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hi and good afternoon or good morning depending on where you are in the country everybody i'm kevin keller ceo for cfp board and welcome to today's certificate connection webinar during the upcoming webinar this afternoon we'll have updates on cfp boards 2020 priorities including our work to strengthen cfp board's enforcement process the new code and standards and our library of compliance resources as well as our latest practice analysis study after those updates we'll turn to answering your questions always the best part of the of the certificate connection but let me cover a few housekeeping topics before we get started if you run into issues with the audio or if it seems like the slides are out of sync you should refresh your webinar console press f5 for those of you on a mac press f5 or for those of you on a mac hit command r there is a q a function on your screen that you can use to submit questions to us at any time during the program we'll address as many of the questions as possible during the q and a session at the end of the program but if we don't get to your question live on the air today we will follow up and provide an answer to you joining us today are two distinguished cfp professionals jack broad is the 2020 chair of the board of directors and doug king is the chair elect for 2020. doug obviously will be chair of the board in 2021 before we get into our presentation i want to acknowledge our current environment and share with you how cfp board has navigated the covet 19 pandemic like uh all of you we have a business continuity plan that we activated for just this type of scenario when the severity of the situation became clear in mid-march we shifted all staff to remote working arrangements and i want to say how grateful i am to the entire staff for their adjustment to the new normal and pleased with how well we've been able to keep moving initiatives forward and providing ongoing service to our stakeholders the safety and health of cfp board staff our stakeholders our candidates and partners remains our top priority unfortunately the pandemics escalation coincided with our march cfp exam which was held march 10th through the 17th more than 90 plus percent of the exam candidates were able to complete the exam as scheduled but about 200 candidates were impacted by test site closures some of those closures were announced by our exam partner pro-metric early in the testing window and on the last day of the testing window prometric closed all of its north american test sites all candidates who were unable to sit for the exam due to the closure were rescheduled for the july exam with no postponement fee in early may given the forecast for the next several months we announced that we would be postponing the july exam to september those dates are september 22nd through the 29th and the final exam administration for this year is november 3rd through the 10th pro prometric centers have shared with us their safety procedures and we can hope to continue and plan to continue to resume testing safely in september however we will only move forward with the planned exam administrations if we believe that they can be conducted without compromising the health of exam candidates i'd also like to note that we decided not to add coverage of new exam topics or information on the 2020 exam we decided that approach would be fair given that many candidates who expected to take the exam in march or july and who spent significant time and energy preparing to be tested on those topics had scheduled those exams previously so like the rest of the world cfp board has been impacted significantly by the pandemic but we are navigating the challenges and continuing to make progress on this year's initiative jack why don't you start us off and give us a few additional thoughts on today's environment i will kevin thank you very much and uh thank you and cfp board staff for doing all the hard work and the important things to keep things moving forward i also want to say up front i want to thank all of our cfp professionals for the tremendous work that you're doing to address your clients needs during this stressful time i know for sure that clients of cfp professionals are uniquely fortunate to have us on their side particularly during times like this and we also recognize that you as individuals and business owners are dealing with your own concerns and stresses so we hope that you're taking care of yourself and and placing the appropriate priority on your own well-being while we're on this theme of of the current environment that kevin led us into let me also uh right up front acknowledge the energy we're seeing in the movement to address the effects of racial injustice you know the the tragic deaths of so many black people in recent months have weighed heavily on on all of us and our hearts are certainly with the victims their families and also with the many black cfp professionals who are part of our community and who face violence and discrimination you know we we see increasing signs that the talk the well-meaning talk perhaps is turning into real action and i want to acknowledge and applaud all cfp professionals of color and every cfp professional quite frankly who has been on the forefront of this fight for equity and justice i believe the financial planning profession plays a very important role in this area and cfp board and the profession we feel collectively accountable for making substantive change let me let me share some background along these lines and my objective here is is is very specific it's it's to make you as cfp certificates more aware of this work because quite honestly we we want you to help us and to help yourselves advance