The Certified Financial Planning Board of Standards is launching a new ad campaign to raise public awareness of the popular industry designation.
The “With A CFP Professional” campaign draws from research on the attributes and behaviors of investors regarding financial planning and is meant to encourage them to seek out CFP professionals, according to the CFP Board.
It’s spent $11.7 million, or $145 per CFP professional, so far on the campaign that will run on national cable television, online and in print beginning Sept. 4 to show investors in different phases of their financial lives.
In recent years, the organization has made an effort to improve its appearance. Last year, the organization took steps to extend a fiduciary duty to all financial advice given by CFP holders to clients. It also created a group to focus on the diversity of the designation holders.
In 2014, WealthManagement.com surveyed 321 CFP holders and found that one-third of believed that scandals at the time detracted from the perceived value of the designation. Fifty-four percent said they don’t trust the advisor compensation disclosures on the CFP’s website. The CFP Board has also been in the headlines for a number of scandals over compensation definitions and disclosures on its website and the doubling of CEO Kevin Keller’s salary, from $448,000 in 2009 to $888,000 in 2012, at a time when membership dues were also going up.
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