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NAPFA: NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PERSONAL FINANCIAL ADVISORS

In January 2016, Scott was accepted as a member of NAPFA, the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors: www.NAPFA.org.

“NAPFA is an American financial planning trade organization, created in 1983 to expand the use of fee only financial advisors for individual consumers. NAPFA established the first set of professional standards for fee only advisors and has updated them to reflect changes in industry practices.

Due to these standards, NAPFA members retain a reputation for excellence and integrity. NAPFA’s core values are: competency, comprehensive financial planning, objective fee-only compensation, a client-centered fiduciary relationship, and complete disclosure of fees.

  • Adherence to a fee-only standard is strict: NAPFA members cannot accept compensation in any form from any source other than their clients. There are no exceptions. NAPFA believes that this minimizes potential conflicts of interest between a financial planner and their clients.
  • The fiduciary relationship requires that members always put their client’s interests before their own and that they disclose any potential conflict of interest prior to the client making a decision. This fiduciary standard is in direct opposition to the fiduciary standard to which investment brokers are held; a standard under which their legal responsibility is to their employer ahead of their client.
  • NAPFA is the only financial organization to require a peer review of a candidate member’s work output prior to granting membership.
  • Peer review ensures that a NAPFA member has the ability to provide comprehensive financial planning across a wide range of potential client needs – investments, taxes, estate planning, college savings, insurance, long term care insurance, retirement spending, and more.

The combination of strict fee-only rules and a peer review have kept NAPFA’s membership small compared to other financial planning organizations. As of September 1, 2010, NAPFA had approximately 2,400 members. NAPFA’s board members, staff, and individual members are regularly quoted in leading consumer finance publications. They are valued for providing objective advice that is not affected by sales recommendations (because they are not compensated by sales recommendations)."

For more information on the NAPFA Designation visit www.NAPFA.org

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; updated 1/5/2017