diversity and inclusion within our profession most of you know by now i hope that it was back in 2015 when cfp board founded the center for financial planning and its mission from the very beginning was to create a more diverse and sustainable financial planning profession so that every american has access to competent and ethical financial planning advice so as you can hear advancing diversity and inclusion is central to the center's mission there are many programs and services that have been developed that are currently being offered by the center to align with the objective of advancing diversity inclusion i'm certainly not going to try to cover them all here today but i do want to highlight one of those programs and that is the diversity and inclusion summit that we have been holding and we will hold for the third time later this year in in november so back in 2018 the center for financial planning released as you see on this slide a important thought leadership paper titled racial diversity in financial planning where are we and where we must go the the thought piece provides concrete actions that can be taken by firms by cfp board registered programs influencer organizations and others similarly last year the center also released in an additional literature review titled why diversity matters and that addresses how workforce diversity and inclusion accelerates business success in financial services and as i mentioned we recently announced that the third diversity summit will be held in a virtual format this november which frankly opens up opportunity in a unique way to include so many more people because our first two summits were actually limited by by space constraints so on november yeah jack it's kevin i'm sorry to interrupt i i i'm getting a lot of comments that the audio is not good so i'm just calling that to the attention of our of our folks sam who's with the the uh with the teleconference bridge if you would just see if you can help that so jacob please uh please continue thank you for pointing that out i appreciate it on november 18th and 20th if you can note those dates thought leaders throughout the financial planning profession will once again come together for the center's 2020 diversity summit this meeting will be focusing on actionable initiatives to advance diversity in our profession the center will be releasing a new thought piece a new report which will have actual case studies of successful diversity and initiatives practices in the financial services industry there will also be things like case study panels covering some of those successful diversity initiatives there will be an executive roundtable with leaders from firms who are committed to diversity inclusion initiatives and we also hold you might be interested to know a virtual career fair closed to close out the summit focused on opportunities for women and people of color so please be on the lookout for that it's november 18th through 20th although it spans over several days it's it's only a few hours on each of those days and we hope you'll save the date and make plans to attend so with that let me let me shift gears and give you some insight from the board of directors standpoint talk about where the board's focus has has been uh this year uh 2020 obviously has been an eventful year for everyone including cfp board one of the big topics that we've been spending time on at the board level is what we refer to as a strategy refresh we're nearing the end of a current strategic plan that has been in place for several years most of you know it that's defined as the four a's or strategic priorities accountability awareness and so forth um so we're working through a process to refresh the strategy for cfp board as we do that we're thinking holistically about the financial planning profession first and foremost and then our role as a certifying organization within the profession and what our strategic priorities should be looking forward so you'll hear more about that as the year unfolds also as you would expect enforcement is among the very top priorities for the board of directors this year we knew after working on the new code and standards for over four years that our attention would need to shift to the enforcement of those standards additionally as as you know there were several gaps identified in current enforcement mechanisms at cfp board last year which the board has been very focused on our work in this area actually began in earnest last summer when the board commissioned an independent task force that was solely focused on on enforcement if you could move to the next slide please that task force was charged with examining our enforcement practices and making very specific and actionable recommendations to strengthen and modernize them they delivered their preliminary report to the board for our last meeting in november we shared that final report publicly in december we also shared the board's preliminary response to that task force report the report was robust it was comprehensive i once again want to thank and commend the members of the task force for their work and i can assure all cfp certificates that the board is taking these recommendations quite seriously we're very committed to strengthening cfp boards enforcement of the code and standards so that we can benefit all americans and we will reinforce the trust the confidence and the security people gain from working with the cfp professional in the board's preliminary response we outlined the actions that we had already taken to strengthen the enforcement program for example first we no longer primarily rely on cfp professionals to disclose matters to cfp board bfp professionals are still required to complete an ethics declaration as part of