the client involves services that extend in time beyond the date of referral to another individual, the CFP® certificant may need to retain a reasonable awareness of the individual’s services to the client and, when prudent, provide ongoing direction or supervision to the individual.

The requirement of reasonable and prudent professional supervision or direction contained in Rule 4.6 applies to all who hold CFP® certification. For certificants who provide services including financial planning or material elements of the financial planning process, Rule 1.2 also requires disclosure to clients and prospective clients of “Terms under which the certificant will use other entities to meet any of the [obligations specified in the written agreement governing the financial planning services].” Those terms will include any referral arrangements the CFP® certificant may have with third parties, as well as any compensation the CFP® certificant may receive through such arrangements.

Additionally, in client relationships involving financial planning or material elements of the financial planning process, the CFP® certificant should communicate to the client the basis of his or her belief in the qualifications of any individuals to whom client services are referred, following the best practices contained in the explanation of Practice Standard 500-1: “When referring the client to other professionals or advisers, the financial planning practitioner shall indicate the basis on which the practitioner believes the other professional or adviser may be qualified.”

While CFP Board has authority to enforce its ethical standards only over those who hold CFP® certification, it is important that CFP® certificants exercise diligence so that any client services assigned to subordinates or third parties are reasonably expected to be provided competently, in alignment with the ethical standards for CFP® certificants.

For more about the revised Standards, read Frequently Asked Questions or send additional questions to CFP Board at standards@CFPBoard.org.

About the Revised Standards of Professional Conduct:
On May 31, 2007, CFP Board’s Board of Directors announced the adoption of a revised version of CFP Board’s Standards of Professional Conduct, which sets forth the ethical standards for CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals. The revised Standards become effective July 1, 2008 and apply to the more than 57,000 financial planners in the U.S. who are authorized by CFP Board to use the CFP® certification marks. CFP Board encourages CFP® professionals to begin applying the revised Standards to their daily practice well in advance of the July 1, 2008 effective date.

CFP Board and FPA Co-Host Financial Planning Day on Capitol Hill

CFP Board and FPA of National Capitol Area co-hosted the Fifth Annual Financial Planning Day on Capitol Hill on March 28. More than 100 congressional staffers took advantage of the opportunity to meet one-one-one with a CFP® professional to ask questions relating to their personal finances.

CFP Board appreciates the work of Kevin Knull, CFP® and the many volunteers from FPA’s National Capital Area chapter who helped coordinate this successful event.

CFP Board Represented at NASAA Public Policy Conference

The NASAA Public Policy Conference held in Washington, DC, on April 1, 2008 featured Senator Jack Reed and SEC Chairman Christopher Cox as keynote speakers.

CFP Board was represented by Michael Shaw, Esq., CLU, ChFC, Managing Director of Public Policy & Legal, on a panel titled “Cutting Through the Confusion: The Future of Investment Adviser Regulation,” moderated by Maryland Securities Commissioner Melanie Lubin.

In response to the question “Should the financial planning profession be regulated?” Mr. Shaw commented as follows:

“Thank you, Commissioner Lubin – and thank you to Russ Lucalano and the staff at NASAA for inviting CFP Board to participate in this important discussion on the Rand Report.

For those who may not be familiar with Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards – otherwise known as CFP Board – we are a private, non-profit organization whose mission is to benefit the public by granting the CFP® certification and upholding it as the recognized standard of excellence for competent and ethical financial planning.

I’ve been asked to address the question – should the financial planning profession be regulated? Let’s first look at the current oversight of financial planners. The financial planning profession is relatively young – it’s been in existence for about 30 years. During that time, it has grown from a service offered mainly by insurance agents and fee-only financial planners to one that today includes investment advisors, their representatives and registered representatives of broker-dealers.

The reason that financial planning has grown so rapidly is that clients want someone they can trust to advise them on all aspects of their financial situation – how much to save for college and retirement, help with tax and estate planning issues and guidance on how much and where to invest their money. Financial planning has evolved to a point today where it is both a process and a profession. Neither is regulated by the federal government nor any state government. Where government regulation comes in is with regard to advice, recommendations and transactions involving financial products.

The Rand Study pointed out, quite clearly, that the public is generally confused about the way that financial professionals are regulated. This confusion stems, in part, from the fact that the products and services offered by financial planners – to cite a few: brokerage transactions, investment advice, and insurance products – are each regulated by a different set of rules and standards.

CFP Board is impacted by this confusion because 30% of its CFP® professionals are registered representatives and 28% are investment advisor representatives of SEC-registered advisor firms.

