The INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION of QUALIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERS is arguably the world’s largest professional organization of its’ kind, with a constituency of over 100,000 strong and growing.
IAQFP is committed to doing what only a professional International Association can do: serve our Affiliates (Members & Associates), improve the burgeoning Financial Planning profession through our Supporter Programs, encourage diversity, and help to eliminate marketplace confusion with its' maze of professional designations (the “Designations Alphabet Soup”) by IAQFP having introduced, in 2003, the single unifying—'alphabet-soup-ending': QFP—QUALIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER designation.
Finally, to help in distinguishing the specific field of Financial Planning from the general broader fields of Financial Services, while also having developed the highest Professional Standards & Ethics for the Profession worldwide.
IAQFP was officially formed in June 2001, primarily as an “advocacy group” for the professionals of the then fast burgeoning Financial Planning Profession, then known as the “Concerned Planners Group (CPG),” by Paul M. League, CFP® and then living Gib Kerr, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU.
We were quickly joined by other people who were equally committed to bringing about the constructive direction and meaningful change needed in, what was then, a burgeoning profession.
Our initial focus was to bring together all those persons trained and credentialed in the Financial Planning (“FP”) learned Methodology and Discipline so that we could speak in one voice about matters our constituency saw as vitally necessary to growing a true and substantive profession.
What was clear was that the primary influencers of the Profession (CFP Board and the FPA), were taking Stakeholders down a path that they did not find helpful, and in the process Stakeholders interests, as well as those of the public, were not being adequately or properly considered or addressed.
Stakeholder popular demand caused us to expand so as to better address the ongoing and evolving concerns of our constituency, and so in March 2003 we evolved into the INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION of QUALIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERS, and along with that we introduced our single, unifying credential (designation) for the Financial Planning profession, its professionals, and one that the public could easily recognize; namely the: QFP—QUALIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER.
We did this to assist in unifying the Financial Planning Profession and its’ professionals, while bringing about a more clear focus that served to distinguish the Financial Planning field from others, along with simplifying the credentials “alphabet soup/designations maze.”
Within the Financial Planning field we determined there existed 5 substantially equivalent, but competing, professional designations (ChFC®, PFS™, CFP®, MSFS & MS, the latter two with a concentrated study of the Financial Planning learned Methodology and Discipline), and simplified them down and into only 1 designation; namely: QFP—QUALIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER. This simplification and focus also served to end public confusion over the hundreds of credentials of the broader financial services “industry,” none of which were specific to Financial Planning.
Simply put…the public had, for far too long, suffered confusion over 'who’s who'…and it, along with Stakeholders, needed a way and means to effectively address and respond to this confusion; hence, the evolution of IAQFP to serve the best overall interests of all parties.
Along with this, we launched the: QFP Verification Registry of Qualified Financial Planners, which serves as a FREE, 24/7 online public resource, where the public can and is urged to both VERIFY and FIND competent, duly credentialed, IAQFP Certified, QFP—QUALIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERS.
These kinds of IAQFP efforts have resulted in achieving, for all, the laudable goal for the Profession of: “One Profession–One Designation.”
IAQFP continues to expand as a volunteer-supported and managed Professional Business League Association, which also includes the important function of carefully researching, and vetting those person’s holding out to the public as “Financial Planners.” Once such persons are accredited they become IAQFP Certified—Qualified Financial Planners, who are granted use of the QFP—QUALIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER designation/credential, along with eligibility to be included in the public QFP Verification Registry of QUALIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERS. We continue to list such QFP in our online Registry so long as they remain In-Good-Standing to thereby best protect the public interests.
We make available, daily, Registration for eligible Financial Planners, as well as an ANNUAL Renewal of existing IAQFP Certified—QUALIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERS, for the purpose of increasing the number of publicly available QFP, while reasonably and responsibly assuring that those in our live QFP Verification Registry of QUALIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERS remain actively VERIFIED and in compliance with IAQFP Standards.