the renewal process but we will now supplement that with an annual background check our new code and standards also require cfp professionals to make ongoing disclosures of an expanded category of information and within 30 calendar days additionally we are now providing consumers with access to broker check and iapd on the listings of current and former cfp professionals on our website and you should know cfp board staff is continuously reviewing broker check records iapd and we'll continue to monitor and follow up on regulatory actions by the federal government by state regulators and by self-regulatory agencies if cfp professionals are named so since then we've continued to take actions that are aligned with the task force report for example the board is currently engaged in a comprehensive governance review with a third-party governance expert and consultant were well into this process we believe that the standards for governance practices and governance structure at cfp board should be every bit as high as the standard that we set for cfp certificates when it comes to ethics and competency so we're very committed to modernizing and strengthening the governance practices at cfp board and we look forward in the shorter term perhaps in the next couple months to sharing with you some of the changes and reforms we're making with respect to governance at cfp board this year we will also form a new commission to review and update the sanction guidelines and to help make background checks more efficient we should we have obtained crd numbers for almost all of our cfp professionals and we now ask them to disclose or verify their crd numbers when renewing kevin's team has conducted updated background checks on all 87 000 plus cfp professionals these are similar to the background checks that cfp board has historically conducted for all individuals applying for cfp certification along with the review of broker check and all other publicly available records the results of that comprehensive background check it detected conduct requiring investigation related to approximately 1240 individuals which constitutes about 1.4 percent of the total cfp professional population those matters are now going through cfp boards investigative and adjudicatory processes and you should know as a sign of how how committed we are to this the board of directors has committed more than five million dollars to complete the investigation and adjudication of these matters i won't review all of the additional reforms that we're making but you see some of them listed here i'll point out that you can also find a comprehensive listing in a recent news release that was issued last month which was shared with our stakeholders via email and we will be sharing updates as we continue to take actions to modernize and further strengthen cfp boards enforcement process again i want to assure you that the board takes this work very seriously we recognize there are still some gaps to close but we have prioritized that work and we're supporting the funding required to implement these improvements kevin why don't i turn it back to you yeah absolutely jack thank you very much all of us at cfp board are committed to the important work of strengthening our enforcement program cfp board is the professional body for financial planning and as such it is essential that we uphold our strong both our competency and ethical standards for the benefit of the public now i'll turn it over to doug king doug is chair elect for an update on the new code of ethics and standards of content thank you kevin thank you very much and i'm very excited to be on my first call with all of you i'm looking forward to many more as you all know the new code and standards became effective last october and is now being enforced as of june 30th enforcement date brings to the end of a five-year initiative to modernize the ethical standards for all cfp professionals and after the adoption of the final coding standards in march of 2018 the cfp board turned its attention to modernizing their processes for enforcing the the code and some of that just now and our new procedural rules became effective on june 30th and as jack shared we're working on many many other enhancements to our enforcement program kevin you know i just want a quick shout out and thank uh the leaders of the board of directors through those five years we started this at the end of 2015 when rich rojak was chair of the board mike green chaired the board in 2016 and we we got well underway then blaine aiken kind of took us through all the heavy lifting of the standards rewrite richard salman chaired the board in 2018 when we first approved the standards susan led us through 2019 and then jack in 2020 and also a big thank you to ray ferrara who was chair of the board in 2014 for chairing the commission on standards that uh did the heavy lifting for the rewrite of the standards back to you doug thank you kevin well as you know the uh standards was quite an undertaking and uh none of this really matters if if you don't know how to comply so um it's critically important that we give you the resources to do so and the cfp board felt that that was incredibly important for all of you to have additional resources and many of you even asked us for this as well so we've spent significant energy developing a library of compliance resources to help all cfp professionals and their firms to help them understand how to comply with the new code and standards that library is accessible through a searchable index on our website which can be found at cfp.net compliance in recent weeks we've released some new resources that you should also be aware of first we have two compliance checklists these new documents take the compliance