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Consumer Warning & Alert:

CFP Board of Standards, Inc. Owner of the CFP® &

CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Trademarks

READ Full Report (49 Pages) & Footnote Clip File (304) Pages are available at:

Consumer Warning and Alert CFP Trademark and

CFP Board of Standards Inc.

and

Clip File Warning and Alert CFP Board of Standards Inc. Footnotes

Executive Summary

6/14/2023 9:22:03 AM — Our opinion and review highlights the inappropriateness of trademark credential programs at universities and colleges and utilizing student college savings plans, such as the 529 Plan, from privately owned companies (with trademark credential use by conditional permission companies). Specifically, the CFP® & CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ trademarks owned by the “CFP Board of Standards, Inc..”

To explain the differentiation between various professional credentials, it is essential to note that educational qualifications such as an MBA or other graduate master’s or doctorate degrees from accredited educational institutions or state-regulated credentials, such as the CPA, RN, JD, or MD, which necessitate state licensing. These recognized credentials are rarely revocable unless in the event of a criminal conviction in a Federal or State court of law.

Contrastingly, the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and CFP® trademarks, owned by a private company, do NOT carry equivalent protection, nor is it an analogous substitute for an accredited educational degree or state license. It is also crucial to emphasize that the CFP® does not classify as a state-regulated professional credential.[1]

This privately owned trademark should NOT be included as an option for Plan 529 spending on exams or exam prep courses in the H.R.1477, the Freedom To Invest in Tomorrow’s Workforce Act, or be included in the recognized postsecondary credential program list prepared under section 122(d) of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act or other government-funded education plans.[2] 

Student college savings invested in qualifying to apply to obtain the use of the CFP® trademark can easily be lost when the permission to use the trademark is revoked for non-payment of annual high fees or failure to comply with the company’s lengthy list of policies, which change frequently.[3]

Even minor infractions or expressing criticism can lead to disqualification[4], resulting in the loss of a significant amount of a student’s college savings. The average cost to qualify for the conditional use of the CFP® trademark is over seven thousand dollars ($7,000) just for the required CFP® courses today.

If Congress passes H.R.1477, the Freedom to Invest in Tomorrow’s Workforce Act. The CFP® trademark use only by permission should NOT be included in the recognized postsecondary credential program list prepared under section 122(d) of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

Our case investigation revealed that this company engages in aggressive disciplinary procedures, tarnishing the reputations of individual planners and refusing to rectify false, damaging internet listings. While certain cases’ “Hearings” may exhibit reasonableness and accuracy, our extensive research indicates that there are others, such as the case in this consumer warning and alert, which yield false and unduly detrimental outcomes continuing to damage the student or professional for decades.[5] 

Students with conditional permission to use the CFP® trademark face numerous possibilities for its revocation, despite the company owner lacking any state or national regulatory authority. This company irresponsibly publishes false reports and press releases to enhance an image to appear as a regulatory body for the profession while they are NOT one, all while intentionally harming many innocent students and professionals. 

Many students regret pursuing the use of the CFP® trademark after investing a substantial level of their educational savings when they find out it is NOT what it was represented to be (96% of jobs in the field are compensated through required insurance and securities licenses and sales commissions.)[6] Or they lose the permission to use the trademark when an issue arises from company policies. Often CFP®s incur difficulties because they are often denied company policy documentation and meaningful responses to their questions or inquiries.[7] [8] 

This consumer warning represents a long investigation to resolve our consumer complaint with this company and our extensive background research when the CFP Board of Standards, Inc. company representatives refused to answer any of our questions and provide the complainant consumer or us with any of our requested documentation.[9]

Despite our diligent efforts to foster a cordial, respectful, and amicable relationship aimed at jointly resolving this consumer complaint with the company, regrettably, they have chosen to reject cooperation.

Their response, characterized by an arrogant demeanor, is marred by the inclusion of false and contradictory information, originating from the same attorney who authored all their previous case correspondence to our consumer complainant over many years and after we first requested that he as the one Party named in our Consumer Complaint, NOT represent the CFP Board response, he did so.[10] 

Following an extensive and thorough investigation conducted to ensure an equitable assessment of this consumer and company, we have arrived at the conclusion that they have demonstrated a profound lack of diligence in fulfilling the requested responses to both the consumer and our team.

