Why SEBI’s investment adviser regulation is great, but only the first step

I didn’t meet any Sakett there. I didn’t hear the state’s anthem, John Denver’s inspiring Rocky Mountain High on any radio station either. But hiking in the Colorado mountains, some three hours off the Mile High city of Denver, I could get a sense of Louis L’Amour’s outlaws, marshals, cattle drivers, drifters, no-accounts...all of who have been driven out by business tourists like myself and mansions of the wealthy. Still, the beauty of creeks, ridges and the sheer expanse of the Rockies takes your breath away.
But that was only a diversion. I was in Denver on a regulatory pilgrimage, to meet players and organisations that have made the city the financial planning capital of the world and its 53 square mile international airport, the country’s largest. The College of Financial Planning created the CFP certification in 1972; it was announcing its 100,000th graduate as I walked into its Greenwood Village building last month. In July 1985, the College later handed the CFP brand to Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards or CFP Board, which acts as an SRO (self-regulatory organisation), by creating and enforcing professional standards through education, examination, experience and ethics. Constitutionally, the CFP Board is not allowed to lobby, so I also met the Financial Planning Association.

Opinion in The Indian Express, October 14, 2007