CFP Board Adopts Revised Procedural Rules

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board) today adopted revised Procedural Rules, which will take effect on September 1, 2023. The Procedural Rules outline processes for investigating alleged misconduct and enforcing CFP Board’s Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct (Code and Standards) in a manner designed to be fair to those whose conduct is being evaluated as well as credible to the public.

Among other things, the revised Procedural Rules will transfer some administrative functions from the Enforcement department to the Adjudication department, expand the role of Disciplinary and Ethics Commission (DEC) Counsel to make the adjudication process more efficient, eliminate settlement counteroffers, enable pre-investigation outreach and establish a process for admitting expert testimony.

“The revised Procedural Rules reflect our ongoing efforts to hold CFP® professionals to rigorous standards of conduct and to uphold the trust that clients place in them,” said CFP Board CEO Kevin R. Keller, CAE. “These changes will update our investigation and enforcement operations so that our processes enhance the benefit to the profession and the public and continue to be fair to CFP® professionals.”

CFP Board released proposed revisions to the Procedural Rules for public comment in November 2022. After carefully considering the comments received in response to CFP Board’s request for public comments, CFP Board made several changes to the draft version that was released for public comment. View the explanations of these changes and responses to selected comments here. Access a redline showing all the final revisions to the Procedural Rules here.

The changes to the Procedural Rules will become effective on September 1, 2023, and shall govern in all proceedings then pending or thereafter commenced.