One of the issues in this discussion of how to address the current confusion is whether all providers of advice and financial planning should be held to the same duty of care to consumers. CFP Board believes that duty should be the “Fiduciary” duty. The fiduciary duty means that when someone is providing financial planning advice to a prospective or current customer, the duty owed is always putting the client’s best interests FIRST.

Placing the client’s interests first may sound like an overly simplified solution to the current problems and, perhaps, a principle that some would think isn’t necessary to adopt as a standard. We have seen, however, in the absence of such a written principle, financial services professionals do not always act in their client’s best interest.

Putting the client’s interest first means providing full disclosure of any conflicts of interest. As examples, informing a potential customer that you offer only proprietary insurance products or, if you’re conducting a brokerage transaction, that your firm requires you to trade from the firm’s account rather than on the open market. The fiduciary standard also requires an individual to disclose how he or she is compensated – whether it is by commissions, fees, or a combination of the two.

CFP Board believes that the focus of the debate on whether or not financial planning needs to be regulated should be on:

• Empowering consumers through education; and
• Improving the coordination among regulatory bodies to lessen the compliance burdens on financial professionals so they can devote more time and attention on service to clients.

I should add that CFP Board has recently revised its Standards of Professional Conduct, effective July 1, 2008, to reflect the higher fiduciary duty of care, and has a rigorous enforcement process reflecting the best practices of professional organizations.

CFP Board believes that the financial planning profession should be held to higher standards for the benefit of the public. How those standards are enforced is open to debate, and we look forward to actively participating in that debate. Thank you.”

CFP Board Endorses Senate and NASAA Measures to Protect Seniors from Unqualified Financial Advice

CFP Board has announced its strong support for two mutually-reinforcing measures intended to stem the proliferation of financial planning designations that are aggressively marketed to seniors. The “Senior Investor Protection Act of 2008,” introduced Tuesday, April 1, by Senators Herb Kohl and David Vitter, and the “New Model Rule on the Use of Senior-Specific Certifications and Professional Designations,” issued Tuesday, April 1, by the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), both seek to codify standards on what constitutes an acceptable financial certification or designation and how those certifications or designations may be marketed.

On behalf of the public, CFP Board has worked closely with the Senate Special Committee on Aging since the September 2007 Committee hearing that first disclosed the depth and breadth of abusive marketing tactics used by unscrupulous financial advisers. At the Committee’s hearing, CFP Board announced the creation of a task force to identify specific steps that CFP Board could take to assist the Committee in combating the fraudulent marketing of financial services to seniors. Similarly, CFP Board was among a handful of publicly-focused organizations that provided input on NASAA’s proposed Model Rule.

“We commend both the Senate Special Committee on Aging and NASAA for identifying effective and practical methods to prohibit the misleading use of senior and retiree designations,” said CFP Board CEO Kevin R. Keller, CAE. “We believe that a client’s best interests are served by a financial adviser who has earned a reputable credential and adheres to an enforceable code of ethics. Seniors can and should demand transparency, accountability, and honesty when choosing how to invest their life-savings.”

CFP Board Statement on Treasury Blueprint for a Modernized Financial Regulatory Structure

David G. Strege, CFP®, Chair of CFP Board’s Board of Directors, issued the following statement on release of the Treasury Department's Blueprint for a Modernized Financial Regulatory Structure:

“CFP Board commends the Treasury Department for its thoughtful review of our current financial regulatory structure. While most observers agree that a review of market practices is long overdue, this bold and sweeping initiative includes elements that will generate considerable debate in the coming months. Because an effective regulatory structure is vital to both the health of the financial services industry and to the protection of millions of American investors and savers, this blueprint requires a thoughtful examination by all sectors of the financial services industry.

CFP Board, for its part, will assess the potential impact of these proposed changes on the protections provided to the public who seek the advice and counsel of CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals.

CFP Board believes that the financial planning profession should be held to higher standards for the benefit of the public. To that end, CFP Board has revised its Standards of Professional Conduct, effective July 1, 2008, to reflect the higher fiduciary duty of care. We also utilize a rigorous enforcement process that reflects the best practices of professional organizations.

We look forward to taking an active role in that dialogue.”

PBS Series "Retirement Revolution" Highlights Value of Working with CFP® Professional

Last month, PBS stations across the country began airing a two-part documentary on financial challenges facing the Baby Boomer generation as they approach retirement. The series, hosted by Paula Zahn, takes a comprehensive look at retirement today and makes the point that it's never too late to begin preparation for retirement. The documentary features Dan Candura, CFP®, of CFP Board’s Board of Directors, who works with a couple to discuss how their financial situation can be planned to meet their retirement goals, demonstrating the value of financial planning for the average American.

