Investing Blog Roundup: CFP Directory Not Disclosing Disciplinary Information

There’s been something of a hullabaloo in the last two weeks as a result of a WSJ article about the LetsMakeAPlan website (a directory of financial planners, run by the CFP Board). The WSJ found that the website often does not disclose information about a CFP’s history of discipline by regulatory bodies or history of bankruptcy, even though they have access to such information.

Here’s what the WSJ found:

“The LetsMakeAPlan.org site has been presenting more than 6,300 planners without showing such problems even though the planners have disclosed them to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of more than 72,000 profiles on the website.”

• Financial Advisor Directory Often Omits Red Flags from Jason Zweig and Andrea Fuller (WSJ subscription required)
• CFP Board Inexcusably Protects Its Own Members at Expense of the Public from Allan Roth

Retirement Income Style Awareness Survey

As a separate point of note, retirement researcher Wade Pfau wrote this week about a survey/questionnaire that his firm is working on.

The idea is that it will help people to determine the best personal approach for them to take for retirement income planning.

At this stage they are looking to have about 1,000 people in total take the survey to help determine which questions provide the best explanatory power for helping to define a style in order to make the final version of the survey.

If you’d like to participate, you can find the survey here.

Pfau told me that participants will be able to get results in the Fall once all of the analytics have been worked out. (This is why the survey asks you to create an account — so that you can get your results once everything on the backend has been completed.)

Other Recommended Reading

• Are Houses Investments? from Steve Nelson
• The Financial Benefits of Residential Solar from Josh Hamilton
• Add-On CD As A Hedge For Lower Interest Rates from Harry Sit
• You’re Responsible for Your Own Online Security from Dirk Cotton
• Even Researchers Don’t Know Which Doctors Medicare Advantage Covers from Austin Frakt
• Facts Aren’t Enough for Persuasion from Aaron Carroll
• A Recession Is Coming (Eventually) from Ben Casselman
• Inverted Yield Curves and Expected Stock Returns (pdf) from Eugene Fama and Kenneth French (It’s an academic paper, but the topic is of interest to individual investors, and the important conclusion is stated clearly in the first paragraph.)

Thanks for reading!