The Certified Financial Planning (CFP) Board of Governors will open its ranks to international members and hand over responsibilities for the mark in the US as it seeks to drive the CFP profile globally.
The move came after the International CFP Council, headed by ex-chair of the Financial Planning Association Ray Griffin, proposed the move at its last meeting in Atlanta.
Since then the Council, which was created as part of the CFP Board but has been independent since inception, has created a strategic plan for the transition which it presented to the Board in the US recently.
According to Griffin the Board accepted the recommendations and will proceed with the changes which includes passing jurisdiction for the mark in the US to a separate body.
“We are seeking to expand the Board and over time it should come to have members from across the globe,” Griffin says.
The Board and the Council have formed a joint working group with three members from both, which will set the timeframe for the change in structure and governance of the Board.
“The structure of the Board has restricted the growth of the CFP mark in Europe and this will remove the prejudice to it being based in the US. We are confident it will give rise to increase in the mark around the world,” Griffin says.
According to Griffin the function of the CFP mark will not change in any way and will still be administered by a licensed group in each member country.
The changes to the Board structure will begin mid next year and Griffin says they should be complete by the end of 2002.
The announcement comes at the same time as the Board stated it would cut back its own numbers. So far it has cut two seats and will cut three more at the end of the year leaving only one remaining to reach its target of 13 members.
“These cuts fit in with the overall plans of the Board and Council and the plan is to open up the board to international members by the middle of next year,” Griffin says.