Check your local PBS listings for showings of Retirement Revolution, or view the series online at www.wttw.com/main.taf?p=46,1.

President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy Creates Volunteer Initiative

USA Freedom Corps (USAFC) has launched a Financial Literacy Volunteer Initiative to mobilize volunteers that can help homeowners improve their financial literacy and avoid foreclosure in the wake of America’s transitioning housing market. This new initiative provides tools and resources, available at www.usafreedomcorps.gov/flvi, for Americans interested in sharing their financial services, nonprofits in need of skilled volunteers, and homeowners seeking financial guidance.

CFP Board welcomes information about the activities and accomplishments of CFP® professionals. If you have information you would like to share with CFP Board, please contact us at mail@CFPBoard.org.

Books Authored by CFP® Certificants

CFP Board congratulates the following CFP® professionals on their publication activities:

Vernon V Chatman III, CFP® on the publication of the article “ß1-Indexing: Reducing Investing Complexity” in the “Between the Issues” online supplement to the Journal of Financial Planning.

Gregory L. Reed, CFP® on the publication of the book Countdown, co-authored with Randall N. Smith.

Melissa Shaw, CFP® on the publication of the Financial Counselor Notebook.

Mary Sterk, CFP® on the publication of the book Buy it! A Practical Guide to Buying a Financial Services Book of Business

Brian Wruk, CFP® on the publication of The Canadian Snowbird in America - Professional Tax and Financial Insights Into Temporary Lifestyles in the U.S. and the upcoming publication of The American in Canada - Real-life Tax and Financial Insights Into Moving and Living in Canada, expected to be published in April or May 2008.

CFP Board welcomes information about the activities and accomplishments of CFP® professionals. If you have information you would like to share with CFP Board, please contact us at mail@CFPBoard.org.

Searchable CFP® Certificant Listings Coming to Bankrate.com

Searchable listings of CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals are expected to be available on the Bankrate.com Web site on April 25. The listings will be made up exclusively of CFP® certificants who have indicated to CFP Board that they practice financial planning and who have not chosen to opt-out of the Bankrate listings. Visitors to the Bankrate site can search the listings by zip code radius, by city, by state, or by name. Individual CFP® professional listings include name, company affiliation, business address and business phone number. No other information resides on the Bankrate site.

Certificants are encouraged to visit the Bankrate site to verify their information. Updates to the contact information should be made through CFP Board’s Web site at www.CFP.net/login. Anyone wishing to remove their name from the Bankrate listings should opt out of the Bankrate.com by checking the appropriate box in their profile at www.CFP.net/login. The Bankrate listings are refreshed in the second week of each month and will reflect any changes to the individual certificant profile.

CFP Board expects its partnership with Bankrate will provide increased visibility for CFP® certification and direct benefits for CFP® professionals who choose to have their information included in the Bankrate listings. If you have any questions about CFP Board’s partnership with Bankrate.com, please contact us at 800-487-1497 or mail@CFPBoard.org.

CFP Board Strengthens Controls on Distribution of Certificant Information

CFP Board periodically reviews its list-sharing policies and makes adjustments to meet the needs of both CFP® certificants and the affiliated organizations that may make use of those lists, including continuing education providers, industry organizations, associations or businesses related to the financial planning industry. CFP Board’s recent review of its Collection and Dissemination of Information Policy (CDIP) led to the creation of policies and procedures to better control the distribution of certificant information.

CFP Board’s CDIP requires that each list CFP Board may provide to a third party be used only once. To better ensure that each list is used only once, CFP Board will no longer provide electronic lists directly to third parties. Under the new policy, CFP Board will provide the names and mailing addresses of certificants on pre-printed mailing labels or deliver them electronically to the third party’s bonded mail house with a one-time use stipulation. CFP Board will not provide third parties with lists of certificant e-mail addresses.

CFP® professionals may opt-out from being included on lists CFP Board provides to education providers, industry organizations, associations or businesses related to the financial planning industry either by selecting the "opt-out of third-party communications" option in the contact information section of their online CFP Board accounts or by sending an opt-out request by fax to 202-279-2299 or by e-mail to mail@CFPBoard.org.

Organizations interested in obtaining lists of CFP® professionals from CFP Board are welcome to send inquiries to lists@CFPBoard.org.

Application Deadline Approaching for 2008 Financial Planning Grants:
Application Deadline Extended to May 15, 2008

CFP Board has extended the deadline for submitting applications for CFP Board's 2008 Financial Planning Grants program from April 30, 2008 to May 15, 2008.