guidelines that were originally included in a terrific resource called roadmap roadmap to the code and standards reference guides and also presented them in this checklist format they're designed to help cfp professionals evaluate whether they're providing information and services to clients according with the requirements of the code and standards one compliance checklist is designed for financial planning engagements and the other is for financial advice engagement so when you see the two notice the differences another recently released compliance resource is a guide to help cfp professionals working in call centers determine how to comply with the code and standards this guideline addresses cfp professional duties by the role that they play at the call center which generally falls in one of three categories first a service associate is someone who responds directly to orders or provides things like general financial education material or other communications that a reasonable cfp professional would not view as financial advice second is a financial advice associate and this person would provide financial advice or third is a financial planning associate who actually does financial planning all three of these duties are outlined in an easy to digest way that might be helpful a reference for other cfp professionals who work in other environments as well we also recently released a new guide comparing the best comparing the code and standards to the sec regulations best interest regulation that just came out on june 30th as well so cfp professionals who are registered representatives of broker dealers they're subject to both the code and standards of the cfp board as well as reg bi and while the standards or the code and standards of the and the reg bi contain many similar requirements there's also many important differences so this guide isn't intended to be a comprehensive list of all of these differences and similarities between the reg bi and the code and standards because there's still a lot of uncertainty about how reg bi will be enforced but it does address key areas of particular significance to the cfp professionals such as duty of care and loyalty and how to address and disclose conflicts of interest so check that out it's a very valuable resource these are only part of the library of guidance materials on the new code and standards that have been developed with the assistance of our standards resource commission all of us at cfp board are committed to helping cfp professionals and the profession itself understand and live and our fiduciary promise to the public the new code and standard not only raises the bar further for the cfp certification but also the financial planning profession and financial advice industry and most importantly it provides the public the assurance that the cfp professional is trained and has been tested and can be trusted to do what's right for them i'm also pleased to share two additional resources that help explain what the code and standards mean for the public the new brochure and a short video highlight a cfp professional's fiduciary duty under the code and standard and explain why a cfp certification is important when seeking a competent and ethical financial planner we hope you'll share these resources with your clients and prospective clients the brochure fits in a standard envelope and you'll be able to order copies of the brochure directly from your online cfp board account and the video will be available soon on the cfp boards youtube channel and you'll be able to share that on social media or other embedded on your websites back to one of you thank you very much doug uh before i get to your questions i just want to cover one additional important project that helps us advance the profession of financial planning cfp board is a certification and standard setting body but really we are in what i call the financial planning competency assurance business we assure the public that the individuals who are certified undergo a rigorous process before they are allowed to use the cfp mark this process involves satisfy satisfying requirements for education experience examination and ethics this is consistent with our mission of certifying financial planners for the benefit of the public so cfp board upholds not just ethical standards but competency standards as well our efforts in ensuring a valid certification program are essential in maintaining our accreditation cfp certification is accredited by the national commission of certifying agencies or mcca and ncca accreditation is the leading standard for professional certification programs it is essential for trust and legal defensibility of our certification on the finra website there are 200 plus certifications and designations in the financial services space and of those only 11 are accredited by ncca as some of you know cfp certification was the first accredited certification outside of the health care industry way back in 1995. in 2019 we undertook the renewal process for our accreditation and passed it will again uh be reviewed in 2024 given our accreditation requirements we are required to undertake regular reviews of the certification program and update it through what is known as a job task analysis or as i prefer to call it a practice analysis every five years or so we conduct the practice analysis which we call as i said as we call the the practice analysis the findings of this major research project establish our principal knowledge topics and the job task domains which make up the topics that are included in the curriculum for our registered educational programs the topics that are covered on the cfp exam and the topics that we accept for continuing education credit this year we're also