ERROLD F. MOODY JR.

February 1, 2006

Mr. Dan Moisand

Financial Planning Association

Suite 400, 4100 E. Mississippi Ave.

Denver, CO 80246

RE: FPA Selective hypocrisy and Fraud: Doing the Right Thing???????

Dear Mr. Moisand,

I read your recent interview in Journal of Financial Planning and must state that the rhetoric you extend is, in large part, nothing more than the bogus marketing of the FPA and CFP Board and more. It is disingenuous to address a "large platform about what real financial planning and real financial planners are all about." and "that it's time tp put up or shut up" where you know that the bulk of financial planners nationally are illegal. Here's a clue to the state with the most CFPs. I am the only fully licensed and legal CFP in California who can offer a fee for comprehensive services. The only one. About 5,600 CFPs here and there is only one who can offer comprehensive fee planning without violating the law???? Are you saying you were clueless that the bulk of them cannot legally practice financial planing in California? In order to find your address I looked at your site. I note that you spoke to 3,000 planners in San Diego. Are you saying you were clueless that the bulk of them cannot legally practice financial planing in California? How is that possible? Well, it is possible because of people like you and the FPA and the CFP Board and the CPA Society, and NAPFA, et al who have actively promoted/endorsed illegal and unethical planners and planning activities for years- and still do.

You comment that "if a fee only planner can disclose fully and effectively"............. Tell me one who does so in California without lying. Tell me. The idea that fraud can be disseminated so freely and resolutely by the likes of you, Teslik, Jetton et al, dismisses the standards you all hold so dear. The state made clear the legal requirements years ago- yet not one officer or director of the planning organizations (save for one) did anything to guarantee adherence. Bob Goss- previous director of the CFP Board- lied to state regulators in order to circumvent state law. The Director for the ICFP in San Francisco told a regional meetings of CFPs to simply violate the law and keep quiet about it. The ethics chair was in attendance and agreed.

Actually, as far as the CFP Board has come- per its direct comments- "we will not enforce an ethical violation unless preceded by a legal one". As such, it has maintained a cadre of officers and directors who have voiced a disdain for legal activity for years and practiced openly against the law. And they are the ones other CFPs and the consumers should look up to??? Further, the CFP Board actively designates improper and illegal activity at it own website, http://www.cfp.net/learn/knowledgebase.asp?id=5#10. If you do not know what is there or what is missing, you are not a professional.

I did join (again) the FPA about two years ago but I couldn't stomach the fraud. To sit next to a FPA, NAPFA member who said he had read my material (and recognized the legal requirements to practicing financial planning in California) thought the comments about obeying the law as a financial planner were ‘interesting'. Interesting??? It's the law. One of the Directors of Financial Planning for the University of California admits to be in violation. He also states he won't do anything about it since he makes money acting illegally. I'd say that almost all the instructors in the planning curriculum for the UC system are illegal- one of the reasons why it made no sense for me to continue such instruction- even when requested to do so once again last year. If the College for Financial Planning doesn't care about legality, if the CFP Board doesn't care about legality, if the FPA doesn't care about illegality, if NAPFA doesn't care about illegality, if the UC system doesn't care (actually, it's effectively clueless)- what's the point of telling the students about fiduciary duty, honesty and integrity?

This industry needs people who know what ethics, legality and adherence mean. I'd suggest you do some more homework before you talk about the elements of fiduciary duty. I am sick and tired of planners whose fiduciary standards are so low they allow the commission of illegal and unethical activity. I do not dismiss the FPA's effort against the SEC. But, so what? Illegality at the other end of the planning spectrum is still a lie.

Integrity means avoiding any communication that is deceptive, full of guile or beneath the dignity of people. "A lie is any communication with intent to deceive." Whether we communicate with words or behavior, if we have integrity, our intent cannot be to deceive.

Stephen R. Covey 

Put up or shut up.

Very Truly,

Errold F. Moody Jr.