CFP Board's 2008 grant program is designed to provide financial support to sustainable projects that reach non-traditional populations and encourage them to benefit from financial planning. For more information about the program, visit CFP Board's Web site at www.CFP.net/teamup/grants.asp.

If you are interested in this opportunity but have not yet submitted a proposal, please submit your proposal to CFP Board by e-mail to grants@CFPBoard.org, no later than May 15, 2008.

Community Leadership Awards Program Seeks Nominations

The Invest in Others Charitable Foundation and InvestmentNews seek nominations to the second annual Community Leadership Awards. The program recognizes and celebrates financial advisers across the nation for their exemplary leadership and contribution to their communities. To nominate an adviser who has dedicated time and effort to improving their community and making a difference in the lives of others, or to learn more about the program, visit www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=CommunityAwards. The deadline for entries is June 20, 2008.

CFP Board Seeks CFP® Professionals to Participate in Financial Planning Clinic in Miami on Saturday, November 15, 2008

CFP Board seeks CFP® certificants to participate in a Financial Planning Clinic on Saturday, November 15, 2008 at the Hyatt Regency at Miami Convention Center. The Clinic will offer pro-bono financial counseling and education to individuals who may not otherwise understand the value of financial planning. The Clinic is an exciting opportunity for CFP® professionals to help a broad range of people with first-hand experience of the benefits of financial planning in a simple format – volunteer CFP® professionals meeting one-on-one with consumers to answer their financial questions.

The Financial Planning Clinic in Miami is the second Clinic CFP Board will host in 2008, together with a Clinic in Washington, DC planned for September. These Clinics build on the successes of similar events CFP Board hosted in Los Angeles and Boston where hundreds of CFP® certificants made a positive difference in the lives of thousands of people by sharing their time and expertise to help individuals, couples and families sort out their personal finance questions and concerns.

For many, the events were an introduction to the benefits of financial planning. More than 95% of attendees found their experience so rewarding that they would recommend it to others, while the same percentage of volunteers stated that they would participate again. Volunteers expressed how much they enjoyed interacting at such a personal level with so many consumers of diverse financial backgrounds.

The Financial Planning Clinic will be held at the Regency Hyatt at Miami Convention Center from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 15, 2008. Volunteers will be required to participate for the entire time. A 30-minute lunch break and complimentary lunch and refreshments will be available. Only CFP® certificants in good standing with CFP Board may participate.

If you are interested in participating at the Financial Planning Clinic in Miami, apply online or contact CFP Board by e-mail at clinic@CFPBoard.org or by phone at 800-487-1497 with the following information:

• Name
• Phone Number
• E-mail Address
• Mailing Address
• If you are multi-lingual, the languages you would like to use at the Financial Planning Clinic
• The general financial planning topics you are most interested in discussing with attendees

Workshop Presenters Sought for 2008 Financial Planning Clinics in Washington, DC and Miami

CFP Board seeks CFP® certificants for presentations at educational workshops for consumers during CFP Board’s 2008 Financial Planning Clinics in Washington, DC and Miami. Local CFP® certificants are sought since we cannot reimburse expenses. The 50-minute workshops will discuss specific financial planning topics, including strategies and action items. In addition, the Clinics also will offer attendees one-on-one consultations with volunteer CFP® professionals.

The educational workshops are geared toward a diverse group of attendees and will feature the following topics:

• Investment Planning for Retirement Assets
• Planning for Retirement at Any Stage in Life - When to Start?
• Financial Planning for Special Needs
• Estate Planning Basics and How to Implement Them
• Is Debt a 4-letter Word? Managing Debt: From Credit Cards to Foreclosures
• Living Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck
• Young Professionals: Launching Your Financial Plan
• Tax Planning for Moderate Income Households
• College Funding and Planning
• Financial Planning for the Sandwich Generation

If you would like to be considered as a workshop presenter, please contact CFP Board by e-mail at clinic@CFPBoard.org or by phone at 800-487-1497 with the following information:

• Name
• Phone Number
• E-mail Address
• Summary of Qualifications
• Past Speaking Engagements
• Spanish Fluency (Miami Clinic will also feature workshops in Spanish)

The Financial Planning Clinic in Washington, DC will be held on Saturday, September 13 from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Grand Hyatt Washington.

The Financial Planning Clinic in Miami will be held on Saturday, November 15 from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Hyatt Regency at Miami Convention Center.

For more information on CFP Board’s Financial Planning Clinics, visit www.CFP.net/clinic.