Despite numerous requests over an extended period, even repeating requests for answers and documentation several times, this company has failed to be transparent as they claim on their website and assist their certificant consumer service obligations satisfactorily.

The CFP Board of Standards, Inc. boasts an impressive annual income exceeding forty million dollars ($40,000,000), derived from the licensing fees paid by their Certified Financial Planners (CFP®s also called “certificants”) for the use of their trademarks. Furthermore, their substantial advertising budgets have resulted in expenditures surpassing one hundred and fifty million dollars ($150,000,000) in recent years alone.[11] 

Despite this financial prowess, the CEO exhibits unwavering confidence in their ability to dismiss any consumer concerns delegating them to his General Counsel “fixer” for harsh, sometimes threatening, brief partial legal responses.

He displays a disregard for providing suitable or complete responses to both consumers and consumer advocate agencies such as ours.

There is no appropriate consumer response department, team, or company representative that serves to resolve issues to help these CFP® certificant consumers. Often consumer requests don’t get a response, and often if they do, it is a purposely anonymous reply. So that if a question is not answered or is partially answered, the consumer gets the “run around” without the ability to follow up with the same person. It is an intentional tactic to prevent accountability or responsibility for who issued the responses.

CFP® certificant consumers have zero representation or power within or outside the company, so if there is a problem, their only option is to walk away from the trademark use and trademark-owning company and lose all their educational savings and time spent to qualify for permission to use the trademark credential. 

Don’t be fooled, this company-owned trademark is NOT like an accredited college awarding an educational degree or even a state-licensed credential like a CPA.

It is simply temporary permission to use a company-owned trademark as a credential with high upfront and annual costs. While the CFP Board promotes that it is comparable to a CPA, to try to make it appear to be a stable profession, a high-in-demand career, with salary positions, it is NOT so. It CANNOT be compared on any level to a CPA, which is a respected, job secure, well-paid salary position, and state-licensed and regulated credential.

We will show in this comprehensive report the industry-wide complaints and significant problems within this company that are difficult for consumers to discover due to the multi-million dollar CFP Board of Standards, Inc. brand advertising and online search engine optimization that hides them. 

Consequently, based on these report findings, we issue this strong consumer warning and alert about the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. and assign them a failing grade of “F.”

1. Mark Schoeff Jr.. (2019 July 29). CFP Board Omits Thousands of Regulatory, Criminal Problems of its Certificants on consumer site. Investment News.
2. Melanie Waddell (2023 April 20) New Bill Allows 529 Plans to Be Tapped for CFP®, CPA Exams. Think Advisor
3. Michael Kitcies, (2010 November 12). CFP Board 80% Fee Increase – It’s Official. Michael Kitcies Nerd’s Eye View.
4. Jeff Berman, (2022 November 7) Kitces, Other Advisors Stunned by Rude Advisor Sanctioned by CFP Board. AUM Think Advisor.
5. Robert Schmansky. (2009 Sep 17). Why CFP Board Failed The Public And Will Again. Forbes.
6. Brian Preston, CPA, CFP®, PFS and Bo Hanson, CFA, CFP®. (2020 Jan 17). From Money Guys Podcast, Episode. How and When to Hire a Financial Advisor! YouTube. (See the chart of two CFP® certificants that indicates that CFP®s are about 96% sales agents and only 4% fee-only planners.)
7.  Patrick Donachie. (2021 July 30). Critics Question the Impact of CFP Board’s Proposed Sanction Revisions: Some Observers Argue the CFP Board’s Proposed Changes Go Too Far and That Its Resources Could Be Better Used Elsewhere―Others Say the Revisions Don’t Go Far Enough. WealthManagement
8.  Zweig, J., Andrea Fuller (2019, July 30). Looking for a Financial Planner? The Go-To Website Often Omits Red Flags. The CFP Board of Standards, Which Runs LetsMakeAPlan.org, Doesn’t Inform Users About Customer Complaints, Regulatory Skirmishes, and Other Problems. The Wall Street Journal.
9. Don Trone. (2018 June 28). CFP Board: Fiduciary Hypocrites. ALM Think Advisor.
10. Zweig, J. (2019 August 9). Investors Need This Cop to Toughen Up: Does the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Have the Backbone to Improve its Scrutiny of Financial Advice? The Wall Street Journal.
11. Robert Schmansky. (2020, March 9). CFP Board Provides Cover for Lying Financial Advisors. Forbes Money Wealth Management. Forbes.

