Associations cross swords over designations
The Associationof Financial Advisers (AFA) and the Financial Planning Association (FPA) are set to clash over the AFA’s decision to adopt the Charted Financial Practitioner or ChFP mark as the official planning designation for its members
The AFA decision has been met with some unease by the FPA, which has its own mark, the Certified Financial Planner (CFP), and has indicated it would take steps to protect the designation in Australia.
According to AFA national president Joe Nowak, the AFA has spent five years searching for an appropriate mark and had originally decided to adopt the Certified Financial Adviser (CFA) mark.
However, Nowak says the mark was not widely known or understood, while the ChFP mark was in use by 100,000 people across the Asia Pacific region and as a result, the CFA mark was discarded.
He says the ChFP mark has been approved for AFA use by the Asia Pacific Life Insurance Council (APLIC) and the trademark registry body, IP Australia, but the mark will remain under a cloud as other organisations will now be given an opportunity to protest the registration.
FPA chief executive Ken Breakspear says the moves by the AFA to adopt the ChFP mark would infringe upon the CFP mark due to their similarity and the FPA would take appropriate action to defend its own planning designation.
However, he did not expand on what action the FPA had taken, rather stating that it would work through the normal courses of action and was prepared to “do all we need to in order to protect the mark”.
Breakspear has shied away from outright legal action, stating that the FPA wanted to settle the matter as informally as possible.
He says that while other groups are free to create credentials, the FPA was bound, through its licensing agreements with the US-based CFP Board of Standards, to defend and protect the CFP mark in Australia.
“The CFP mark has been around for 10 years and we have invested heavily in time and resources to build the mark. We have defended it in the past because it is one of our most valuable assets,” he says.
Breakspear says the closeness of the marks would infringe upon the CFP trademark and would lead to confusion among consumers. He adds that the ChFP mark may even trade off the success of CFP mark.
Nowak says the two associations are still in communication regarding the issue but maintains that the AFA is keen to advance its profile in the public arena and was unlikely to change its mind regarding the adoption of the ChFP mark.
AUTHOR
Jason Spits
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