developing a competency framework that will describe the attribute attributes aptitudes and skills financial planners need to succeed as in the past practice analysis studies a major component will be research with cfp professionals surveys of cfp professionals are currently in the field and for those of you who have completed one we very much appreciate it this year's study will include some new elements including research with both firms that hire cfp professionals as well as clients of cfp professionals we look forward to sharing with you the updated topics and domains and introducing the new competency framework to you so that's kind of what's going on here we're about 33 minutes 32 minutes into the hour so that leaves us a good uh a good uh 25 minutes or so to get to your questions uh i'm going to start off the first question doug because i'm going to go to you uh we're right in the middle of the nominations process for new board members maybe might take a minute and let folks know uh how that process is going and where we are and a little bit about it sure i'd be happy to thanks kevin um so i'm chairing the nominating committee this year it's my honor to do so and uh some of you may know that we have 16 board members on our board this year three of those folks are rotating off two of those are public members and um one is jack road who's on the call with us um so our goal is to try to replace uh a couple of the folks and the talent that we've lost and so we approached the nominating process two different ways in one way we do it through self nominating we had a record year or at least a banner year we had 101 cfp professionals who self-nominated and it took our committee a very long time to diligently go through all of those resumes and uh it was a great great group of folks that self-dominated we also hire a third party uh consultant to help us look for public members who might not know that they should be self-nominating and that in that company uh found probably 35 or 40 wonderful public members and presented nine of those to us and so at this point we have uh we've we've selected a group to do phone interviews as of uh the week of august 10th through the 21st is when we're going to do those phone interviews and whittle that group down then we're going to go through in-person interviews in october for the ones that make it through the phone ones and then uh then november 5th will be the board elections where we'll actually elect those and then shortly after that we'll announce it to the public so a lot of great things happening there and doug we're looking for two or three uh new board members so uh it's we we appreciate all the people who put their name in but it is uh very competitive yes it is i i understand it's actually harder to get on the board than it is to get to harvard or yale so good i guess all right thank you doug uh jack owen asks are there going to be more opportunities in the future for cfp professionals who want to work for hourly compensation rather than for a percentage of money managed or insurance sales comprehensive planning should not have to include the sale of anything else jack would you take that yeah thanks thanks for the question oh and i referenced early you know we have a vision for this profession for the future that every american has access to competent and ethical financial planning advice so the idea of choice is very relevant to that objective of access i think as as you and others may know we we see the development of alternative fee models such as subscription-based models or retainers or hourly models as you cited owen growing in prominence and we think that having choice is good the the traditional aum model uh we're sure will continue to carry on however it does not necessarily fit for all all client situations so to answer your question i think we will see increasing opportunities in our profession for hourly and subscription and i'll say less traditional types of of of fee models and we think that that's great for the consumer of financial planning services and we think that that's also a very good thing for the business and the industry of financial planning great thank you very much jack a couple quick questions here people are asking we have literally dozens of questions coming in couple relate to our website and how do they get their name listed gail asks how do i get my name included on the website and charles asks what is the address for the fine tool so the address is let's make a plan dot org that's the uh consumer facing website and how do you get your name included on the website you have to indicate that you're accepting new clients and that you are um that your certification is active uh you might think everybody would be in that category but uh they're not and if you have a question about how to do that please contact cfp board and one of our stakeholder reps will walk you through the website to make sure that your name shows up when people are searching for a cfp professional uh jack the next question to you question 12 comes in and that question is from michael who asks when are we going to become a real profession michael asks and why can't we emulate the aba and i think he means the american bar association thank you michael um it's uh it's a timely question as i mentioned earlier as we're working our way through a strategic refresh were we're starting quite frankly at the profession level and and thinking about what does the the desired future state of a true recognized and regulated profession look like what are those components and what types of strategies can be developed to get us from where we are today to that point so we're discussing what makes a profession and where financial planning stands in relationship