The group that grants a well-known designation for financial planners is trying to swell its ranks and is winning support from some major brokerage firms including Bank of America Corp.'s (BAC) Merrill Lynch.

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. wants to see between 80,000 and 100,000 CFP® [professionals] in the next five years, up from about 67,000 today. After two years of calling on senior executives at large firms, seeking ways for them to encourage CFP® [certification] among their ranks, it plans to begin marketing to individual advisers this spring, said Kevin Keller, the CFP Board's chief executive.

These firms include the nation's biggest retail brokerages, often referred to as the wirehouses, as well as independent broker-dealer networks, insurance companies and other firms with sizable adviser forces. The goal is to "institutionalize CFP® certification into the culture," Mr. Keller said in a recent interview.

Wall Street Journal
Caitlin Nish
February 6, 2013