January 27, 2005
WIth all of the fraud, and bad advice that has abounded over the past few years in particular, I cannot believe that you are giving more people the right to provide financial planning advice, without any requirement that they have financial planning training. If the firms are allowed to advertise financial planning without any new requirements behind that with regard to eduation, you are certainly not doing anything to protect the public from erstwhile financial planners who are likely to have more ability to create problems than solve them. I obtained my CFP certification as soon as I was able after entering into practice, and have continued to add to that education with diligence. Letting others offer this kind of advice with no training is a slap in the face to me and others who do have the training and keep up the continuing education behind our designation. With all the problems you have had with governance over the past few years, why would you open the door for a bunch more folks to operate outside their area of expertise, and most likely create more problems, and more credibility issues for our industry. You should be making the barriers higher, not lower...thanks..ttait