Hi All

I think there are some important forces at play in CFP® Board discussion.  I’m so pleased that the conversation is broadening but I believe we do need to have some actions taken by the people with the power, the people making the decisions.  On March 24, 2008 in a letter I sent to Dave Strege, I asked in paragraph three for actions that would lead to a healing in the profession.  I know it got complicated, several mistakes have been made, but still sometimes those with the power need to bend a little.  Frankly, this whole situation has been a series of people misjudging the lay of the land and making common, understandable mistakes.  I think immediately not mending differences with the 5 who resigned was a mistake.  I think who ever took the issue to the media right away made a mistake.  While I commend the CFP Board for their actions in the meetings at retreat, apologizing and then saying ….sorry, BUT….. was a mistake.  We want to be a profession that prides ourselves on social skills but we have no common sense in dealing with each other.  I have no power but I will predict that unless something meaningful is done to heal the hurt that is in our CFP® community environment, this will fester for years; just like other numerous issues from the past (need I list them again!)   Too long the BOS has been in a hierarchical position    (a line of thought brought to me by Dick Wagner).  This is not the fault of the present members or of the members before them.  It is what they we handed and they are trying to manage it the best way they can but CFP® has grown up and new thought is necessary.  Carver is a governance policy for higher level players in a non-flat world.  Unfortunately, we in the CFP® Community are living in a very different world.  We are no longer the experts dictating our thoughts, lording over our clients with iron rods.  We are guides and information filters, helping people better understand the world they live in and the opportunities they have.  We are opening up in-depth personal discussions with them and helping them see their vast array of choices in how their future could play out.  In the book The World Cafe: Shaping Our Future Through Conversation that Matter author Juanita Brown says our very survival as a human community, both locally and globally, may rest on our creative responses to the following questions:

·         How can we enhance our capacity to talk and think more deeply together about the critical issues facing our communities, our organizations, our nations and our planet?

·         How can we access the mutual intelligence and wisdom we need to create innovative paths forward?

This is our mission.  Step one is cleaning up our messes.  Step two (David Bennett will love this!) GEPO!  (Good Enough Press On).   Let’s build a conversation system that calls on the all of us to create that collective intelligence we need to make this work.  If we think these issues before us are tough questions how about what is coming around the corner!  In a local school system the school superintendent was asked to step down after his second DUI.  Should you lose your CFP® certification if you have two DUIs?  How about three?  One?  How about spousal abuse?  Drug abuse?  How about cheating on your spouse or molesting the babysitter?  How about bankruptcy, can a CFP® Certificant declare bankruptcy and still be certified?  These are all things the DEC has dealt with and they have no way of getting information to help “our profession” decide how “our profession” deals with these questions.  Making staff totally accountable for deciding these issues and dictating to us how this will be done is not the system Juanita Brown is talking about.  We need collaboration!  I believe this is the discussion, “forget (heal) the mistakes of the past and press on to the great achievements of the future!”  (Thank you Optimist Club)   The discussions are a good start, but let’s keep our eyes up on the great future financial planning deserves. We must fight for the community to come to the table, all of us, CFP® BOS, Certificants alike.  If we are to fulfill our collective vision of what this community can be there is only one starting place.  CFP® Board of Standards, heal the wounds!  Step two – Let’s attack the future together in a community of collective intelligence.  I don’t believe we have many options, but one thing is for sure……….. we do need to start!  CFP® Board, take the lead!    

Warmest Regards,

Marty

Since not everyone made it to the last call, Dick Wagner offered an insight that is worthy of much wider consideration and may help move the discussion forward.

[By the way, the next call is August 8^th at 2:00 p.m. Eastern. Call in number is 1-518-825-1300.]

This is my understanding/re-statement of this notion.

Dick’s thought is that, by nature, leaders lead. So, when leaders of the profession become governors or directors of CFP Board, they naturally want to lead the profession in a direction. However, the real mission of CFP Board is to protect the marks, assuring they represent integrity and education. In other words, the CFP Board has a stewardship or even bureaucratic role—it is not within their mission to try to lead the financial planning profession anywhere.

The CFP Board has no role in speaking on behalf of planners—they clearly do not represent certificants—and repeatedly so state. They are only the guardians of the marks. They should not be taking positions on current legislation or regulation.

Much of the mischief into which the CFP Board has wandered (which lead to those comments about “there must be something in the water”) seem to flow from their desire to lead rather than simply preserve the integrity of the marks. If the Board hewed to its proper mission and remained focused only on integrity of the marks, we would have never had the CFP Lite fiasco or (at least most) of the current DEC/COE issues.

So my take is that the current mess—which is only the latest installment in a sorry saga—has two root causes: the Carver model under which the Board has abdicated its fiduciary responsibilities to certificants which resulted a series of CEO’s making decisions good for them and bad for certificants, and the mis-guided desire to lead a profession rather than maintain the integrity of the marks.

--Barry

Barry L. Kohler, JD, CFP®, CLU

BDMP Wealth Management

100 Middle Street

Portland, ME 04101

Voice/Fax: 207-541-2307      Email: bkohler@bdmp.com