What Is A QFP—QUALIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER?
Financial Planning, not a legal term, is often misused by many in the more generalized field of financial services who have not acquired the necessary prerequisites to obtain accredited designations that would publicly clearly identify them as qualified in Financial Planning.
The public has heretofore been left with a confusing “alphabet-soup/credentials-maze,” the majority of which have nothing at all to do with the rather specific, and specialized field of Financial Planning, with its learned Methodology and Discipline.
IAQFP continues to conduct ongoing research to sort out, for the benefit of the public, only those qualified in Financial Planning by having met established standards of education, examination, experience, and ethics, bringing the best of them together under Financial Planning’s only unifying QFP—QUALIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER designation.
Therefore, if you are looking for a simple way of finding one who is qualified to help you with your personal Financial Planning needs then choose a QFP—QUALIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER. When doing so it is imperative that you VERIFY that the planner is in fact an IAQFP Certified—Financial Planner registered in the: QFP Verification Registry of Qualified Financial Planners.
A QFP Is a Generalist … but with a Plus+ Factor
A QFP is a generalist, not an all-encompassing specialist in all fields of Financial Planning, and as such has the knowledge and experience (the “Plus+ Factor”) to know when it is in a client’s best interest to bring in professionals with specialization in other disciplines to achieve the best overall Planning outcomes for any given client.
A QFP may also have achieved additional levels of specialization in any one or more of the following areas of the Financial Planning learned Methodology & Discipline:
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- Cash flow planning
- Risk Management/Insurance planning
- Retirement planning
- Investment planning
- Tax planning
- Estate, gift, and wealth transfer planning
- Elder planning
- Charitable planning
- Education planning
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Statement of Minimum Qualifications for the QFP Credential
Persons who are Registered Investment Advisers (“RIAs”), or Investment Adviser Representatives (“IARs”) under a Broker-Dealer or other “RIA,” are required to have certain ADV Part II B disclosures, while still others like Registered Representatives are generally also required, by their securities Broker-Dealers, to provide sufficient explanation of the minimum qualifications (see ours here), continuing education and other standards, to have obtained and/or to use a professional designation like QFP.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) ⇔ Web Listing of the QFP Designation
FINRA plays a critical role in ensuring the integrity of America’s financial system—all at no cost to taxpayers. Working under the supervision of the Securities and Exchange Commission FINRA:
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- Writes and enforces rules governing the ethical activities of all registered broker-dealer firms and registered brokers in the U.S.;
- Examines firms for compliance with those rules;
- Fosters market transparency; and
- Educates investors.
FINRA undertakes these efforts to protect the investing public against fraud and bad practices.