to established professions as um context for our work to to update these strategic priorities we we continue to look at professions like law and medicine and accounting for example to to learn what we can the idea it's it's important for us to remember because it it seems like the pace is never fast enough for any of us but i think it's important for us to remember that the idea of financial planning as a profession was generated only 50 years ago in fact we celebrated that milestone in december of last year so we do in fact have much to learn from professions like law and accounting that have been around for centuries and we are very much committed to continue to i'll say climb this mountain that we're on to achieve recognition and regulation as as a true profession thanks for asking michael thank you jack we have a couple questions about the uh the find this defined tool and fee only so doug i'm going to come to you for the next question uh question number one lane asks would the cfp board please reconsider distinguishing fee-only fiduciaries from those who are not fee only and at the same time charles asks the question what is the uh plan to address the tool and give the public uh better information on fee transparency doug yeah sure i'd be happy to uh so so uh we appreciate the question and first of all you want to let everyone know that we do recognize that when we did make the change we perhaps could have done a better job with explaining why we did that so i'm glad the question was asked is that in the past there were dif there's there's many different ways that financial advisors and financial advisor planners get paid in the in the days prior to our new standards we had commission base we have fee only we have fee based and we looked at each of we do recognize that there's associations that that are working you know exclusively for the benefit of the fee only folks we do recognize that many people do market their way uh that way to try to add distinction and we don't have issues with you continuing to mark yourself you know based on the way you get compensated as a matter of fact we really expect you to disclose exactly how you're compensated no matter what that method is but when we looked at the new standards we recognized that at this point under the new standards all cfp professionals must act as a fiduciary at all times and so when we look at that and we we we say to ourselves that what you know there's really not that much of a distinction relative to what a cp professional is all about at this point we felt it was just um made more sense for us just to uh take that off as a search function and again we don't think that we don't have a problem with you marketing yourself that way as long as you're being fully disclosing all of your uh conflicts of interest and and your compensation but um we just didn't feel that that was a prayer for the cfe board at this point the other question had to do with the website um that website is eight years old and just so everyone does understand we are spending resources and updating that website we do expect to have i think later on in the ball early next year at the latest we are expecting to have a new tool out there and we are looking at uh everything we can in terms of what should go in there to help really identify the the cfp professionals and make sure that the public can access and find those of you that work so hard to get your designation great thank you very much thank you very much go ahead kevin can i could i just can i add just a finer point on that a couple things for the let's make a plan website that is a consumer oriented we that there will be thorough consumer testing we want to put something out there that will really help benefit consumers in their process of working with a cfp professional and you know when this topic comes up i also like to point out that within the new coding standards there's still very much a duty to provide information to a client which includes prior to or at the time of engagement how a client pays for products and services and the description of the additional types of costs that client may incur and how the cfp professional the cfp professionals firm and any related party are compensated so there is still very much a duty to provide that information to a client we have not walked away certainly from the term fee only and it's called out in our new coding standards under the number 12 the duty when representing compensation method so you know you you you can only use the term fee fee only if uh the cfp professional or the cfp professionals firm receives no what we call sales related compensation and that's that's a defined term nor does any related party receive sales related comp compensation and we make it very clear about the use of terms such as fee based and so forth so we're we still have um a duty to provide clarity to consumers about how compensation is is represented what was announced several months ago was had to do with a search filter that one of the things that got lost in the messaging is of the six hundred thousand people that come to the site every year less than seven percent of them were even using that filter and that and there were other problems associated with it so as we do this redesign with let's make a plan.org which you'll see relaunched later this year all of this type of consumer information is being considered and will be presented in a way that will make consumers be able to make smart choices in working with cfp professionals sorry to take so long but i think it's an important topic that required a little bit more response thanks kevin yes jack absolutely so uh doug coming to you next for the third question in the queue or the third question that came in from