FINRA does not approve or endorse any professional designation, and it says so in those words. Financial advisor is a job title, not a license. What is licensed sits underneath it: to register as an investment adviser representative in Arizona a person passes the Series 65, or holds a CFP, CFA, ChFC, CIC or PFS in good standing, which the state takes in place of its exam. Registration costs $40, and the record is public.
FINRA states it plainly: it does not approve or endorse any professional designation. Its Professional Designations Database is, in its own words, by no means inclusive, and it describes terms like financial advisor as generic terms or job titles that might be used by investment professionals who do not hold any specific credential or license.
So the title on the door tells you nothing on its own. What tells you something is the registration underneath it, and that is public.
To register as an investment adviser representative in Arizona, an applicant passes the Series 65, or the Series 66 together with the Series 7, or holds one of five designations in good standing: CFP, CFA, ChFC, CIC or PFS. The state accepts the certification in place of its exam. Registration is $40 initially and $40 a year to renew, with $22 for fingerprint processing, filed on Form U-4 through FINRA's IARD. Exams passed more than twelve months before the application have to be retaken, with narrow exceptions.
That is the useful way to read a CFP behind someone's name in Arizona. It is a private certification that the state regulator accepts instead of its own test. It is not itself the license.
The split is federal and it is arithmetic. An adviser with under $25 million in regulated assets under management registers with the states. A mid-sized adviser between $25 million and $100 million registers with the SEC only if it is not required to register in, or not subject to examination by, its home state. Registration with the SEC is permitted at $100 million and required at $110 million.
This matters because it decides where the firm's record lives. A state-registered adviser is examined by the state securities regulator; an SEC-registered one is not.
Form CRS is a relationship summary that both broker-dealers and registered investment advisers must give retail investors at the start of the relationship and at certain later points, one of which is a recommendation to roll over retirement assets. It sets out the services, the fees, the conflicts, the disciplinary history and the standard of conduct that applies. If nobody hands you one, that is itself information.
This page publishes no dollar cost range, because advisory fees are charged as a percentage of the money being managed and no current, dated national benchmark in dollars could be found. The percentages below are the useful figures, and they are not comparable between billing models.
Check the registration before the credentials. FINRA BrokerCheck and the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site at adviserinfo.sec.gov both return a firm's and an individual's record, including disciplinary history. CFP certification status and any public discipline can be checked separately at the CFP Board. Doing all three takes a few minutes and settles the question the marketing cannot.
Understand how the fee is charged before you compare any two firms, because the models are not comparable. NASAA's guidance to state securities regulators describes asset-based fees as the common structure, and notes that in many jurisdictions a fee above 2 percent is considered unreasonable for asset management, with reasonableness turning on the facts rather than the percentage alone. Fees have to be set out in the written client contract with the formula and the computation method, and disclosed in Form ADV in plain English.
The CFP Board describes the alternatives: hourly work at one hundred dollars to a few hundred dollars an hour, retainer or subscription billing monthly or quarterly, a fixed fee for a specific deliverable such as a comprehensive plan, and commissions. Its own illustration of an asset-based fee is one percent a year on a $250,000 portfolio, which comes to $2,500.
Then ask what the fee does not cover. The expense ratios of the underlying funds and ETFs, custodial and platform fees, and trading costs sit on top of the advisory fee and are charged by other parties. A quoted percentage is not the all-in cost of the arrangement.
No. FINRA says it does not approve or endorse any professional designation, and describes financial advisor as a generic term or job title that may be used by people holding no specific credential. The registration underneath the title is the thing to check.
Arizona accepts a CFP in good standing in place of the Series 65 examination when someone registers as an investment adviser representative. Four other designations do the same job: CFA, ChFC, CIC and PFS. The certification is private; the registration it substitutes into is the state's.
Use FINRA BrokerCheck and the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site at adviserinfo.sec.gov, which return firm and individual records including disciplinary history. CFP certification status and public discipline are checkable separately at the CFP Board.
It depends on the firm's size. Under $25 million in regulated assets under management, the states. Between $25 million and $100 million, the SEC only where the firm is not required to register in, or subject to examination by, its home state. SEC registration is permitted at $100 million and required at $110 million.
It is a relationship summary that broker-dealers and registered investment advisers must give retail investors at the outset and at certain later points, including a recommendation to roll over retirement assets. It covers services, fees, conflicts, disciplinary history and the applicable standard of conduct. If you were not given one, ask.
No. Fund and ETF expense ratios, custodial and platform fees and trading costs are charged by other parties and sit on top of it. Ask for the all-in figure rather than the advisory percentage on its own.