See our related article about: AVOIDING BAD FINANCIAL ADVISORS

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                    Utah State Bar Discipline

All the bad lawyer jokes aside, many of us have had contact with or know someone who has had contact with an unethical lawyer at one time. Lawyers enjoy exceptional advantages and power in our society and this power can often be abused. Because of this, State Bars have been given authority by the legislatures to regulate and discipline lawyers when their behavior crosses the line into unethical conduct and more. Lawyers may receive minor penalties up to even losing their license to practice law in your state.

Such conduct can range from illegal behavior to ethical violations. It may be sending you a scary and threatening letter of a lawsuit (just a nuisance suit they know they could not win), if you don’t do what they ask. But they know the threat poses a large expense and much time involved to defend yourself is all lost, even if you win. So their experience is that most people will do some action to benefit their clients, and it often works. Yet is this is not ethical.

One extreme example of this is the case of Michael John Avenatti, best known for his representation of adult-film actress Stormy Daniels in her lawsuits against President Donald Trump, and Avenatti also announced he was going to run for President. There is a fine line for lawyers between threatening lawsuits and extortion. Avenatti was convicted of attempting to extort over $20 million from Nike. He has been charged in two separate indictments with embezzling $300,000 from Daniels, and with tax fraud and stealing several million dollars from other clients.

It may be other unethical actions such as overbilling, which is quite prevalent. I was a victim of double billing. I caught it and let the Utah lawyer know I would take it to the Utah State Bar, they corrected the double billing issue that same week, rather than risk exposure to the State Bar!

Knowing how to file a formal complaint against an unethical lawyer is golden, and often just letting that lawyer know that their behavior is unethical and a cause for a Utah State Bar investigation, review,  and state bar discipline may be all you need to do to get them to adjust their bill down to the correct billing or stop the threats of nuisance suits.

Below is a link to the

I have been told it had to be notarized and mailed to them at:

Utah State Bar
Senior Counsel
Office of Professional Conduct
645 South 200 East, Suite 205
Salt Lake City, UT 84111-3834
(801) 531-9110

Here is the form if you want to copy and print it out from this page.

“The Utah State Bar is an organization of Utah’s 12,500 lawyers and judges. The history of the Utah State Bar began in the early 1900’s with the association of several Utah lawyers hoping to improve communication within the legal community and to find ways of serving the general public. In 1931 the Utah Legislature recognized the need to foster those goals and designated the Utah State Bar by statute to manage and regulate the legal profession by licensing all persons who engage in the practice of law. In 1985, the Utah State Constitution was amended to clarify that regulation of the legal profession should be performed under the Judicial Branch of government through the Utah Supreme Court, and the Bar was “perpetuated, created and continued” to perform regulatory and public interest services under the direction and control of the Supreme Court.” —Licensedlawyer.org  website.

Legislation is often to protect lawyers and to make it difficult for consumers to obtain lawyer discipline. This is their legal code:

Rule 14-516. Dissemination of disciplinary information.

(a) Notice to disciplinary agencies. The OPC shall transmit notice of public discipline, resignation with discipline pending, transfers to or from disability status, reinstatements, readmissions, and certified copies of judgments of conviction to the disciplinary enforcement agency of every other jurisdiction in which the respondent is admitted, and to the National Lawyer, Regulatory Database maintained by the American Bar Association.

(b) Notice to the public. The executive director shall cause notices of admonition, public reprimand, suspension, disbarment, resignation with discipline pending, transfer to disability status and petitions for reinstatement or readmission to be published in the Utah Bar Journal. The executive director also shall cause notices of suspension, disbarment, resignation with discipline pending, transfer to disability status and petitions for reinstatement or readmission to be published in a newspaper of general circulation in each judicial district within Utah in which the respondent maintained an office for the practice of law.

“The Office of Professional Conduct (OPC) has three primary responsibilities:

“All complaints, information, investigations, and private discipline are confidential. As such the OPC is not able to confirm or deny that anything has been filed against an attorney or LPP, that an attorney or LPP is being investigated for an alleged violation of the Utah Rules of Professional Conduct, or that an attorney or LPP has received private discipline.”—Office of Professional Conduct (OPC) website.

Not all lawyers are unethical

here are some tips for finding a good lawyer:

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