CFP Board Forms Council on Education

Panel Will Examine Ways to Enhance Educational Standards for CFP® Professionals

WASHINGTON, DC – May 7, 2008 – Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board), the non-profit certifying and standards-setting organization that oversees more than 57,000 financial professionals holding the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification, has formed a new advisory group, the Council on Education, to establish and enforce educational standards for enhancing the knowledge, skills and abilities of current and potential CFP® certificants.

Council members will develop and clarify all educational policies of the CFP® Certification process – areas ranging from: Registered Programs, Model Curriculum, Continuing Education Sponsors, Continuing Education Requirements, Review Course Providers, and the implementation of an education program Peer Review Process. The Council will submit any recommendations for change to CFP Board staff.

“Our efforts are designed to bolster CFP Board’s mission to benefit the public by granting the CFP® certification and upholding it as the recognized standard of excellence for personal financial planning. Since education is one of the four cornerstones of the certification process, we intend to provide an unshakeable foundation for CFP® certificants to apply their financial planning knowledge most effectively to their clients’ ever-changing financial situations,” said Dr. Ivan C. Roten, CFP®, Council Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Finance, Banking and Insurance at Appalachian State University as well as the university’s Director of the Financial Planning Center.

“Our educational standards must be periodically reviewed in order to properly reflect the financial world in which our certificants practice,” said Kevin R. Keller, CEO of CFP Board. “Our goal in creating the Council is to reaffirm our commitment to benefit the public by providing the most exacting educational standards in personal financial planning. We applaud the Council members for their dedication to advancing that goal.”

The Council represents a cross-section of the profession, and includes members from educational institutions, CFP® certificants and the public. In addition to Dr. Roten, Council members are: Jacqueline Callahan, Dr. Morris Fiddler, Kacy Gott, CFP®, Mark H. Kordes, CFP®, Carolyn J. Lee, CFP®, Dr. Rosilyn H. Overton, CFP®, and Dr. Walt Woerheide, CFP®. Council members will serve three-year terms.

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