gerald gerald writes what is the response to the statement and then he writes quote the cfp board looks like it is becoming a regulatory body that's gerald uh doug why do you want to take that one sure i'll be happy to um look we we understand why a question like that would be asked we've spent a lot of time and effort communicating our new standard our code and standards and procedural rules we've spent a whole lot of time reaching out to firms and individuals over the last five years and with everything that's been out there um i'm i'm sure it's easy to kind of come to some conclusions and wonder if that's what we're going to do the cfp board has an obligation to enforce its own standards we're not seeking to be a regulatory body we don't have authorization at all to uh to be a regulator at this point there's actually significant differences between a voluntary certification organization like the cfp board and a regulatory body and so just there's many of them but just for one example unlike a government regulator or an authorized uh sro the cfp board we don't have subpoena power we don't have the ability to define or levy fines and you can't demand restitution for clients those are regulatory things that are allowed and that's not within our domain so just look at we get it and why people ask that but but let's let's be very clear without our enforcement of our own standards the cfp profession would not be as strong as it is that gold standard and so we're going to be spending a lot of resources on a lot of things to to really make you all the the very best in the industry but we also want to protect that brand as well by making sure that we can back up everything that we're trying to say so thanks for the question yeah and gerald the only other thing that i would add to that this is kevin um is that when we survey cfp professionals every every two years setting and enforcing our standards it ranks among the highest priorities of the cfp community so just uh a data point to uh uh share with you jack the next questions for you tom asks to whom is the cfp board accountable excellent and very important question tom thank you um the the answer is simple it's the public uh our board of directors owes its authority to and operates on behalf of the public but first and foremost and i'm glad you asked because excuse me i've learned in my role here with cfp board that it's not always well understood the nuances perhaps and the differences between for example a membership association many of you are familiar with fpa or nafta those would be c6 associations that exist to benefit the members cfp board is a c3 and therefore that's why we have a public mission and our board of directors therefore derives its authority and legitimacy from the public now we take that very seriously we don't overlook the fact that cfp certificates are a key stakeholder group and the firms that employ them and colleges and universities that have registered programs so we naturally have to think about our complete stakeholder map but to be clear we are a c3 with a public mission and that's an important part of our decision making process and our policy setting so i hope that provides some further clarity thank you jack we have a couple of questions again about enforcement that i would uh uh share with you uh kenneth asks in regards to the new ethical enforcement how frequently will thorough background checks be done by cfp board uh mark asks a similar question so will you be pulling our credit reports on a bait on a regular basis from now on so the i'll take take that question because it's a staff function here we are scraping the broker check and iapd database on a monthly basis uh to see uh if which cfp professionals have new entries we'll be looking at those and we're also working with west law which is where a lot of civil actions like bankruptcies are indicated we do not pull uh credit checks but uh our intention is to to do that on a on a monthly basis doug next question for you question eight um is it johan or john asks what do we need to do to comply with the new rules how is it more encompassing than the regulation best interest going into effect last week okay thank you kevin um actually in my uh comments earlier i did spend a fair amount of time talking about a number of resources that we have established and published under our compliance section and if you haven't gone through those we'd highly recommend that you spend time reading those a number of resources have came out late last year there's a continuation been updated as recently as this week and we plan on continuing to put more resources out as they come out so i it's important to spend time on our because there's a whole litany of uh of things that you can do to help fly i think let's see how is it more encompassing than the regulatory best interest um we we also have i mentioned on the comments as well we did a piece that really compared our standards versus regulabi and as i said previously we do know that regbi um we don't know actually how it's going to be enforced the interpretation sometimes the words and the interpretation relative enforcement is different but as we start to gain knowledge on that we'll continue to build on our body of knowledge relative to the resources we're posting on our website so i would encourage you to look there thank you very much doug just a couple quick que uh ones we can i think handle really quickly tom says not a question but a shout out i think the case studies are a great addition to the resources for advisors thank you tom once again the website address where you can find all of our guidance is cfp.net slash guidance another quick one mike asked what's the trend and the number of people taking the cfp exam