Planners Wanted ASAP

Commissioned planners and stockbrokers, by contrast, make their living by selling you stuff, especially tax-deferred annuities, insurance and high-fee mutual funds. You may get a "plan," but it's designed to collect your money rather than help you articulate goals.

Brokers who are weary of this kind of selling are leaving their firms and setting up as independent, registered investment advisers (RIAs). Some of them earn a CFP, too. Firms such as Schwab Institutional, Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services and TD Ameritrade provide a range of services to help them establish their offices. These "breakaway brokers" start by charging both commissions and fees—a business model called "fee-based." Over time, they tend to migrate to a full, fee-only practice.

The breakaways worry Mary Schapiro, head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which regulates brokers and brokerage firms. "If they needed regulation as brokers, they need it as advisers," she says. RIA oversight falls to the states and the Securities and Exchange Commission, whose enforcement isn't as well funded as FINRA's. A recent, coordinated examination of RIA firms by 43 states found a high percentage of them charging excessive fees, making unsuitable recommendations or misrepresenting their advisers' qualifications. The best RIAs for retirement planning have CFPs and a fee-only practice. Even then, be aware that their interest lies in getting all your money to manage.

Planner Tom Orecchio of Greenbaum and Orecchio in Old Tappan, N.J., sees a rise in CFPs coming from America's colleges. Some 300 academic offerings are now registered with the CFP Board of Standards. Virginia Tech in Blacksburg offers undergraduate courses in financial planning. Texas Tech's department includes a Ph.D. in planning, training students for professorships at other schools.

The schools, however, turn out only a modest number of graduates each year. Most planners enter the field as a second career. The magazine Fast Company calls this one of the top jobs of the future—foreseeing 35 percent growth through 2012, and with great salaries, too. Consider it if you have a head for numbers plus people and counseling skills.

The Garrett Planning Network and Cambridge Advisors both help career-switchers transition into the business as fee-only planners, serving middle-income clients. Their Web sites will list a planner near you. When making your choice, however, look for one who's been in practice for a while. Let new CFPs learn their trade on someone else.