is it rising or falling or staying even we have about 8 500 people last year sitting for the exam a 62 pass rate uh this year we're budgeting for 7 500 and uh depending on the as i mentioned in my comments the delay of the exam and the impact of the virus we'll see where that uh actually takes us um jack uh question six kathy writes can you share an overview of the uh know your technology guidelines uh and any other considerations for certificates that they should consider as it relates to our new coding schools i can cathy thanks for the question it's obviously an important topic these days as as staff and the board of directors were working through the code and standards over the past year um this topic obviously of technology was was front and center these days it's it's so deeply integrated into the way financial planning services are provided that we felt it would have been a miss to not address it head-on so as you point out the new code in standards does in fact include a new principles-based standard that says sets forth duties when selecting using and recommending technology and i'll just i'll hit them real quick so everybody is familiar with them three things a csp professional must exercise reasonable care and judgment when selecting using or recommending any software digital advice tool or other technology while providing professional services to a client second point is that a cfp professional must have a reasonable level of understanding of the assumptions and outcomes of the technology employed and the third the third point is a cfp professional must have a reasonable basis for believing that the technology produces reliable objective and appropriate outcomes so approval of the technology by a cfp professionals firm is a factor that cfp board will consider in determining the reasonableness of a cfp professional's care when using technology i mean this simply boils down to a due diligence issue we think going forward um it's important for the profession to raise the um familiarity and awareness of what what sits behind the technology that is assisting you in providing advice to your clients so um obviously a topic that will will continue to be front and center for years to come great jack thank you very much there's one more question uh when you asked the question jack or when you answered the question to whom is cfp board accountable to you you talked about the public uh hubert asks how many members of quote he puts it in quotations the public serve on the board of directors and i'll answer hubert that question for you roberta carmel is a public member she was the first female to sit on the securities and exchange commission so an sec commissioner lotha ramshad dr lotha ramshed formerly the head of the business school of the university of houston and now the provost for the university of missouri at columbia is a public member dane snowden who is a public member dane served serves as the chief operating officer of the internet and television association here in town a public member and finally denny crawford or denise voigt crawford is the last of the four public members and denny uh is the former uh head of the securities uh former former securities commissioner for the state of texas we are just about out of time we thank you all for joining us today jack uh turned to you for a few parting words yeah uh thank you kevin once again i i really want to thank the cfp professional community for its support of cfp board and the cfp certification and equally important for what you're doing for your clients day in and day out these are these are tough times for all of us again as you as you take care of your clients take care of yourself and i guess i'll put in one last um reminder or appeal that i really encourage you to join our work to help advance diversity inclusion within our profession there's lots of ways to get involved there's scholarship funding there's mentoring there's offering internships apprenticeships at the individual level as leaders within your firms lots of different ways and the the 2020 diversity summit going virtual provides a great opportunity for you to to engage in in this in this critically important topic so please please plan on joining us november 18th through 20th you'll you'll see more information promoting that as we get closer thanks kevin and thanks to uh all of our attendees today i'd like to thank all of you i'd like to also say thank the cfp professional community and everyone who supports it um 2020 is going to be a critical year is a critical year for the cfp board and the cfp certification and so as we begin enforcing this new code and standards and continue to work to modify and strengthen our enforcement process so we want you to take advantage of all the great resources that are available on the new coding standards and just remember that these code and standards not only raises the bar further for the cfp certification but also the financial planning profession and the financial advice industry as a whole and the cfp board is committed to helping the cfp professions and professionals understand and live a fiduciary promise to the public so i want to thank you all well and and doug thank you and thank you jack i appreciate your leadership and i thank everyone on the board of directors for your dedication and thank the cfp professional community i encourage all of you to keep in touch with us in closing uh thank you for joining us today for this webinar a recording of this presentation will be posted on cfp board's website within the next few business days and cfp board will follow up individually with those who ask questions for whom we did not have time to get to during this broadcast thank you again everybody and have a great day you